Ande has done a great job of having all the various physical aspects of swimming covered but I need help with the mental aspects.
I'm really struggling with negative self-talk while I'm swimming. It feels like there's a huge jumbo-tron in my brain and messages are just running accross it non-stop while I'm swimming:
'Give up'
'ease up'
'quit'
'breaststroke's coming up, why not stop?'
'you suck'
I'm having trouble getting this stream of consciousness to stop. Not only that but I feel like such a fraud with my kids when I'm coaching. I stand there and tell them to get tough mentally but I seem to have the mental fortitude of a Krispy Kreme.
Not being able to 'get out of my head' seems to only happen when I swim.
Help?
The strange thing is I'm always glad I swam after the workout is done, but after work I usually feel like I just want to take a nap rather than swimming. Any suggestions? Swimming before work is problematic because I like to be at the office (~30 minute drive) before 7:00 a.m. and I really don't want to get up any earlier than I already am.
Have you tried eating a light snack an hour or so before the end of your work day? That works well for me.
I also do some jumping jacks and ballistic stretching before my drive. YMMV.
The strange thing is I'm always glad I swam after the workout is done, but after work I usually feel like I just want to take a nap rather than swimming. Any suggestions? Swimming before work is problematic because I like to be at the office (~30 minute drive) before 7:00 a.m. and I really don't want to get up any earlier than I already am.
Have you tried eating a light snack an hour or so before the end of your work day? That works well for me.
I also do some jumping jacks and ballistic stretching before my drive. YMMV.
