Latest / Mind Over Mountain / Don’t Let the Injury Decide: Professional CrossFit Athlete Rebecka Vitesson on Starting Over

Transcript

Don’t Let the Injury Decide: Professional CrossFit Athlete Rebecka Vitesson on Starting Over · Mind Over Mountain

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Mind Over Mountain with me, Cheryl Strayed. This week,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: my guest is elite CrossFit athlete, Rebecca Wittesen. In our discussion,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: we talk about her comeback from a major knee injury,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: about how she trains her mind as well as her body.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: And we also offer advice to a letter writer who
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: wants to be more disciplined in her weightlifting routine. Let's
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: listen to our conversation. Rebecca Wittesen, welcome to Mind Over Mountain.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to talk to you.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: And I'm so fascinated by the world of elite CrossFit.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: That you compete in.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: But before we get into your story, I wanted to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: ask you if you could just describe to our listeners
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: what you do, because I think a lot of us
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: have heard of CrossFit. You know, our friends are like
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: working out, doing CrossFit. But of course, what you're doing
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: is at a different level. So could we first start
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: with that? What do you do and what does it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Take to be good at what you do?
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I do CrossFit on a professional level, which
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: means that it's my job. Like that's what I do daily. Um,
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: and yeah, I basically work out twice a day, every
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: day I have one to two rest days, depending on
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: like the season I am at and then I compete
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: and yeah, like That's what I do daily.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And what are the events? I guess that's what I'm
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: getting at.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: It's like, describe like, what does a CrossFit competition look like?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: What are you, what are CrossFit athletes asked to do
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: when you're at the CrossFit games? Because I think it's
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: really a very unique kind of world. It's not a
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: sport where you're just like good at one thing. You know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you're swimming as fast as you can or running as
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: fast as you can. You're performing a series of different
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: amazing feats that test all kinds of strength and endurance. Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Can you describe what is a typical CrossFit Games event structure?
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So like for CrossFit Games, the title to win
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: that is the fittest on earth.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: So what they want to do.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: During like that weekend or that week is to test
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: you in every different aspect to define what is the
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: fittest athlete on earth. Okay. they kind of mean that
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: only being the fastest sprinter doesn't mean that you're the
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: fittest in all aspects. That means strength, endurance, gymnastics, like
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: all the whole package of being an athlete. So one
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: event could be something that means that you have to
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: lift the heaviest lift or could be run the fastest,
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: but then it could also be combined together They have
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: to do five rounds of lifting heavy and running fast,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: and then it becomes the fastest times of that, for example.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: And it's not like a sort of heptathlon event, for example,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: where you know before you go in these very specific
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: feats you have to achieve.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: In CrossFit competitions, there is..
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe an element of surprise, I would say, that you
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: don't always know exactly what you're going to have to.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Do going in. Is that right? Or do you get
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a little notice ahead of time?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: It's correct in some way.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Some events you do know beforehand a little bit, or
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: you can kind of know what you're setting yourself up to.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: And then some events you have no clue. So during
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: the whole year... training up for the CrossFit Games, you
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: really have to prepare for anything. So that's how we train.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: We are trying to be as all around and well-rounded
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: as possible to be able to, I mean, manage anything
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: that comes to us.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So how did you find this, your way to this
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: sport and what made you think, okay, this is the
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: thing for me?
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  Speaker 4: So I've always been into sports a lot, but I've
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: been very unfortunate to have a lot of injuries throughout
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: my careers. I got an ACL injury in soccer. And
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: then a couple of years later, I went into basketball,
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: but got an ACL injury there as well. And then
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  Speaker 4: I grew up with gymnastics also, where I also got
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: an injury when I was very young.
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  Speaker 3: But the way.
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  Speaker 4: I found CrossFit was I had a friend who did
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: CrossFit back in 2014. And she could tell that I
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: was like very athletic and she said that the sport
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  Speaker 4: would be perfect for me. But I was hesitating a
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: lot because of my knees.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I was like, probably not.
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  Speaker 4: A good idea with all the squatting and all the
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: volume that was in there. but then one day she
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  Speaker 4: really convinced me so I went there and tried it
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: out and it was basically for me it felt like
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: going into an adult playground it was so much fun
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  Speaker 4: like it was not just one aspect that you had
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  Speaker 4: to do there was like so many things you had
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  Speaker 4: to be good at and I think that really caught
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  Speaker 4: my eyes and then the community aspect made you feel
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  Speaker 4: like you were in a part of a sport again
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  Speaker 4: so I think that was also something that caught my eye.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah I mean I think that that's you know, it's so,
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  Speaker 2: it makes it so fun to watch CrossFit too, because
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: there is that playground element, except the people who are
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: playing are just incredibly, like unbelievably strong people.
