The Everyday Awesome Project
The Everyday Awesome Podcast is your mega dose of multivitamins for building your mental muscles, physical body and an empowered life. Your hosts Polly and Sam are on your dream team; lifelong coaches in business, health & fitness and human potential. They are on fire to ignite change in the lives they touch.
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The Everyday Awesome Project
49: Entering The Pain Cave: Coach Sams Going In!
Looking for growth? Seeking the next level of yourself? Look no further than the PAIN CAVE! Yes, life's toughest moments are there for a reason and you can run and hide or you can step into those hard (and sometimes miserable) opportunities to see who you truly are.
Join Coach Sam solo this week, as she tackles the concept of the "pain cave" — that mental and physical space of extreme discomfort we all face at some point (or many times). By sharing her own experiences from ultra endurance sports, Coach Sam will guide you through preparing your mind for these challenges, drawing parallels to real-life struggles like supporting a loved one through illness or confronting social injustices. You'll also hear about her IronWoman 2.0 race prep strategies, from organizing gear to visualizing success, equipping you too with the tools to face your personal pain cave with confidence and resilience.
Shift your mind towards exploring the transformative power of truth, experience, and perseverance in overcoming self-doubt and anxiety. As Coach Sam shares her own journey, you'll discover how staying grounded in reality and harnessing your inner strength can turn moments of fear into a crucible for personal growth. By tapping into your mental, emotional, and experiential resources, you'll learn to face life's challenges head-on, trusting in your worth and potential. Let's embrace these trials together, knowing that triumph and joy lie just beyond the finish line.
-Coach Sam & Polly xoxo
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Hello, my beautiful humans, hello, hello Solo Sam here today doing a solo episode entitled Mental Prep for the Pain Cave. Ooh, it sounds ominous, doesn't it? So I'm just six days out from my Iron Woman 140.6 mile swim, bike run race. However, you're probably going to hear this after the race is over. Plus, you can look forward to a recap, of course. But truthfully, this subject matter is relevant at all times and in all circumstances, not just before a big epic event.
Samantha Pruitt:Mental prep for the pain cave. You don't have to be an athlete to know what the pain cave is. The pain cave is a place we all visit inside of ourselves when we experience extreme mental and or physical discomfort borderline, unbearable. Have you been there? If you're a human, I'm sure you have. In life in general, all of us experience and will continue to experience situations we find ourselves in where it freaking hurts. We are suffering in our body, inside our mind, and overwhelmed by negative emotions. Before I get into why I'm prepping myself mentally for the pain cave and why we all need to be able to train for this in order to get better at just making it through one, here are a few examples.
Samantha Pruitt:Taking my brother in for his cancer treatment. I witnessed him bravely walking into the pain cave. Sitting in grief with my friend after she lost her partner to suicide was an unprecedented visit into the pain cave, helping my husband recover from two back-to-back hip replacements. I definitely watched him swim around in and then recover from the pain cave, standing in unity and marching against injustice, knowing there will be social repercussions and safety risks. I was surrounded by courageous humans boldly entering the pain cave together. Being present to and trying desperately to help my loved one as they broke down with an addiction and mental health crisis showed me hidden demons inside the pain cave that countless people are facing every day. During the pandemic, talking with friends and fellow business owners when many, many, many of us lost our loved ones, our livelihoods, me included, was definitely a long, brutal trip throughlife versions of the pain cave.
Samantha Pruitt:As I myself prepare to enter the pain cave yet again on my own accord, willingly. It's a common experience for athletes, no matter the distance or the sport. Athletes of all levels and types literally run full steam ahead into the pain cave, knowing that our goals and success reside on the other side of it. We choose it willingly and therefore must learn and train to embrace it if we want to succeed. Speaking of sports, I watched a really good movie lately. It will show you the next level drive and courage it takes to master the pain cave required by athletes at the highest level of their sport. This is called Ingebrigtsen Born to Run I-N-G-E-B-R-I-G-T-S-E-N Born to Run. It's about these three brothers from Norway who are absolute running legends. What they go through together as a family and then as world-class athletes each one of them. You got to watch this thing. It's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. You got to watch this thing. It's a perfect example of what I'm talking about For myself, coming from somebody who didn't grow up in sports of any kind and was a chubby kid who didn't even learn to swim until I was a full grown adult at age 29.
