Rachel Noel has been doing CrossFit for eight years. For most of the last few, she’s done it completely alone; the training partners she started with moved on, life happened the way it happens to everyone, and somehow she became the last one left from her original crew. Her biggest lesson about grit wis consistently showing up to an empty gym to train, anyway.
In this episode, Rachel tells the story of the day she found out she’d qualified for her first CrossFit Games. The people around her were her besties and her family, all cheering for her, and ready to celebrate. Then she got back to the gym, and it was back to training alone (for the most part).
At first, Rachel didn’t set out to qualify for The Games. Her only goal was to try her best. “I knew it was probably unattainable, honestly,” she told me. “It was always like, I’m gonna try my best, and if it doesn’t happen, I can say that I gave it my all.”
Her process: show up regardless of how she feels that day (habit, not motivation), trust that consistency beats intensity, and let go of the all-or-nothing thinking that kills most people’s progress before it starts. “You can keep going even if you mess up,” a line that applies to a missed lift or mistake in a workout, as it does to anything else.
That same mindset shows up in how she coaches. Every athlete she works with gets the version of Rachel that spent years proving to herself, alone, that discipline outlasts feeling ready.
Her experience is a core muscle moment belief: confidence isn’t something someone hands you. It’s something you build in reps when nobody’s watching.
In this conversation, Rachel and I chat about:
The real difference between motivation and habit
Why “you can keep going even if you mess up” beats all-or-nothing thinking
How coaching other people makes her a better athlete
What confidence looks like when you’re alone
On the personal side, we get into her less than glamorous years playing goalie in college soccer and why working harder than everyone else, even when the outcome wasn’t guaranteed, became the thing - the habit - she leans on today.
Rachel steps onto the floor at the 20th anniversary CrossFit Games in July 2026. Whatever happens there, the real work already happened — quietly, alone, on a few thousand normal afternoons very few saw.
Listen to the full episode now.
ABOUT RACHEL
Rachel Noel is a coach at CrossFit 801in Utah, and a first-time qualifier for the 2026 CrossFit Games. She’s been training in CrossFit for eight years, most of them spent training alone after the friends she started with moved on. Before CrossFit, she played goalie in college soccer, an experience she credits with teaching her that working hard has a value that outlasts the outcome. She brings that same philosophy into how she coaches: consistency over intensity, habit over motivation, and confidence built through repetition.
GET IN TOUCH WITH RACHEL
Instagram: @RachelKNoel
Reminder: The first five episodes of Muscle Moments and all companion content is available for free. After, all podcast episodes will remain free and other content will be made available to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Enjoying Muscle Moments? Tell your friends and earn upgrades!