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  Speaker 1: Doing insane things. Now you mentioned gymnastics.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I know your mom was, or maybe still is a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: gymnast and a gymnastic coach. Was that when you were
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a child, did you feel like, okay, I.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Should be a gymnast too?
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  Speaker 2: Or was there the expectation that you would be at
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the beginning?
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  Speaker 3: I don't think there.
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  Speaker 4: Was much expectation. There were expectations on my older sister.
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  Speaker 4: She's eight years older than me. But she was a
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: national champion in Sweden back then. And my mom was
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: training her. She was a coach. And there was no
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: real time for me to be around. Or my mom
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: couldn't afford anyone to take care of me. So I
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: basically grew up. in the gymnastics hall and that's why
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: it kind of came naturally like I was just a
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: part of it I was running around sometimes joining some
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: classes with her and then by an age where I
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: could join for real that's when I start doing it
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: but I quickly or she quickly decided that I wasn't
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: gonna be good enough for it so that's when I
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: went another direction.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, your mom, like, why did she say you're not
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: good enough at it?
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  Speaker 1: And how old were you when she said this to you?
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  Speaker 4: I think I might have been around five or six.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: So in gymnastics, or at.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Least back then, it's a hard sport because you get picked.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Or like, if you want to be really good, you
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: get picked when you're like three or four years old.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: And that's when they can see that you have potential.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: And I think for me, I was just a very
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: tall girl already. Like I grew so fast and I
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: was very clumsy. So that didn't fit really well with
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: being a gymnast.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: So you're like, okay, I agree. Were you crushed by
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: your mom saying this? Or I mean, I don't mean
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: to psychoanalyze you here. I'm just curious, like how did you,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: how do you think that emotional response was, you know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and how did that lead you to where you are
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: today when you were told at such a young age,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: you can't do something physical?
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think definitely I was crushed by it, but
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  Speaker 4: I think that's also became my drive throughout life. I
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: wanted to show her that I was capable and was
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: able to become something great. If it wasn't gymnastic, then
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: it became basketball, then it became soccer, and then at
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: the end, the CrossFit. So I think it's been my
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: drive to show, or I think I've been very... I
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: like when I get set up to challenges sometimes, to
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: prove that I can handle it.
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  Speaker 2: You said that when you discovered CrossFit, you had already
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: been injured as an athlete, like so many times. What
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  Speaker 2: do you think made you, I mean, I know you
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: said you had so much fun doing CrossFit, it seemed
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: playful to you. But, but Or, you know, maybe there
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: would have been a good argument to say, hey, maybe
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: don't compete on such an elite level and test my
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: body again and again when it keeps breaking down essentially
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: or being injured. What do you think made you decide
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: to pursue CrossFit on such a serious level in spite
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: of those injuries?
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  Speaker 4: Well, so when I started, there was never a thought
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: of competing. For me, it was just starting another, like
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: I was doing the global gym before that. So it
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: was just doing something else. because I liked to, you know,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: train and work out. So it was never a thought
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  Speaker 4: in my head that said, okay, I'm going to go
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  Speaker 4: into CrossFit.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to start competing.
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  Speaker 4: Um, but I.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Did become good really quickly.
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  Speaker 4: So it was actually the owners or the coaches at
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: the gym that asked me if I wanted to compete.
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  Speaker 4: And that's how I slowly started to get into it.
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  Speaker 4: And then I thought like, okay, it's actually quite fun
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  Speaker 4: and I'm actually quite good at it.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, it just.
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  Speaker 1: Grew from there.
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  Speaker 2: When you started to, to, to be at the gym
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  Speaker 2: and do that kind of, uh, the, the, I guess
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  Speaker 2: the really different kind of training, um, that is I
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: think a lot more kind of like strength based and
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  Speaker 2: and like you said before broad you know you have
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: to be strong and fast and good at everything did
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: your body change in response to those kind of new
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: different workouts.
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  Speaker 4: I mean it definitely gave me a lot of confidence
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  Speaker 4: because again I came here from two injuries I wasn't
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: sure if that was the right thing for me to
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: do but because there is so much strength training.
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  Speaker 3: I really felt so much confident doing.
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  Speaker 4: What I did like I became so much stronger every
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: time and you know, going into the sport, just doing
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: an air squat was very demanding of my knees, but then, you.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Know, going from.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: That to getting my first hundred kilo squat clean, I mean,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: it doesn't just come over a day, it comes because
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: you're doing that strength training every day. So I just
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: think it gave me so much more confidence in, in
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: my body. And yeah, I felt I felt like I
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: could be much more myself in a way. I don't
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: know how to explain it, but yeah.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's interesting.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's often it, right? When we
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: find that thing, that's like the thing we're meant to
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: be doing. It's like, it's almost, it's not necessarily a discovery.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: It's an affirmation of who we most deeply are already.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: So how did you, those folks are like, hey, you're
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: really good at this. Like, how did you get from
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: there to going pro and competing in CrossFit Games?
