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Quick! She's taking on water!

11-10-16

Well, got up and out the door, almost on time. Made it to the pool by 5:32am. (not that anyone's obsessive). There was a guy in the water who was absolutely DOMINATING. For half an hour I never saw or heard him stop. Truly a beast and he had great form! So that was a bonus for me to observe.

I actually did a brief warm up, which to me, is I walked and lunged down and back. Then I really gave good effort to swim with my head down, and only breathe after 4 strokes. That sorta worked for about 50 yards. Then the wheels fell off...should I say fins? I seemed to struggle with not getting water into my sinuses and choking. I'm not sure if this was because, once again, I got too excited (read: cocky), or if my form is just bad. Honestly, it's likely a healthy dose of both.

Whenever I ran out of air or felt myself get tired, I tried to focus on slowing down and fully breathing in when I had the opportunity. A few times I had to straight up stop in the lane or switch to a back stroke. (I'm trying really hard not to revert to a doggy paddle).

The Slow Fat Triathlete book I'm reading, talks a lot about mental prep; using visualizations and mantras to build confidence. I tried "I am sleek like a seal." for a while. You know what? As I was spluttering my way down the lane, I realized that really means nothing. *My attitude may have been a little worse for the wear this morning*.  But basically, I need a better mantra! Something more along the lines of "I am strong and powerful in the water", or "Swimming is so easy- this will fly by!", or perhaps more aptly. "Dear God, please don't let me die".

Breakfast was oatmeal with chia seeds, raisins, a banana and brown sugar with a cup of coffee :)

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