Major breakthrough at swim practice

Last night's practice involved all participants swimming their race distances. For me, that meant 500 meters, continuous and timed.  I’d downloaded a copy of Conquer your fear of water and spent a few hours reading it.  A few things stood out to me including:

1. the importance of remaining in control to prevent panic
2. staying present to the situation and aware of my feelings
3. follow any instructions that are revealed to me
4. have fun
5. don’t do anything I didn’t want to do.

I decided to do this all day and at practice.

I have to say it worked for me.  By staying present, I had no opportunity to build anxiety about practice.  Last week, Coach Mike, told me I’d swim 500 meters and be timed, but I had no idea how this would occur.  This was probably the first time during the pre-meeting I didn’t have anxiety about the pending workout.  Stay present.  After the meeting, we head over to the pool and our designated lanes.  Those swimming 500 meters would start in lane 7, then swim back in lane 8, exit the pool and get into lane 1. We’d then swim up/down lanes 1-8 to complete the distance. 

I swam a 200m warm-up then headed to lane 7.  Coach Beth gave us the pre-swim spiel, confirming how much fun this would be [yeah right].  She blew the whistle and off we went. I decided, to let everyone start and then jump in.  I swam freestyle maybe 30 meters and felt myself began to panic. Then decided to switch to side stroke for a bit.  Eventually, sidestroke became backstroke.  I know, backstroke of all things. I just happened to have watched a few videos of it and it’s supposed to be good for imprinting freestyle body position.  So backstroke it was. To my surprise, it felt GREAT!  I’d forgotten how relaxed I am on my back.  I could count, sing, and remind myself ‘I’m in Control’ while singing a la Janet Jackson.  That would become a new mantra.  It wasn’t the fastest backstroke but it allowed me to swim the 500m distance in 25minutes and 4 seconds.  Who Knew!!

The more important things were:

1. I stayed present and listened to that voice whispering, “try the backstroke”;
2. I completed the race distance—that was huge for me
3. I did it in less than my target time <30 minutes
4. I wasn’t exhausted afterward, since I stayed calm
5. I didn’t worry about other swimmers that are faster than me. 

So I’ve decided to continue practicing and improving in the coming weeks.  Who knows, I might be able to get my time under 20 minutes. I’ll continue to stay present and not worry about anyone else’s race but my own.  Oh, and I’ll have fun while doing it!!

Remember to keep moving forward...