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, so, I mean, I started doing some local competitions
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: here and there and then.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: And I should say you grew up in Sweden, but
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: you live in Denmark, right?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Right now.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: So you were at this point, were you still in
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Sweden or were you living in Copenhagen by then?
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: I was still in Sweden. So I started CrossFit in
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: 14 and I moved to Denmark in 17. So about
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: three years later. And that was because of CrossFit. But
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: before that, I was like putting myself down. into positions
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: where I challenged myself. I did like going from local
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: competitions to international ones and bigger ones. And then from there,
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: you know, other people start to see me and ask
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: if I wanted to be a part of a CrossFit
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Games team. And then I think that's where it started to,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: you know, go broader. participate in this team. And then
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: another team from Copenhagen asked if I wanted to join
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: them next year.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: That's how I moved to Copenhagen.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: And yeah, so I did team competition for some years,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: but I always kind of knew in my head that
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: I wanted to go individual because for me, that was
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: like just a bigger challenge and something A lot of
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: people said it was much harder and probably more difficult
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: and not everyone could make it. So already there, I
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: was like, I want to try to make it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: You're up for the challenge. So what's the difference?
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Is it a matter of when you qualify as a
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: team for the CrossFit Games versus an individual? Is it,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: is it simply that as a team, you're sort of
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: sharing some of the, like you don't do all the
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: events or tell me what the difference is between competing
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: as a team versus an individual.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: So did she, uh, competing as a team doesn't necessarily
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: have to mean it's easier physically, but because there's so
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: few spots going individual, it's kind of harder because then
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: on a team you're four people. So. Imagine you have
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: the top 30 or 40 people already going individual, and
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: then that's the other people who decides to go team.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: So the level of competition is not as hard, but
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: the physical aspect is still as hard. And I think
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: competition could mean sometimes you share work, sometimes you actually
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: do synchronized work. So you have to do something like
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: mirroring the other person. So you do the same amount
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: of work.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: And what do you mean by marrying?
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Like you both have to do a lift at the
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: same time or the same amount to get that point
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: or something?
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: How is that judged?
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: So for example, if it's a gymnastic movement, it could
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: be pull-ups. So then you have to do the pull-ups
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: at the same time. So every time you're above the bar,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: you have to be above the bar at the same time.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: So you like do the same movement that counts as
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: one rep, two reps together. Yeah.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: But in 2023, that was your big year that you,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: for the first time, you did qualify as an individual.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: At that point, like what did you do to prepare
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to get that qualification? Like, did you have to take
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a whole different approach in terms of like your coaching
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: or your workouts than you were when you were.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Competing on a team?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Or was it just more of the same, but like
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: just more intensely focused on you?
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so going back a little bit to when COVID happened,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: That was right before COVID happened. I actually decided to
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: go full time as an athlete to try to pursue
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: my dream as going individual. But then COVID happened and
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: unfortunately everything in Denmark just closed down. So there was
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: nowhere to train, nowhere to do anything. It was quite sad.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: And no one knew for how long that was going
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: to be or happen. And then a year later, I think,
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: I got the opportunity to become a box manager at
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: my gym. And I was like, I have to do
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: it because I don't have any income at the moment.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I couldn't just be a professional athlete with no income.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: I think that's been the hardest part in this journey.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: And so I became a box manager, but it's really
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: hard to be a box manager. Like there's so many
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: things you have to stay on top on. And I
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: was at the gym from 9 a.m.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: To 9 p.m. every day doing..
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: What's a box manager?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: So it's a gym manager.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: Gym manager.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So managing the gym. Right.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: We say box because it's a CrossFit box. That's why
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I say box manager.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Got it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: So no difference.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so I was managing the gym, but then also...
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: trying to get in my own training sessions at the
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: same time and they were very flexible with my work
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: because they also wanted to support me as an athlete
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: and then they knew what my goal and dream was
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: but then at some point I was like I can't
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: be working at the same time like if I want
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: to do this a hundred percent I need to go
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: full focus on being an athlete so In 2023, January,
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: that's when I had the opportunity to go full-time as
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: an athlete again because my boyfriend at that time was
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: able to help us both financially. And he kind of
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: said that, I'm going to help you from January until
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: August for you to do whatever you can to make it.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: And then from there, you're going to have to look
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: for something else again.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: But yeah, so..
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: That was one of the things that for me, I
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: took away all the distractions so I could only focus
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: on me being an athlete. That was number one. And
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: then number two, I started working with a mental coach.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: And then because I got more time during my daily life,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: I got more time for eating properly and having proper recovery.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: So I guess all those things kind of check the
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: boxes to make it for the CrossFit Games.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think so many people..
