Things are ramping up a little bit now. The JustGiving fundraising page is live, I’m starting to look at programming for the workouts and have made a few enquiries with local businesses to ask for support. The thing I’m struggling with the most is promoting myself. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you how terrible I am at acknowledging my strengths and downplaying my achievements (that section of your appraisal you have to write yourself – just painful!), so trying to ‘put myself out there’ is proving very challenging in itself. I set up a public Instagram account in order to engage with people, businesses and potential supporters for the event and it feels like it’s going quite well so far. However, I’d say that about 75% of the posts I do result in me totally over-stressing about whether they’re boring, stupid or both and when it comes to posting pictures and videos of myself, the self-criticism reaches another level. Social media is by far the best way to reach a wider audience though, so I’m just going to have to get used to it and hey, maybe making an idiot of myself might get a sympathy donation?

After putting together a flyer about my event to distribute in the community, I asked my colleagues for some feedback. Self-promotion (lack of) was the response. I’m so caught up in finding ways to get support and fundraise for the charity that I’m forgetting to tell people that what I’m taking on is nothing short of crazy and that if I’m going to put myself through this challenge, I really ought to be shouting about it! Fortunately, my colleagues are not only honest but also completely fabulous and I’m lucky to be able to call on them for help and advice throughout this process. The flyer is now ready but rewriting it definitely reminded me that teamwork is going to be key to the success of this challenge, from beginning to end.

Training at the gym is going really well. I’ve learned so much from the coaches in the seven weeks since I joined and the other members have made me feel really welcome. I certainly won’t be winning any competitions in the near future but I’ve started to master a few skills and even achieved a couple of PB’s along the way. I’m trying to attend a variety of classes to practice all the different elements of Crossfit (sometimes tricky when working around my husband’s shifts, my work commitments and family life) and with a few months still to go, I’m fairly confident I’ll be ready to face the 24 workouts, despite the nerves and trepidation that will be ever-present until the those 24 hours are over!

There’s still a lot of planning and work to be done and I doubt that my anxieties or ongoing mental chatter around this challenge will be easing off any time soon. But, with the amazing support of my family, friends and colleagues, as long as I give this everything that I can to achieve my goal and fundraise for the fantastic charity I work for, then it will all be worth it. Not only that, the personal achievements I have gained in the gym, the contacts I am making for the charity and the opportunity to bring our community together for what should be a pretty awesome event makes me feel really proud of how far I’ve come already. Hang on… did I just give myself some credit there?!

If you’re enjoying my blog posts, I’d be really grateful if you could support my challenge. Find out more at www.justgiving.com/fundraise/plantgirl Thank you.

I chucked myself in at the deep end with a session that included a workout that was used in the Crossfit Open in 2019 – it was hard work but it felt awesome! The coach was amazing and as well as being really encouraging, she taught me some really useful things about technique too. I pushed myself more than I probably would have done at home and left the gym feeling great! I’ve done six classes in the last two weeks – all different types of classes to ensure I’m working on all the elements and skills in Crossfit and I’ve loved every one. With a mix of strength, lifting, gymnastics and cardio over the classes, it’s been a really good exercise in working out where my weaknesses lie so I know what I need to work on.

However, it’s not just the coaching and equipment that I’m grateful for, it’s the people too! I had no idea how much I’d missed being around people during the pandemic and to start becoming part of a community of like-minded people with a shared interest in health and fitness has really given me a boost. I’m keen to meet as many coaches and members as I can in the lead up to my challenge in the hope that lots of people will want to get involved on the day but, more than that, I really want to get to know everyone and become part of the crowd at the gym. I had a feeling they were a lovely bunch of people before I signed up and it seems I wasn’t wrong!

Being around people who have similar goals and interests, who encourage you and make you feel part of a team are wonderful people to have in your life. Connecting with others is so good for mental and physical health with research suggesting that people who are socially connected are happier, healthier and live longer and that positive relationships can improve our sense of belonging and give us a purpose. When it comes to my challenge, my sense of purpose will not just be about fundraising but also about getting through the 24 hours with an awesome team of people who I certainly don’t want to let down – it will be amazing to smash this challenge together and feel proud of everyone that gets involved!

