Sweet saga yo!

    Everyone has felt it before. Whether it be something small like standing up to do a solo in front of the whole choir, or something big like lining up the start line of the biggest race of the season. It’s there, it all just depends on the person dealing with it.

   Some people simply cannot handle stress. They’ll get all tight and unsettled at every thought of their competition or performance. This would typically feel like all that potential energy stored up inside of you is released as nervousness, leaving you feeling sluggish and unprepared to perform. There’s no science there, just pure common sense and personal experience to back that statement up. While some fall victim to the stress and chaos within their mind, other seem to manipulate all that stress and turn in into something productive. These are usually those who win. Plain and simple. They find confidence in and believe in all their practices and training sessions. They don’t over-think the matter at hand. They’ve found what works for them and they perfected it to the point that competitive stress can become competitive confidence. ”Okay, so how do I become like them, then?”

   The key is to not hold back. Enter a bit more low-key races where it’s fine to screw-up and see what works then and what doesn’t. For example, if you over-think and simulate your race too much, you can subconsciously set high expectations for yourself to have the perfect race, but perfection is somewhat unattainable for what’s good in the eyes of one person, may be totally stupid in another’s. I over think my races. In fact, I had a mile to race this past week and I kept playing a mental video of myself through each and every stride, turn, straightaway. My coach said to not think about it and just do it, and so I did. I eventually PR’ed my mile, in the offseason! Another great example are salmon. You’ve all probably heard about how they will swim upstream towards their breeding grounds. In between the salmon and their breeding grounds are bears, rapid currents, eroded rocks, all of these hazards, but the salmon doesn’t care, it doesn’t think about it. It just goes and gets it done. A great way to see what works and what doesn’t is to learn to seek knowledge. I wish for you all to be hungry starving for knowledge. This would give you some suggestions and feedback on what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to have more things to try out for your liking. 

Stay sharp in the offseason!

This applies to basically everything. School work, my sports, everything and anything that I do. Today I had a meeting with my coach about my swim goals, and it was a changing point in the way I think about myself and my career. First off, I have to get over the mental challenges and barriers that make me believe that it’s not possible, that I can’t do it. That will improve with race experience and confidence, but I won’t be comfortable getting up on the blocks knowing that I spent half my time swimming, and the other half training for triathlon. My success in that race, in my swimming career in general, isn’t going to be secure if it’s like that.
It also means though that I’m not going to stop racing triathlons, because I know I have a chance. I know that with enough work and time, I will be up there and I’m going to dominate. Call me arrogant, call me cocky, but I can’t settle for a losing mentality. Hoping won’t cut it.
Changes must be made. A swimming goal I have is to go 1:48.50 in the 200yd Freestyle. My coach said only about 300 of the hundreds of thousands of 13-14 year old boys can do that. Currently my attendance is 50%. Now how am I ever going to do that? On the days that I do go, I put in the work, I do my best, and my coach knows it. But 4 nights a week isn’t going to make it. I train 6 days a week, ranging from 2-6 hours at a time. 3-4 for swimming, 2-3 for triathlon. My schedule has to change. 
Mentally, I sometimes psyche myself out in the days or moments leading up to a race. I know what I want to do, and I know how fast I need to go in order to do so, but there’s times where I just ask myself if this is really necessary. My coach said I should just have more faith in my training, and that I should sometimes just relax and not even think about the race. Just do it. So as a result, I’m going to start using this blog to help me excel. Sometimes I’ll post what I’m thinking about in relation to the race, and then correct myself in the same post to keep me in track and not burn myself out. Other times I’ll just post about that specific training day and what I felt about it. In essence, this is going to be my virtual training log. Ignore it if you want, just keep scrolling in the deep as you please. 

Running is my weakness, and I’d like to improve it, but do I have the time? Maybe I can pull some strings..