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Kind of forget that there's this money part of it
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: that like you can't be dedicating yourself. And it doesn't,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: it isn't just the hours and hours of working out,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: which I know you did, but it is also that
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: other stuff, including, including like having the ability to get
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: your mind in the right place and being able to
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: do something like hire a mental coach. What did that
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: what did you learn from that experience of working with
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: the person who's helping you with mindset and mentality?
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: I think most of it was the, I will always
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: be very harsh to myself and maybe like putting too
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: much pressure. So kind of one thing that we worked
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: a lot on was to have my boyfriend telling me
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: that he loves me no matter what. So, I mean,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: he put a lot of pressure on me saying that
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: I'm going to help you generate to August, but then
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: that's it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Uh, Yeah.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, he said, like, if you
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: don't make it, I'm still going to love you like this. Oh, yeah.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: It's at the end of the word.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: So, yeah.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: So that helped me a lot to comfort me.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: He's literally investing in you. And so I'm sure there
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: was that expectation. You're like, OK, what if I fail?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And then he's just going to think he wasted his money.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, and of course, that kind of thing never
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: actually serves. It's never a healthy thing and a healthy outcome.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But on top of that, I mean, I love your
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: solution too.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: He loves you no matter what, because it doubles then
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: as also couples counseling, right? It's like good for your
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: relationship as well as your mind. I'm sure it sounds
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: to me like, you know, I don't know you well.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I just know you over the course of this conversation.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: But my observation is you're a really ambitious and dedicated person.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And yet..
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: So of course that you're also putting pressure on yourself
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: probably that that's just part of how you're wired.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Is, is that true?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is true. Very true.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So how have you undone that?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Like did, how did you like say, okay, I don't
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: do well when I feel kind of hard.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You use that word harsh.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Um, like how do you learn to be more gentle
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: with yourself while also being ambitious?
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Right. But just small things like being more positive
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: throughout the day. Um, sharing like small victories. And I
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: was starting to journaling also back then. So every evening,
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: you know, write down three good things that happened instead of,
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: so you kind of learn your mind to think of
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: the good things instead of all the bad things always.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: That was one of the things.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: And then I easily got like anxiety when pressure got
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: too much. So we also worked on, I did, for example,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: ice bathing, ice bath a lot, not for the sense
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: of recovery, but more to challenge me mentally. So how
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: I was able to breathe and think about my breathing
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: in that kind of harsh situation. Yeah. Right.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And regulate the nervous system.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: I know cold water can really be helpful in that way.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Did you have this experience?
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I know for me, you know, I guess I feel
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: like I'm constantly kind of mentally coaching myself to sort
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: of make those shifts in more positive directions. And there's
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: this space between like what I know or what like
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: a coach would tell me if I had hired a coach,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: a mental coach. And then what I actually believe or
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: am able to live out or enact. Have you had
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: that struggle? And like, how have you learned how to
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: actually make, you know, live out these ideas that you
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: have been presented to you?
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: It's a really good question because I've been thinking of
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: that one a lot also. Like sometimes you can get
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: so many tools and like your mental coach can say
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: things that sound really, um obvious but then it's I
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: think you you really have to experience it yourself to
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: really understand what the mental coach does mean with the
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: different like tools um because yeah I think it can
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: sound so obvious like also when I need advice from
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: my coach or something what the person says is so
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: obvious but then still things are happening you're still putting
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: pressure on yourself you're still like.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Doing all those things.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: So I guess I don't know how to answer your question,
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: but I guess it comes with experience in some way. Right.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: It's like practicing over and over.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Like, even if you're like, I mean, that maybe, I mean,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: for me, when I say, okay, I'm going to, you know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: write three positive things down at the end of the day,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: you know, at first it becomes this kind of task
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: you have to complete.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: And then pretty soon it does become a habit.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I think that has been At least in my life,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: like the way that you actually absorb those positive lessons.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: What are the qualifying events?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: How does one qualify to be competing in the CrossFit
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Games as an individual?
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: So it starts with an open qualifications, which is in
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: usually February. And it's online. So you do it in
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: your own gym with like the people there. And everyone
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: can actually participate in open. It doesn't matter what level
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: you are. So... It's kind of a nice combination where
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: like the elite athletes can train together with the regular
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: member of the gym. So there's usually three weeks of this.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: And then from there, it's 20%.
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: I believe it's a little bit different every year, but
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: around 20% that moves on to quarterfinals. And then it's
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: a weekend of competition again online which you also do
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: in your gym and then from the quarterfinals it's again 10%
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I believe that moves on to semifinals and then during
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: semifinals there's different ways to compete you can either do
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: live competitions or you can do an online competition which
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: the online will also be in your gym But then
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: from like this year, for example, there was five, three, no, sorry.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: One to three people qualifying from each online semifinal, live
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: semifinal competition. It's very complicated.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: And then from the online semifinal. Yeah. And then from
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: the online semifinals, it was seven qualifying in each division,
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: men and women. But the year I was qualifying, it was...