Samantha Pruitt:Oh my God, at the age 30, I attempted my first sprint triathlon. It was a pool swim version of a triathlon. I was shocked at how hard it was and literally I crawled across the finish line totally blown out. Now, in reflection, over 25 years of trying all types of distances of endurance before and willingly entered the pain cave over and over and over, continuing to explore my personal limits For many athletes, the pain cave experience is a rite of passage on the journey to their best selves, to their full development, building the body, mind and spirit and life of a champion, often falling short and failing, but always knowing the sacrifice was not to waste but instead has made us more resilient and capable of our next shot at victory. If you've listened to my prior episode, solo episode called Keeping it Real, you would have already heard that my Ironwoman race training is not going as planned or ideal based on my massive goal of a PR.
Samantha Pruitt:13 years later, on the same 140.6 mile triathlon course, on the same 140.6 mile triathlon course, Work, family travel, illness, life is happening and I have to accept that, due to a lack of highly focused time and energy put into my training program, I surely will not succeed at that PR, but I will surely hit the pain cave more than once in the epic 17-hour day. So I sit here now with you talking, just six days out from the starting line. I can no longer do any big workouts or push my heart rate to the max on hills or intervals, but what I can do is prepare. I can prepare and double down on my mindset training. Here's a glimpse of what this week's, week's preparation to enter the Iron Woman pain cave looks like and some tips on how you might get yourself ready for the inevitable pain caves. Heading your way for the inevitable pain caves heading your way.
Samantha Pruitt:Okay, number one get organized. I'm pulling out all my gear, putting it in piles, going through it, seeing what I'm going to wear, what am I going to eat, what am I going to drink, tuning up all of my equipment that I will use. I'm confirming all my travel plans, my lodging and identifying in advance the places I can go to get my critical morning latte and my protein smoothie and eat some healthy meals before and after the event. I've printed out and read the schedule for the week. I'm deciding right now what I will and will not participate in, plus locating where to drop off my gear, where to park, etc. I've reviewed the race course again and my race plan strategy, which seems to be continuously evolving, keeping myself flexible, of course, for a range of things that can go right or wrong, and thinking through how I will troubleshoot if needed. I've made a list of all the things I can still do and what I still need to do Stretch, mobilize, self-massage, extra sleep, eating healthy, hydrate electrolytes.
Samantha Pruitt:I can watch films and read stories that inspire me. I can talk to like-minded humans who have been there and who believe in me. I can even write a letter to myself, or actually, what I do is I type on my phone, in the Notes app, a pep talk. Sometimes it turns into a full-blown speech telling myself what a badass I am and how truly, truly, I can own this invaluable day in my life. All of this is not me winging it. Get organized and have an ideal yet flexible plan. Don't wing it.
Samantha Pruitt:Second, what I'm doing is I'm getting my mind and emotions in the game, first and foremost, my why. I'm thinking again about and setting reminders for myself, honestly in my bag, taped to my bike and on my race bib, as to my why. Always Goals. I'm setting realistic A, b and C goals for this race. This is super important, rather than one perfect scenario which can set you up for anxiety and a rude awakening, with plenty of emotional suffering, by the way or take you out of the game altogether when it's not going as planned. If you have one goal, it will lead you to quitting if things don't go your way. If you have an A, b or C goal or target, it's guaranteed you'll hit one of those, if not all three.
Samantha Pruitt:I stay focused on what is true. Lastly, I've written down and I tap into my resume, full of experience in this area of endurance, racing and in pain cave survival. I recall my own hard-earned wealth of knowledge and experience. It's a great way for me to stay focused on what is real and what is true. You can do the same thing For real.
Samantha Pruitt:If you use your brain, power, emotions and focus on these three things above race week or at the starting line, or even during a major crisis pain cave moment in your life, you won't have room for the evil twin of self-doubt. You won't have overwhelming fear and anxiety about what is not real and what is not true, and you're a lot less likely to ever bail out on this personal growth opportunity that is awaiting you. Keep it real and use these three tools. When the pain cave comes in a knocking and it will Don't try to avoid it Face it with courage, move through it with skills and resilience. You've built all that. I believe in you and you're worth it. Okay, my beautiful people, I hope this leaves you with a perspective of the value of the pain cave. I'll see you on the other side of my own Iron Woman race finish line. I may be beaten up, I may be bruised, but I sure the hell will be smiling. See you then.
