Okay, I'm in a complete funk now. At spring nationals this weekend, I had what was probably the worst meet of my career, performance wise. Really can't understand why, as the meet was run really well, I thought I had trained and tapered properly, and everything seemed to be in order. Come competition time, I sucked. Had a so-so 400IM, got dq'd in the 200Br, and just went slow in everything else. Not making excuses, but now I feel horrible. Don't want to train, and I'm almost embarrassed to look at my results.
So now what? How do I get over this desire to quit?
(I know, I'm taking this way to seriously, but I can't shake the feeling of being a failure)
Shrug the bad ones off. Just shrug 'em off. I would like to say I've been swimming for just a little while now (five years and change), and after about 50 meets ranging from "ALL HAIL THE GREAT ONE" to "lowest of the low crab louse," I've narrowed down the best bad performance management method to a simple shrug of the shoulders and a casting of the eyes to what's next, whether that's an upcoming race in a meet or a whole different meet altogether.
Of course, as everyone else has said, still take a detached look at "what went wrong," so you can learn from mistakes and make changes, but that's a more intellectual adventure that should be done later in the evening with a journal or with a coach or friend. Don't let the emotion take you over. It's just a dark cloud in the sky, but you can make it float right over you a lot longer than necessary. For days or months, even. Best way to give that cloud a good windy gust?
Shrug it off.
Shrug the bad ones off. Just shrug 'em off. I would like to say I've been swimming for just a little while now (five years and change), and after about 50 meets ranging from "ALL HAIL THE GREAT ONE" to "lowest of the low crab louse," I've narrowed down the best bad performance management method to a simple shrug of the shoulders and a casting of the eyes to what's next, whether that's an upcoming race in a meet or a whole different meet altogether.
Of course, as everyone else has said, still take a detached look at "what went wrong," so you can learn from mistakes and make changes, but that's a more intellectual adventure that should be done later in the evening with a journal or with a coach or friend. Don't let the emotion take you over. It's just a dark cloud in the sky, but you can make it float right over you a lot longer than necessary. For days or months, even. Best way to give that cloud a good windy gust?
Shrug it off.