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: There was no online semifinals. It was only live competition.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: And I only had the opportunity to compete in one semifinal.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: I believe it was like European semifinal, if I remember correctly.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: And that was 11 spots for the European semifinal. So
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: it was a little bit different back then.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: So you were one of those 11?
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was one of those 11.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: That must have been... So gratifying and satisfying. And, you know,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I bet your boyfriend gave you a very big high five. Oh, yeah.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy to think about. Yeah.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: So then what happened when you went on to the finals?
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: How did how did you do and what what happened
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: at those finals?
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: So I ended up at S25th Best in the World.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: That year, which is really cool.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. Yeah.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: It went very well.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, it was my first year going as an individual,
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: so I already set my mind up to, I wanted
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: to participate in a way that I wanted to enjoy
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: the experience and enjoy that I got to be there.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: So that was like my number one goal to really
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: soak in every event and just be there.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I heard you in an interview, certainly after that you
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: took that 25th spot in those finals, that you were
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: saying how happy you were and how much fun you
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: had at the competition. But then like a few days later,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: you felt kind of sad. There was almost this like post-competition,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: like sort of melancholy.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Tell me about that. Why do you think you experienced that?
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, you're... in a so much high during a competition,
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: there's like so much adrenaline, so much things going on
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: all the time. So I think it's natural that it's,
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: it's kind of a competition hangover really.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: It's, it's very normal.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I wondered if it's, you know, at all like this,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: like actually a biological thing. You literally are so full
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: of adrenaline during all those competitions.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: And then it's just like, whew. So what did you
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: do after that?
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, did you right away turn around and say,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: here I go again, I'm going to try to qualify
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: for 2024?
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: No.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: So the whole process getting there is so harsh.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: And I mean, it takes a lot of effort and
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: dedication and, so many things that you have to kind
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: of turn down because you're dedicated to just this one task.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: So I actually took, I think, about two months off.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: To really do nothing.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: And I kind of, instead of forcing myself back to train,
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: I kind of waited for me to be like, oh,
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: now I need to go back to the gym. And
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I also allowed myself to have this time and not
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: be stressed about it because I've I thought that it
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: would give me more of really just taking that time
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: off rather than rushing into it again. And I think
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: it's a wise choice because a lot of people rush
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: into it and there's so many injuries in CrossFit because
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: there's so many elements you work on all the time.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: So I think the people who actually dare to take
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: that time off is the ones that can last longer
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: in the sport.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: But after that rest, I know you did get back
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: in the game. But then in the semifinals, I think
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: it was in 2024, if I'm not wrong, you had
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: another ACL injury that was really quite dramatic.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: It happened during competition.
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Tell me about that. Yeah.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: So unfortunately, I was very unlucky.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: That year going into that season, I felt so good.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: I already came out of some off-season competition that went
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: really well. So going or qualifying into the CrossFit Games
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: for 24 was very promising. But yeah, during one of
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: the events, I fell down. Oh, I didn't fall down.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: I actually jumped down the rope exactly that I did
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: all other events. reps that I did before that, I
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: was just, it was a freak accident. I was very
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: unlucky and I twisted my knee and I knew immediately like,
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: this is not good.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: You just jumped and landed wrong on that knee.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I think, you know, cause you, your body are
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: in so much stress because you train so hard for something.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: And then during competitions, you can be so fragile. Like
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: it doesn't have to be a lot. for you to
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: get injured. Yeah. I could see everything just flashed by.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: It was a sad moment. Right.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And you were back.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is a familiar ground, but I'm guessing
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: that like every time you re-injure yourself, like it's kind
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: of a bigger deal, right? Because you're re-traumatizing an area
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: of trauma. At that point, you know, when you're lying there,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: I'm going to presume that you were lying there on
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: the ground thinking, ouch, did you think like it's over
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: for me as a CrossFit athlete? Or, you know, how
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: is it that you decided, you know, to come back
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: as you have?
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: Well, when I was laying there, I was thinking it
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: was over. And I mean, you don't think clear and
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: then you think that everything, all the work you've put.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: In is just gone.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: And I was also thinking it was over because when
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: I got injured, both in soccer and basketball, I never
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: came back to either sport, even though I wanted to
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: and I tried to. So that was my first thought that, okay,
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: I'm never going to come back to CrossFit now. It's over.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: But then I had two conversations that changed my mind.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: One was with my coach who said, because I asked
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: him like, is it too late now? Because I was
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: 30 at that point. So I also had my age
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: into consideration. Like I was calculating if I'm going to
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: be out for one, two years, I'm going to be
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: old getting back. And his answer was that I was
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: not even near my potential yet. Like he could see
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: there was still so much more left in me. So
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: why would I stop now? And that really got me excited. Like,
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: why not?
