The Mental Training Lane

In some ways I am finding it a relief not to be able to swim right now in the way I am used to. For instance, I am not going to be trying to achieve my elusive 4000 yards for the one-hour swim. That's a relief. I get so nervous for that event because it means so much to me to hit 4000, when in fact it really means very little re my race times. I proofread and edit Buddhist books and one of them, by Pema Chodrin, talks about acknowledging the thought then moving on. I am far from being a Buddhist, but this particular strategy has helped me. I will think "tired," then look at the bottom of the pool and try to see pretty light, or I will think "angry" when I notice I am ruminating, or "competitive" when I am wanting to swim faster than people in my lane. Or "sad," "lonely," etc. You get the point. In my case I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform in the pool because it has been my best place of success (always relative). With no ability to swim more than 200 yards and slowly at that, I am just happy to get in the water. I will be happier when I can start to train hard again, but it is interesting to see how nice it feels to anticipate doing the one-hour swim hoping I can kick 600 yards and not cramp up, and looking forward to chatting with my counter and eating M&Ms. Sure, this is not about swimming fast or faster or fastest, but it is nice to take the pressure off myself for now, since I have no choice. Of course, on the other hand I am going crazy because I cannot swim the way I want to. But I learned the hard way at the beginning of the summer, when I wailed to someone about how it was going to be the same old same old, and then suddenly I lost my 20-year-old cat, my first pet, and my best friends moved to Singapore for 3 years, a long-term relationship ended, and then I had shoulder surgery and lost my main outlet for coping with life (swimming) or for terrifying myself into being "in the present" (sailing). It's hard not to want to do something that has meant so much in the past, so I empathize. Sometimes forcing yourself to the pool is all it takes, and sometimes it gets scary when that doesn't work. But if you can see that swimming makes you feel better generally, and being around teammates lifts your spirits generally, then perhaps you can focus on those two things and then use the workouts as a mood monitor, maybe even writing about it afterward, to see what might be going on that is derailing you. What words/statements come up the most, etc.? Maybe they don't have that much to do with swimming. Dr. Isobel Feel free to cross-ref this entry with "What's Your Swim Type?" in non-related swim section of forum to see if that helps. Remember, all the datable types are me. :)

In some ways I am finding it a relief not to be able to swim right now in the way I am used to. For instance, I am not going to be trying to achieve my elusive 4000 yards for the one-hour swim. That's a relief. I get so nervous for that event because it means so much to me to hit 4000, when in fact it really means very little re my race times. I proofread and edit Buddhist books and one of them, by Pema Chodrin, talks about acknowledging the thought then moving on. I am far from being a Buddhist, but this particular strategy has helped me. I will think "tired," then look at the bottom of the pool and try to see pretty light, or I will think "angry" when I notice I am ruminating, or "competitive" when I am wanting to swim faster than people in my lane. Or "sad," "lonely," etc. You get the point. In my case I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform in the pool because it has been my best place of success (always relative). With no ability to swim more than 200 yards and slowly at that, I am just happy to get in the water. I will be happier when I can start to train hard again, but it is interesting to see how nice it feels to anticipate doing the one-hour swim hoping I can kick 600 yards and not cramp up, and looking forward to chatting with my counter and eating M&Ms. Sure, this is not about swimming fast or faster or fastest, but it is nice to take the pressure off myself for now, since I have no choice. Of course, on the other hand I am going crazy because I cannot swim the way I want to. But I learned the hard way at the beginning of the summer, when I wailed to someone about how it was going to be the same old same old, and then suddenly I lost my 20-year-old cat, my first pet, and my best friends moved to Singapore for 3 years, a long-term relationship ended, and then I had shoulder surgery and lost my main outlet for coping with life (swimming) or for terrifying myself into being "in the present" (sailing). It's hard not to want to do something that has meant so much in the past, so I empathize. Sometimes forcing yourself to the pool is all it takes, and sometimes it gets scary when that doesn't work. But if you can see that swimming makes you feel better generally, and being around teammates lifts your spirits generally, then perhaps you can focus on those two things and then use the workouts as a mood monitor, maybe even writing about it afterward, to see what might be going on that is derailing you. What words/statements come up the most, etc.? Maybe they don't have that much to do with swimming. Dr. Isobel Feel free to cross-ref this entry with "What's Your Swim Type?" in non-related swim section of forum to see if that helps. Remember, all the datable types are me. :)