The thing I love about Crossfit is the community and inclusivity. It can be perceived as quite an elitist sport with images of people lifting heavy weights and doing impressive things on bars and rings but in reality, everything can be scaled back to suit your abilities and the buzz you get from working with other people and encouraging each other to get through workouts is awesome. When you feel like you can’t get that last rep or run those last few metres, having your team mates cheering you on makes all the difference.

I feel very fortunate to get to know the coaches and members of the gym I have joined – there is so much knowledge, experience, camaraderie and support and I will be soaking up every bit of advice, taking every opportunity to connect with people and working hard to make this challenge a success. Hopefully, I will even be able to call some of them my friends soon too!

The event itself is daunting – physically and mentally it will be a huge challenge so preparation, mindset and optimum health will be key to completing the challenge. But I’m also anxious about the six months leading up to the event and whether I’ll be able to achieve the goals I have in mind in order to be ready. I know that my fitness level is ok, I need to improve my strength and technique but am fairly happy in most areas of Crossfit and I have also discovered over the years that I have quite a gritty determination that has got me through difficult times in my life as well as challenging workouts. The thing I struggle with (in many areas of my life if I’m honest) is self-doubt and low self-esteem and this will probably be my biggest hurdle. There are many days when I think “who do I think I am? I can’t do this! Everyone must think I’m an idiot for thinking I can get through this challenge! There’s no way I’ll ever be good enough!” My lack of faith in myself is something my husband despairs over but he is also my absolute rock and will be a massive support. I just have to find my own strength on the days I doubt myself so I can keep pushing to achieve my goals.

There has been a lot of talk around impostor syndrome, lack of self-belief and fear of failure in the media recently and how common it is, particularly among women. I can relate to a lot of what is discussed so I’m keen to find out how others overcome these feelings and begin to have faith in themselves. Dr Tara Swart (interviewed in Women’s Health magazine) explains that confident feelings come when “the bonding hormone oxytocin, which allows you to take healthy risks that are more likely to lead to success, is activated in the brain.” She goes on to explain that you can create a habit of believing in yourself – it will take time and practice to establish the habit but by making a decision to change, focusing on achieving that change and holding yourself accountable, it can happen. she also suggests focusing on your past successes, in any part of your life, and drawing on the positive feelings from those moments. When I think about those times in my life that I’m proud of and felt confident, it’s an awesome feeling so I can see how this theory will work – I just need to recall that feeling when the self-doubt starts creeping in and get into the habit of channelling that emotion into this challenge and my training. I’m never afraid to ask for help (another piece of advice from Dr Swart) and I’m always keen to learn from others or try new ideas which will definitely help with my confidence. I’ll certainly be taking on any advice and words of wisdom from the coaches and other members on those first nerve-wracking sessions as ‘the newbie’ at the gym and throughout the months leading up to my challenge.

It’s frustrating that my mind can have such a negative effect on my actions and emotions. However, I also appreciate how powerful that mind is and have every intention of doing what I can to focus on the positive things that it can do – mental strength is going to be just as important and physical strength for this challenge, if not, more so.

On one particular day recently, when I felt sluggish and low on energy but had planned to do a workout, I put myself to the test. Despite my head trying to coerce my body into a mid-morning doze on the sofa, I decided to ignore the messages and crack on with some training anyway. Opting for a pretty challenging bodyweight workout, it wasn’t going to be an easy test but 45 push ups, 90 lunges, 90 burpees and 180 squat jumps later, I felt so much more energised and the feeling lasted for the rest of the day! I proved to myself that I can push through those weary moods and actually turn it around by doing the last thing my body thinks it wants.

