Friday with Heidi: What 100km can teach you…
How quickly one forgets.
As I crossed the finish line in Bridport last week at the Jurassic Coast Challenge, I said to my trusty supporters, “I don’t need to do that again“. It’s not one week on and I am already thinking that it wasn’t really so bad and that maybe I would do it again! However the biggest win has been that it taught me, well, probably reminded me, of some simple goal setting strategies.
(If you’d like to see a more full review of the event and how our Team FastTrack did, you can click here. )
Not unlike my Three Peaks Challenge event last year there are some very good reminders about life, goals and attitude that come from taking part in an endurance event like this.
I’ll share this over the next two weeks, but this week there are four to get your head around.
Know your outcome
Before we started the event on Saturday we all had messages from well-wishers saying things like, how could we do it? Why would we do it? We’re amazing for doing it – and it dawned on me that none of these comments or thoughts had ever crossed my mind.
When I signed up in January I knew I could walk 100km. I’d never done it, but I knew I could. Not in an arrogant way, just in a ‘I know‘ way.
That one piece of information which I lodged in my brain was all I needed to get me from January, when I booked up, to Sunday morning at 08.25 when I crossed the line.
So the next time you want to achieve something, decide on your outcome first and have an unshakeable faith that it’s done already. If you can think like that, you are 80% there.
Want to shift some weight? KNOW that you, 2 stone lighter is already a given.
Want to do full press ups for a minute? KNOW that you are more than capable of that.
Want to eat better each meal, every day? KNOW that you have all the knowledge required to make that happen.
Can we get a whoop whoop?!
The event organisers of the Jurassic Challenge were excellent. The path was well signposted (even at night), the rest stops were plentiful and the loos abundant! However there was one thing that made a huge difference to my morale as we were walking.
Every kilometre covered was marked by an indicator to what you’d just achieved. Being shorter than a mile, they came by quite quickly and so you didn’t have too long to wait until you could mentally knock another one off your mental check list. One of our group celebrated every one with a ‘whoop whoop‘. A mini celebration along the way.
When you’re setting yourself a goal, break it down into little chunks just like our kms. A whoop whoop moment.
Want to lose weight? Rather than saying I am losing 28lbs, break it down into 2lb increments and give yourself a pat on the back, or a wild celebratory dance or a big ole’ whoop whoop as you move into the next 2lb range.
Flying Solo or Team Spirited?
When I put the suggestion to our Fit Camp community about this challenge, I made it quite clear from the start that anyone who entered would be under our Team FastTrack umbrella, but they’d be responsible for their own training, transport and ultimate success.
This is really important.
If you set out to achieve a goal know for sure who you are working with. Are you are holding someone accountable each week or waiting for someone who might go for a run with you or are you doing it all on your own?
If you don’t have this knowledge you’ll waste time.
- Set the plan, who’s in your posse?
- How does the posse work?
- Will this help you to achieve your goal?
Our Warfield campers were a group of 5, they decided to train and walk together and had an absolute blast last weekend. They set out their strategy and it paid off handsomely.
How much effort?
There was much talk of the ‘hills’ on this trek. The organisers had done a sterling job in preparing us for it with leaflets showing gradients and climb heights. Videos, photos and maps.
I’ll be honest I didn’t look at one of them. I am not someone who wants to know what is ahead, I am much happier and more confident when it’s all one big surprise!
As such when I did approach the hills on Saturday I could have panicked and got worried about them. However, I decided that if I knew how much effort the first hill would be, I could use it as a guide to what was to come. So I decided to time myself walking up it.
It took me 8 minutes. With rests and view checks.
8 minutes isn’t long. All of us can do something that’s a bit challenging for 8 minutes.
Sometimes we can worry so much about something that we make it into a huge problem.
When this gets out of all proportion we may decide not to go ahead at all and miss out.
Or we think that because it will be so awful it’s bound to feel awful and approach it with a negative attitude. When all it needed was 8 minutes effort.
Next time you need to do something that looks or sounds challenging time yourself!
How bad was it really in the grand scheme of things?
That one hill was 8 minutes, I was walking for over 25 hours. It’s about 0.5% of my total effort!
Next week I’ll share the final four learnings from my walk. But for now see how you can incorporate some of these into those things you’re working on that maybe aren’t quite going to plan.
What’s on at FastTrack Fit Camp?
Here’s what’s coming up on our events calendar…
Friday 21 June: 19.00-21.30 Happiest Year Yet | Summer Solstice – this event will help you realign your goals to your values, find what you stand for and how to use that to get your mojo back for making stuff happen this year. Please click the link to book a seat.
Sunday 23 June: 09.00 – 09.45 Family Charity Camp | Cystic Fibrosis – join us at our regular Sunday Wake Up! session where we’re raising money for the CF Trust. All details here.
6 – 8 September: Fido Fit Camp Weekender – this Weekender event is for you and your dog. We had a request for a FastTrack style Weekend event where pup could come too. We have exclusive use of an Inn in Winchester and we have a lovely weekend planned of dog walks, Fit Camp, dog talks, dog massage and time out at a very dog friendly accommodation. We’d love for you both to join us! Full details are here.
27-29 September: 4* Fitness Weekender – this is our first venture into a Weekender with all mod cons and facilities! We’re using the Norton Park Hotel in Sutton Scotney and have a lot of land to play with, a health spa to relax in and varied meals to choose from. There are only 4 places left on this event and it’s looking like it’s going to be a fabulous weekend. You can find out more and reserve your space here.
Love Life Outside
What’s new from the Social Enterprise side of the business at FastTrack Fit Camp week ending Thursday 13 June?
Trainer Recycling
Our stash is increasing!
Our temporary and portable trainer bins will be arriving very soon and once we have two bags full (I feel they missed a trick there) we can get them picked up.
I keep getting asked if children’s shoes are acceptable. Yes, but if they are in good condition we do have a local children’s charity that can use them.
Litter Picking
Can I have a whoop whoop?!
Our litter picking bags, hi-vis jackets and sticks have arrived! I’ll be announcing our first community FitPickers activity next week.
Sainsbury’s
Did you see this article this week?
Do you think that’s because of last week’s letter?!
Costa
Did you know that you can take your takeaway cups back to Costa and they will recycle them? Now I realise that we shouldn’t be adding to the problem. But if you do have to take a take-away cup then know that you can take it back. We did that this weekend. All back to Costa for them to process.
Car Share
We took it upon ourselves to car share our way to Dorset this weekend. One of our campers Liz, offered to drive us down and back. This saved an extra 3 cars making the 2.5 hour trip each way.
FastTrack Fit Camp is an outdoor fitness business with the focus on improving people on the inside so they feel good on the outside. In 2019 FastTrack Fit Camp became a Social Enterprise and committed to distribute a minimum of 50% of profits back to community environmental projects each year with the goal of helping our local citizens feel good whilst being outside too.