Hey guys,
My lifetime best in 100m backstroke is 1:00.09 (SCM), I swam this time with 21.
Since I start swimming in masters competition, in my early 30s, my 100m backstroke times were around 1:03. I could droped my time this year to 1:01. (I am 37 now).
And last weekend I swam my personal "masters" best time: 1:01,16.
This race was not optimal, two turns were bad and my finish was bad too.
I was in good shape and was try to swim around 60sek.
Going sub 1minute in 100m backstroke was and is still a dream for me.
And thats the point. How can you just stop dreaming and see things realistic and try to set goals that are reasonable?
Is dropping one more second a realistic goal?
I dont know.
I am not trying hard, as I could to reach this (sub 1 minute), but I have a feeling, if I could do this, I will fail short once again...
If I try somethings, that is near to my dreams, I fear that I get automaticly in my old wrong mindset, where I failed so many times in my young ages.
Can you just reach a goal, without thinking of it?
Maybe there is some mentally approch to this issue?
If you have made specific mistakes in the past making a short list of key things to focus on during the race like paying attention to your turn and not looking at the competition etc. might help reduce mental lapses.
The other thing is when you are really close to a goal you can get complacent and think I just need to get a tiny bit better and I can make it. What if you set a maybe unrealistic secondary goal time of around 0:58 that made you completely re-evaluate your technique and training? While the faster goal might never be achievable it might force you to make changes that will make going under 60 much easier even with a few mistakes in the race.
If you have made specific mistakes in the past making a short list of key things to focus on during the race like paying attention to your turn and not looking at the competition etc. might help reduce mental lapses.
The other thing is when you are really close to a goal you can get complacent and think I just need to get a tiny bit better and I can make it. What if you set a maybe unrealistic secondary goal time of around 0:58 that made you completely re-evaluate your technique and training? While the faster goal might never be achievable it might force you to make changes that will make going under 60 much easier even with a few mistakes in the race.
