Staying Calm Under Pressure: Mental Toughness in the Open

The open is upon us and man is that a good chance for me to talk about mental toughness.

Mental toughness is an intangible concept that is commonly utilized in the fitness world referring to “doing hard things”. But there’s a lot more to be included in what mental toughness actually means.

Mental toughness is about being prepared for discomfort, which means controlling and managing anxiety in advance, relaxing through the discomfort and controlling your heart rate to sustain effort and being able to utilize your mindset as a path for a successful performance in an endeavor.

Let’s take 25.1 for an example here. This is a mental toughness workout, where it’s a 15:00 of continuous, steady paced effort. While this blog is generally about the open, I’m going to use 25.1 as a reference for how to apply mental toughness and how it could make or break this workout.

Going into a workout like this, you’re probably experiencing some eagerness that could be mixed with some hesitation, anxiety and a little bowel movement. Mental toughness starts here. You need to talk yourself down from that higher heart rate and ask yourself, “Why am I nervous?”, “How can i make this objective and what can i get out of this?”, “What does this mean to me?”. 

From there, start setting some goals and some realistic goals that you know you’d be able to achieve. What’s a good score for 25.1? What score do I need to get to achieve my goals this season?

Then, set some milestones to measure your progress throughout. What round should I be at at the 5:00 mark, am I at pace? How does my breathing pattern feel at the round of 18? Is my burpee pace still the same, or am I slowing down?

Those help with staying focused on the goal and not getting distracted by the environment or the atmosphere around. Part of being mentally tough is to not start out too hot and stick to the pace. As you go through the workout, keep visualizing the end. Keep moving through the pain knowing that it is coming to an end and that you’ll be fine afterwards.

Once you’re done, you’re putting this event into questions. “How did I do?”, “Is there room for improvement/change?”. “What would I do differently?” and finally “What do I need to work on for future performances?” Those questions will help you navigate through your reflection and analysis on the performance and allow you to move past any singular workout and continue on with the rest of the equally important events in the following weeks.

Utilizing these tools will not only ensure your mental toughness is present through 25.1, but also present and consistent throughout the whole open, by allowing you to psychologically recover from each workout.