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 was less than thrilled with how I raced in Santa Clara. It seems like many people were so I'm blaming the pool. It stole many seconds from me!
In all seriousness, I swam slower than I have in years, but felt like my training was better. I left feeling incredibly positive for multiple reasons. One reason, was that I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the people - loved seeing old friends and had a great time meeting new friends. I enjoyed being at that pool complex and outside (Chicago has been insanely cold!). What I came to realize was that while my times were slower I'm on the right track. I have things to work on in all of my races - some bigger than others.
Another thing I took away was that I am just lucky to be there and to be able bodied. There was a man there (I didn't catch his name) that was in a horrible accident in January, and lost 1/2 of his leg. He was still there and racing. That was a big inspiration!
Another thing was that I was reminded that the sport isn't being canceled and there will be SO many more opportunities to swim nationals and other meets and go faster. I'm in my mid-thirties so by my calculations I could legitimately swim in a 100 more nationals (since there are two per year).
I personally had an outstanding meet at both nationals in 2008. I haven't come close to those times again - but I did finally start teaching full time which has taken a lot of the old training time away. What I remember most about all those other "slow" nationals is that I had fun. I really don't remember the swims.
So my VERY long winded advice is to focus on what did go well. Set a new goal and remember that you get to do this again next year!
I was less than thrilled with how I raced in Santa Clara. It seems like many people were so I'm blaming the pool. It stole many seconds from me!
In all seriousness, I swam slower than I have in years, but felt like my training was better. I left feeling incredibly positive for multiple reasons. One reason, was that I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the people - loved seeing old friends and had a great time meeting new friends. I enjoyed being at that pool complex and outside (Chicago has been insanely cold!). What I came to realize was that while my times were slower I'm on the right track. I have things to work on in all of my races - some bigger than others.
Another thing I took away was that I am just lucky to be there and to be able bodied. There was a man there (I didn't catch his name) that was in a horrible accident in January, and lost 1/2 of his leg. He was still there and racing. That was a big inspiration!
Another thing was that I was reminded that the sport isn't being canceled and there will be SO many more opportunities to swim nationals and other meets and go faster. I'm in my mid-thirties so by my calculations I could legitimately swim in a 100 more nationals (since there are two per year).
I personally had an outstanding meet at both nationals in 2008. I haven't come close to those times again - but I did finally start teaching full time which has taken a lot of the old training time away. What I remember most about all those other "slow" nationals is that I had fun. I really don't remember the swims.
So my VERY long winded advice is to focus on what did go well. Set a new goal and remember that you get to do this again next year!