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Like, let's try.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: And then my boyfriend told me that don't let this
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: injury dictate whether.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: You should stop CrossFit or not.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: Like at least try to get back and then end
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: it the way that you want to and not let
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: your injury end this. So yeah, that's how I decided
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: to really dedicate myself to get back.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: But those are like two voices outside of you.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: And my guess is that ultimately, in order for you
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: to really, really come back as you have, It has
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: to come from within. You have to trust your own
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: instincts and also trust your body and that knee again.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: How did you find that voice inside of you that said, yes,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: I can and I will?
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: I just think that I saw it as another challenge
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: for me to try to get back. And then, of course,
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: it was never certain that I was going to make
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: it or not. for sure like it could be another
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: story what I tried to and then I would never
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: trust my knee but I went on to the challenge
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: and I really just took one day at a time
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: in that rehab process try to celebrate the small challenges
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: and the victories along the way and really I was
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: so patient and I was I wasn't in a rush
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: like I was just trying to enjoy that process of
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: trying to get back and I think That was the
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: biggest win that I was so patient in that process
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: that I could slowly build up both the trust.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: But also the strength. And yeah, here we are.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: And here we are.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: So you've just finished your 2026 season, which was really
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: a comeback season. How did it go? How did you
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: end up? And tell me about it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: So I had some ups and downs before going into
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: the season. And I actually had a period of almost
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: two months where I couldn't squat anymore because I got
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: a little setback with my knee.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: So we were.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: Very careful with how we programmed stuff and what we programmed.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: And then the first workout that showed up in the
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: open was, I think, around 200 reps of wall balls.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: And that's a lot of squatting.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And how heavy is that ball? The wall balls
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: when you do that?
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: That was six kilos.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Okay. Six kilos. Do you know what it is in pounds?
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: It's 14 pounds.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: 14 pounds.
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I do, I do, I lift weights like, three times
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: a week at my gym.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: And wall balls are often part of the process. And
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: we do it for like, my personal trainer's like, okay,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: do wall ball for like three rounds of 60 seconds.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: So I can tell you doing 200 wall balls, that's hard.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Your whole body is burning.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: But no, I overcome that workout.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: And I think that's how we like started. going into
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: the season and I felt really good still going out
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: of that workout like there was no paying money so
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: I think that also gave me some confidence and then
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: I slowly started to build up more and more volume
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: and then quarterfinals came kind of a little bit the
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: same story that I wasn't completely prepared with my knee
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: because we haven't been able to do the right amount
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: of volume for it but we saw a lot of
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: progress going into the quarterfinals and then it was semifinals
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: coming up and i started doing my first live competition
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: in june with which was french throwdown the same uh
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: semifinal that i qualified in with 2023 and The only
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: difference now was that it was only three spots this time.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: So a bit harder. Yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Quite a bit. And did you qualify?
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: No, I didn't qualify for that one.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: I believe I finished.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: 14th or something. So, I mean, out of 40 athletes
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: in that competition. So still really good considering the history
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: that I had. But yeah, it was some... some way
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: to go. So then I had the other option to
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: go for online semifinals, which was about four weeks later.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: So I decided to go travel to the States where
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: my coach is located and they have like a whole
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: setup and all the athletes is over there. So I
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: was able to do it together with other athletes to
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: have someone to you know, compare with and compete with
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: and have that competition.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: Vibe because it's really hard when you do it online
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: in a gym.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: Right. Yeah. And that was seven spots. And so during
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: that whole week when you do online semifinals, you have
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: no clue on where you are on the leaderboard. You
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: just do the workouts. And then there's a deadline where
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: you have to hand in all the results and all
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: the videos. And then about an hour later from that,
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: From the deadline, you can see the leaderboard is live.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: And I remember that moment because I put in.
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: So much work. I was so proud of myself during
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: the weekend. So it was like, I kind of felt
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: I could have a shot. But then also, I mean,
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: it's a long shot also.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: But unfortunately, I started, ended up as 13th, I think.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: something like, or 15th even, I can't remember completely, but
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: that was like the first leaderboard. And then if they
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: have to look through all the videos, so there's a
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: week of review, so everything can happen on that leaderboard.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: And in the end, with all the video reviews and everything,
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: I ended up being three spots away total.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: So very, very close.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: And yes, I'm curious if you agree with my read
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: of that is that you had such a successful season
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: because you came back so strong. And, you know, qualifying
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: is obviously the goal and the ideal. But what do
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: you make of, you know, how do you feel about
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: your performance this season?
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: No, I completely agree.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, the result was not what I wanted, but
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: the effort and everything around and me being so close
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: and Me feeling so strong and confident with my knee.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's the biggest win of it all. I
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: think it's an amazing comeback.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I always say this in really every
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: regard of my life.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I'm a writer. That's what I do professionally.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: It's like the measure of success is, did I give
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: it all of my attention and effort? And did I
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: put everything into it? And I think that that's true
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: across any, whatever you're doing, right? Any endeavor you're undertaking,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: that is actually the more accurate measurement of success than
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: that kind of external, you know, did you win? Were
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: you the champion? You know, did you get the prize?
