Hi all,
I've been faithfully going to practice 6x week for the past last year without missing but for the occasional work event/meeting keeping me away. I'd say about two weeks ago, after having a few months of making some good improvement in my times, I just started to feel bad in the water in general. I didn't feel like I was progressing at all. I felt like getting through practice was all I could do. I'm not ill or anything.
Now for the past week except for Monday, I've ignored all three of my alarm clocks and have not come to practice despite a fully packed bag ready to go.
I guess I'm just a bit burned out. I feel guilty for missing and know that every day that I'm out of the water I will have a even more painful return swim, but that’s just not been enough to get me out of bed.
Any suggestions for beating burn out?
... a goal to just do it to enjoy it ...
To me that's the key. The whole goal is to enjoy it, everything else is a side-effect.
What do you enjoy? For me, I enjoy the whole process of going to meets. I enjoy finding them, deciding what events I want to swim, working out a travel schedule, minimizing cost, traveling, hanging out with my buddies, actually swimming the events!, geeking out on split times, and seeing the results posted on USMS. I like swimming faster at meets! But if I swim a little slower, I'm not going to agonize over it.
I enjoy preparing for meets! I like working on the little puzzles, like how many SDKs can I put off each wall in a backstroke event, or how the heck am I going to do a 100 fly at the start of a 400 IM and still have anything left for the other legs. I enjoy conditioning sets when I know it'll improve my 500 free. I enjoy shooters when I know it'll improve my 50 back.
I'm looking forward to going to the FINA World Masters Championships in Riccione Italy in 2012! That will be an adventure! I will get my butt kicked by faster swimmers from all over the world, and then enjoy a glass of wine. I'm looking forward to all the other meets between now and then as well!
And in the meantime, in the middle of all this enjoyment, I'll stay fit and healthy. Cool side effect!
What do you enjoy?
... a goal to just do it to enjoy it ...
To me that's the key. The whole goal is to enjoy it, everything else is a side-effect.
What do you enjoy? For me, I enjoy the whole process of going to meets. I enjoy finding them, deciding what events I want to swim, working out a travel schedule, minimizing cost, traveling, hanging out with my buddies, actually swimming the events!, geeking out on split times, and seeing the results posted on USMS. I like swimming faster at meets! But if I swim a little slower, I'm not going to agonize over it.
I enjoy preparing for meets! I like working on the little puzzles, like how many SDKs can I put off each wall in a backstroke event, or how the heck am I going to do a 100 fly at the start of a 400 IM and still have anything left for the other legs. I enjoy conditioning sets when I know it'll improve my 500 free. I enjoy shooters when I know it'll improve my 50 back.
I'm looking forward to going to the FINA World Masters Championships in Riccione Italy in 2012! That will be an adventure! I will get my butt kicked by faster swimmers from all over the world, and then enjoy a glass of wine. I'm looking forward to all the other meets between now and then as well!
And in the meantime, in the middle of all this enjoyment, I'll stay fit and healthy. Cool side effect!
What do you enjoy?
