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)
I had a masters coach who brought over her college team's mantra regarding meets:
1) Swim hard
2) Have fun
3) Make new friends
If you can do all three at a meet, great! If not, accomplishing just one of them is also a victory. I had a meet years ago that I swam terribly at, but I have fond memories of the trip, because #2 was achieved. Now, granted, the having fun part consisted of all of us piling into a hotel room to eat Italian take-out and watch a movie, but it was a fun night, and it salvaged the entire trip for me.
Also take note that #1 says "Swim hard" not "Swim fast". If you gave your races 100% effort, and didn't give up on them, you can consider each race to be little victories that can be built upon going forward.
I had a masters coach who brought over her college team's mantra regarding meets:
1) Swim hard
2) Have fun
3) Make new friends
If you can do all three at a meet, great! If not, accomplishing just one of them is also a victory. I had a meet years ago that I swam terribly at, but I have fond memories of the trip, because #2 was achieved. Now, granted, the having fun part consisted of all of us piling into a hotel room to eat Italian take-out and watch a movie, but it was a fun night, and it salvaged the entire trip for me.
Also take note that #1 says "Swim hard" not "Swim fast". If you gave your races 100% effort, and didn't give up on them, you can consider each race to be little victories that can be built upon going forward.