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, because I tend to not
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: give myself enough credit for it because of the results.
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, all the external, like everyone else doesn't see
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: the work that is put in because they don't see
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: it at the CrossFit Games leaderboard.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: So I think that's the hard part.
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: Heart true.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right. I know.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're, we're used to like successes, other people
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: noticing and saying, good job. But, but I think probably
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: the more valuable one is that, you know, you know, Rebecca, like,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: you know what you have given and that's really powerful.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Speaking of somebody who's feeling like they haven't lived up
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: to their own measurement of success. I have a Dear
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Sugar letter that I would love to read to you
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: and you can help me give this woman some advice.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Would you do that?
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Here's the letter.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: Dear Sugar, I'm in my early 40s and the perimenopause
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: symptoms I've begun having are reminding me that my body
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: is moving into the next chapter. I've been an active
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: person all of my life, but I don't consider myself
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: an athlete by any stretch. I walk daily and my
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: bicycle is my primary form of transportation to my job,
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: which is about two miles from my house. As I
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: think about getting older, I've realized I need to step
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: it up when it comes to protecting my health by
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: building muscle and protecting my bone mass. I know resistance
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: training is the best way to do this. So just
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: after the new year, I joined a gym. I wish
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: I could tell you that I have followed through on
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: the goal I set for myself of going three times
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: a week to lift weights, but I can't. I've gone
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: once a week on average, and many weeks I don't
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: go at all. In my mind, I tell myself I
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: need to be more disciplined, but I can't seem to
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: put that into action. The athletes you interview on your
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: show are all about self-discipline, and I know you regularly
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: lift weights, Sugar.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: How do I find that discipline in myself?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: What are the methods or tricks you use to make
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: yourself do something when it's not on the top of
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: your list of most desired things to do? I feel
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: like I'm a reliable person in other parts of my life,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: but I cannot seem to conquer this.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Signed, wanna be a weightlifter. Okay.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Rebecca, you seem like quite the expert at discipline and self-discipline.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: So let's give her some tips. What do you think?
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: Uh, I mean, there's different thoughts about it, but one
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: of them is going three times a week is a
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: really good goal. And, but also a high goal, I
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: would say like starting with three times is not very easy.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: So I think if you compare going three times as
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: me trying to qualify for the CrossFit Games. I just
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: don't start with trying to qualify for CrossFit Games, but
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: I find small goals along the way that it's more achievable. So,
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, setting down the target a little bit to
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: in the end achieve the three sessions a week, I
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: would say would be a start to kind of, you know,
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: maybe like if you start with, okay, I'm going to
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: go one time a week. And once I've achieved that
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: for certain times of week or months, Then you can
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: be like, OK, I won this first goal. Let's add on.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: Let's build to the next goal. I think starting a
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: little bit smaller is something easier.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to start there, too. I mean,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: I have like you, I think we have like a
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: whole list of things to say to her. But it's
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: interesting you say that because that was my very first
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: thing is I think So many people, this letter is
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: so relatable because so many people find themselves in that
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: situation and they begin a program, right? And it's like
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: they set, they begin where they actually want to end.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: And I was going to say, go fewer times or
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: also like maybe go to the gym once a week,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: but then at home a time or two a week,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: do some planks, do some wall sits, do some pushups.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: There are ways to do some resistance training that are
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: just like body weight resistance training that you can kind
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: of start to do shorter workouts. Say I'm going to
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: lift weights for 15 minutes instead of go do like
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: an hour. So start small and work your way up.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I think that's one piece of good advice.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: What next?
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely agree. Yeah, then next, I mean... I can
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: seem to be very disciplined, but if I didn't have
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: a coach to tell me what to do each training session,
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: I don't think I would do it either. So I
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: think you have to find those things that can help
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: you along the way also that makes it easier.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: Just a funny thing.
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: I think it was a year ago, I actually bought
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: an electric bike because in Copenhagen, you bike everywhere. But
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: sometimes I couldn't get myself to go to the gym
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: because it was so taxing. Like I had to bike
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: all the way to the gym and that was just
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: a hard task itself. So I decided to buy an
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: electric bike. So I took away that thought of, okay,
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: it's hard to go to the gym.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: I love that. That brings me such joy.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: So Rebecca, I think I'm not alone in thinking like, okay,
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: if Rebecca is like, oh my God, it's too hard
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: to ride my bike to the gym. That is like
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: takes the pressure off of a lot of us because
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: you're like so much more advanced.
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, there's always things you can, it doesn't
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: have to be hard. You don't have to think that
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: you have to be the most disciplined person to do X, Y,
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, find the things that makes you do it.
