I know that the Race Clock is just laughing about this situation. It doesn't care about how I feel. It just keeps ticking away. The goal of the race clock is to make me feel like a failure. It is my goal to prove it wrong.
...Today...The Race Clock (or lack thereof) won.
So, I'm tired of lap swimming. It is the equivalent to treadmills for running and bike trainers for riding. It is monotonous and too easy to just 'quit'...which is exactly what happened.
Every time I get into a groove, it is time to turn around, and as soon as I am able to 'go to my happy place', I lose count of laps and need to focus twice as hard to figure out my progress.
My goal was to do 4 sets of 10 laps (2000m) with 2 50m sprints in between.
I was going to use my Garmin to keep lap times. The battery went dead before the first 10-lap set finished. This was disappointing. I looked at the lap clock on the wall. It was stopped.
I then did my 2 sprints.
There wasn't any reason as I couldn't time them.
I did my second set. There wasn't any reason, as I couldn't time it.
At this point, I had no idea how long I had been swimming and I had no idea if I was at a good pace, and I had no idea what time it even was.
I began my 3rd set. Then the negativity set in. I started thinking about negative situations and frustrations in life and it got to the point where I just stopped at the wall, tore off my goggles and quit. ...And this is why I don't like lap swimming. In Open Water Swims, there is no quitting. You are committed as soon as you fall forward into the water and your face submerges. If this had happened on an OWS, I would look up and see how far I am from shore. I would then tell myself to suck it up and get back home.
So one of my training sessions was a failure. I wasn't able to complete the workout I set forth. I let too many negative things get in my head and they won. As I walked back to the Locker room, I knew I couldn't do any more...but it wasn't because of fatigue. It was because I didn't want to...and that is the worst excuse of them all.
It is very hard to stay motivated through winter months. I don't have a race set up for this summer yet because we need to figure out a vacation for the kids and that makes it even more hard. There is no pressure to excel during my workouts. There is no bar that I need to meet and no deadline.
My running is going great because I have the Half-marathon in May...but swimming and riding is very difficult to find reasons for.
And I think I need new goggles. Mine are getting really hard to see out of.
So, I'm tired of lap swimming. It is the equivalent to treadmills for running and bike trainers for riding. It is monotonous and too easy to just 'quit'...which is exactly what happened.
Every time I get into a groove, it is time to turn around, and as soon as I am able to 'go to my happy place', I lose count of laps and need to focus twice as hard to figure out my progress.
My goal was to do 4 sets of 10 laps (2000m) with 2 50m sprints in between.
I was going to use my Garmin to keep lap times. The battery went dead before the first 10-lap set finished. This was disappointing. I looked at the lap clock on the wall. It was stopped.
I then did my 2 sprints.
There wasn't any reason as I couldn't time them.
I did my second set. There wasn't any reason, as I couldn't time it.
At this point, I had no idea how long I had been swimming and I had no idea if I was at a good pace, and I had no idea what time it even was.
I began my 3rd set. Then the negativity set in. I started thinking about negative situations and frustrations in life and it got to the point where I just stopped at the wall, tore off my goggles and quit. ...And this is why I don't like lap swimming. In Open Water Swims, there is no quitting. You are committed as soon as you fall forward into the water and your face submerges. If this had happened on an OWS, I would look up and see how far I am from shore. I would then tell myself to suck it up and get back home.
So one of my training sessions was a failure. I wasn't able to complete the workout I set forth. I let too many negative things get in my head and they won. As I walked back to the Locker room, I knew I couldn't do any more...but it wasn't because of fatigue. It was because I didn't want to...and that is the worst excuse of them all.
It is very hard to stay motivated through winter months. I don't have a race set up for this summer yet because we need to figure out a vacation for the kids and that makes it even more hard. There is no pressure to excel during my workouts. There is no bar that I need to meet and no deadline.
My running is going great because I have the Half-marathon in May...but swimming and riding is very difficult to find reasons for.
And I think I need new goggles. Mine are getting really hard to see out of.
Comments
Post a Comment