It got me thinking about my 24hr Challenge: how would I feel if the pre-event nerves sabotaged my sleep the night before? What if the event landed on a less than ideal day of my menstrual cycle? How do I make sure I don’t have one of those days where I’m on the verge of passing out with the simple act of standing up (a fairly regular issue for me)? Of course, I’ll be spending the next six months getting as much expert advice as possible around rest and nutrition in order to feel my best on the day, but on doing a bit of reading, I found a great article by Olympic Medalist, Courtney Thompson. It was entitled “8 Reasons No-one Cares You’re Tired” and as a volleyball player, Courtney explained that playing in a team means it’s not just about you so you have to get over how you feel, go out there and give it your all regardless of how much “all” you have at the time.

Reading Courtney’s article explaining that getting through a training session or game required selflessness, a commitment to show up and the ability to embrace the fatigue of pushing to your limits was inspiring. I may not be doing this challenge as part of a team but I am doing it to raise money and awareness for a charity and committing to support the gym and community who are facilitating the event. That makes me accountable – to all those people and myself – so I need to show up and push through for that team of people!

Courtney’s article goes on to highlight the power of the mind and how we can train our brains to overcome our physical feelings. It also reminds us to be realistic and understand that we won’t be able to perform at 100% every day but not to let that worry us and instead, focus on maximising what we are able to give. There are so many factors that can impact our energy and motivation but I am determined to give this challenge my 100% wherever possible – that includes the fundraising, training, promotion of the gym, event and supporters and, of course, the challenge itself.

The eighth and final point in the article was “Remember: the pain of not going all out is much bigger than the pain of holding back.” It was a great reminder that regardless of winning or losing, the real satisfaction comes with knowing that you gave it everything you had to support your teammates in reaching your shared goal. I will be keeping that thought at the forefront of my mind throughout my training and the event day – however I feel, I have made a commitment to achieve something and I’m damn well going to do it… for everyone!

I haven’t been a member of a Crossfit gym for a couple of years now and although I’ve continued to base my training around functional fitness, the access to Crossfit ‘virtually’ has really made me realise how much I miss the ‘physical’ community that comes with being part of an affiliate. Plus, you know, with a 24hr Crossfit Challenge on the horizon, joining a gym and getting some proper training in is probably a good idea, I guess!

The Open workouts were tough (as expected) but despite the seriously unhappy tummy I suffered with as I began to pile the pressure on myself before each workout, I really enjoyed the challenge. It was also good to put myself through the pre-workout nerves, my insecurities around having to video myself and pushing myself a bit harder than usual… partly because I think it’s important to get out of your comfort zone but also because I proved to myself that I could do it – two very important factors for the success of my 24hr challenge.

I wasn’t especially pleased with my performance, it was a bit sloppy in places and I could definitely have done with a scaled version of the equipment free workouts so I felt a bit of a fraud submitting my scores, even though I wasn’t going to be anywhere high enough in the rankings for anyone to look at my entries. But, it did help me to learn a lot about where I need to make improvements with my technique and work on my strength in certain movements. I also learned to focus on each section of a workout at a time rather than thinking about completing the whole thing so that it didn’t seem so overwhelming, and to tell my self that it is just 15 or 20 minutes of my life, it won’t last forever so why not give it everything and see what I can achieve.

The Open reminded me of the importance of recovery too. With a busy life as a working Mum, I am sometimes guilty of finishing a training session without worrying about refuelling or doing a decent amount of stretching, only to leave me feeling faint a few hours later and aching the next day. However, finishing each of the workouts for the Open, lying flat on the floor, heart pounding and hands shaking was an excellent prompt to get some good energy back in my system and take some time to stretch my muscles out. That said, the fully body DOMS I experienced after the final workout lasted three days!

I feel a bit lost without Dave Castro’s workout email this week but I have spent some time thinking about how I will plan my training in future to ensure I work on my weaknesses and technique. My main takeaways from the Crossfit Open that I will remember as I prepare for my 24hr challenge are to pace myself so I don’t fatigue too quickly, try to relax and enjoy workouts with less of the nerve enducing pressure I put on myself, remember I am capable of more than I think and to recover well.

Here’s to the gyms reopening soon, getting stuck into some hard work and making sure I’m more than ready when the date of my challenge rolls around!