This week was tough. Balancing a career, two kids and well, everything else is always a challenge, even more so after a couple sleepless nights with my two year old. I only swam twice this week – once with a master’s program and once in the bay.
Race panic, when you are injured or miss workouts, goes something like this. . . the race is three weeks away, this is was supposed to be my most important training week, this swim is further than I’ve ever gone, last year the slowest swimmer was in the water for nearly 3 hours, I’m not sure if I can last 2 hours, everyone in my master’s program thinks I’m crazy, I’ve got a funny pain in my shoulder, my breathing has been off lately, I’m stuffed up, I’m having a hard time breathing right now, it is too far, it is too cold, I can’t. . .
Not to worry though, I’ve gone through this many, many times and know myself and how I deal with the inevitable race freak out. I just acknowledge each negative thought and promise to deal with each one, in turn, after the event. I’m too busy to freak out right now, but I’ll get to it. I’ve found it is much easier to deal with all the reasons why I can’t do something after I’ve done it or at least attempted it. I know this sounds silly, but I’ve used this approach so many times it is almost automatic.
“Too busy to properly train.”
“Yes, I see you there, please take a number and we’ll chat after the event.”