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: If that means that if you could have a coach
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: telling you what to do or someone that makes your program,
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: if that makes it easier so you can just go
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: to the gym, look at what to do. I think
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: those things could be a factor as well to make it.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: You know, what I do and like what I wanted,
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: the ideal when I, I've lifted weights off and on
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: all of my life, but really I've taken it more
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: seriously in the.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Last like three or four years.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: And, you know, when I, my ideal was I'm going
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: to just report myself to the gym, you know, three
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: or four times a week and lift weights.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: And I do that on occasion. But what I've learned
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: is that I actually have to sign up for classes regularly.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: And they're like these personal training classes, small group with
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: like four or five other people and a trainer. And
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: that is such it makes such a difference. And it's
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: just what you said, Rebecca. It's like somebody is standing
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: there telling me what to do. Somebody is keeping me accountable.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: There's also a time like the class starts at 11 o'clock.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I have to be there.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: If I leave it to myself, like, oh, I'm going
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: to go to the gym today and then I just
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: never get there. So, you know, I think finding a way,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: want to be a weightlifter to find a community, whether
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: that be hiring a trainer, joining a class. Also, the
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: women who are also in the same personal training group
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: that I'm in. Like we're gym buddies and I look
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: forward to chatting with them as we do deadlifts and, and,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: you know, so forth and weighted squats.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: And so it becomes like a kind of, you say
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: that it's this thing you don't desire, but once you
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: build a community, it does get to be kind of fun.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Like you said, Rebecca, you know, you actually have fun
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: when you go to the gym.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah. The third thing I would say is, um, cause I,
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Sometimes when I go to the gym or find myself
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: having a hard time to actually just go to the gym,
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: I start, you know, doing the things that gets me
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: to the gym. For example, a first step, if I'm
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: just laying in the sofa and I'm like, oh, I
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: can't get myself to the gym. First step would just
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: to put the training clothes. Like I wouldn't think about
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: if I have to go or not. I just put
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: the training clothes on first and then I'm like, okay,
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: now I'm ready.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: Now I'll go to the gym.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: Or for example, when I'm at the gym and if
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: I can't get myself started, one thing I usually do
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: is either I take my program that I have and
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: I write it down on a piece of paper or
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: like a chalkboard. Because then I get started. Once I
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: start writing it down, I'm like, okay, now we got
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: the first step out.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Of the way.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: Let's get into step two. That would be, for example,
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: start to warm up. I don't have to think about
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: what to do yet, if I should do it or not.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: I'm just looking, okay, we're doing squats today. I'm going
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: to start warming up my lower body. And then I'm
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: slowly getting into the rhythm. And once you have a momentum,
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: it's easy.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it gets easier. It does.
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: So I think too, this mental, we've talked about that mind,
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: the mental part of it is to like want to
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: be weightlifter. I think, you know, let Rebecca and I
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: assure you that we're with you in this struggle and you're.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: Not a failure.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Like you haven't like, you know, you've got the fact
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: that you've gone once a week is a victory. So
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: you weren't going once a week this time last year
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: and now you are. So, you know, take some of
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: these more positive steps. viewpoints and move forward with it.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: I think we've given her some good advice. Rebecca, you're
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: a good dear sugar.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: So 2026 season is behind you. There's so much, you know,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: you're riding, you know, on so much really success and
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: rehabilitating that poor injured knee of yours.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: What is the next mountain that you have to climb,
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: either as an athlete or a person?
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so, I mean, my goal is still there. I
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: want to get back to the CrossFit Games. So that
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: one is still up for 2027. But my goal for
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: that is to do it in a healthy way where
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: I stay strong in my mind and body.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: And by saying that, I think..
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: Looking physically at this season it was really going well
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: but I do have some mental struggles getting back from
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: my injury because I think being away from for two
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: years I put a lot of pressure on myself and
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: that had really taken a toll on me mentally so
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: going to 2027 I want to get into that being
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: a much stronger mindset and confidence and self-esteem and yeah.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I believe that you have all of that in
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: your power and I'm wishing you so much luck, Rebecca,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: as you go forward.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I'll be watching what you do. So good luck. And
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: thanks for being on the show.
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: If you'd like to get advice from me, please send
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: me an email to deardearsugar at gmail.com. And don't forget
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Happy trails, and I'll see you next week. Mind Over
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Mountain with Cheryl Strayed is an iHeart Women's Sports production
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: produced by Brittany Brown and Rodney Brown of Barbara Jean Productions.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Supervising producer is Kaylin West at Realm. Associate producer, Amaya Brathwaite.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Molly Barton, Jerry Carita, Grace Fuse,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: and Jesse Katz. Our theme song is composed by Gramascope Music.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: your podcasts. Happy trails, and I'll see you next week.