Even More Motivation to Train
Jan
10Even More Motivation to Train
Posted by Kevin Doak on Sunday at: 8:56pm (January 10th, 2010)
Today I had one of the worst meets of my life. As you can see from my previous posts, I didn't exactly have high performance expectations. However, I even amazed myself a little this morning... and not in a good way.
A crazy work week must have thrown me off a normal sleep schedule. I slept no more than 3 hours last night, but even that couldn't account for such horrible swimming compared to my recent performances.
50 Fly SCY: I began the morning off with a 50 Fly. Yesterday I felt I made a fair estimate of a 23.1. Today I swam a very sloppy 23.25. I made some silly mistakes in the race, but it wasn't far off my prediction so I was ok with this swim.
50 Back SCY: My second event was a 50 backstroke. Arguably my best event. I estimated I would swim a 23.3. I was horrified to see a 23.88 on the clock when I touched. It was one of those swims where you look up at the clock and think... there's no way that's correct! Sadly, it was reality, harsh reality.
50 Free SCY: After I stopped weeping all over heat sheet due to that horrendous backstroke race, I was rushed into the 50 Free. I had a decent race at 21.98. Still quite a bit off my 21.4 estimate. But at least it was a 21.xx, not by much though. It was humorous when the Referee George turned around and in the microphone said "I like that time in Lane 4". As disappointed as I was in my swim, it was funny to hear :)
100 Back SCY: I was really quite run down by this point. I went up to the bleachers and fell asleep for a moment. I seriously considered just going home. I only stayed because I wanted to see how horrible I could really swim. I wanted motivation to improve. Yet, I truly had nothing left to give. It's been a hard week and I was drained. My muscles hurt and I felt like ever race was just SLOOOOW MOTION. I couldn't rev it up no matter how hard I tried. I really needed somebody right next to me pushing me. I could have seriously used a faster swimmer beating me. In plenty of my races, it doesn't matter who is next to me... I race against myself. This was an exception. I just couldn't push myself, and the times show it. ANYWAY, My 100 Backstroke was fairly horrible. I felt unmotivated and lethargic. I needed food and sleep. I have no idea what I lead it off in, but I touched the wall and saw a 53.26. That's just depressing when my seed time and Lake Orion High School Pool Record is my 49.84. Lets take a moment to realize how far I've fallen off.
53.26 minus 49.84 is 3.42 seconds SLOWER than I was a few months ago.
100 IM SCY: At this point I just wanted to go home. It was an hour drive and a long morning consisting of some ugly swimming (on my part, everybody else looked great). I dove in and somehow finished 100 yards. Looked up and saw a 56.96... OUCH. The results actually list it as a 53.21, which I WISH was the case. The video shows a 56.96 and retiming the video at home verifies it, it was indeed almost a 57 second 100 yard IM.
Today was quite humbling, which is good from time to time. It's difficult to describe how disappointed I am. I'm sure my family will tell me I'm too hard on myself... but lets be realistic. Those were some (by comparison) horrendous times. A few short months ago I was a 49 second 100 backstroker, and now I'm a 53 second backstroker. wow.
A crazy work week must have thrown me off a normal sleep schedule. I slept no more than 3 hours last night, but even that couldn't account for such horrible swimming compared to my recent performances.
50 Fly SCY: I began the morning off with a 50 Fly. Yesterday I felt I made a fair estimate of a 23.1. Today I swam a very sloppy 23.25. I made some silly mistakes in the race, but it wasn't far off my prediction so I was ok with this swim.
50 Back SCY: My second event was a 50 backstroke. Arguably my best event. I estimated I would swim a 23.3. I was horrified to see a 23.88 on the clock when I touched. It was one of those swims where you look up at the clock and think... there's no way that's correct! Sadly, it was reality, harsh reality.
50 Free SCY: After I stopped weeping all over heat sheet due to that horrendous backstroke race, I was rushed into the 50 Free. I had a decent race at 21.98. Still quite a bit off my 21.4 estimate. But at least it was a 21.xx, not by much though. It was humorous when the Referee George turned around and in the microphone said "I like that time in Lane 4". As disappointed as I was in my swim, it was funny to hear :)
100 Back SCY: I was really quite run down by this point. I went up to the bleachers and fell asleep for a moment. I seriously considered just going home. I only stayed because I wanted to see how horrible I could really swim. I wanted motivation to improve. Yet, I truly had nothing left to give. It's been a hard week and I was drained. My muscles hurt and I felt like ever race was just SLOOOOW MOTION. I couldn't rev it up no matter how hard I tried. I really needed somebody right next to me pushing me. I could have seriously used a faster swimmer beating me. In plenty of my races, it doesn't matter who is next to me... I race against myself. This was an exception. I just couldn't push myself, and the times show it. ANYWAY, My 100 Backstroke was fairly horrible. I felt unmotivated and lethargic. I needed food and sleep. I have no idea what I lead it off in, but I touched the wall and saw a 53.26. That's just depressing when my seed time and Lake Orion High School Pool Record is my 49.84. Lets take a moment to realize how far I've fallen off.
53.26 minus 49.84 is 3.42 seconds SLOWER than I was a few months ago.
100 IM SCY: At this point I just wanted to go home. It was an hour drive and a long morning consisting of some ugly swimming (on my part, everybody else looked great). I dove in and somehow finished 100 yards. Looked up and saw a 56.96... OUCH. The results actually list it as a 53.21, which I WISH was the case. The video shows a 56.96 and retiming the video at home verifies it, it was indeed almost a 57 second 100 yard IM.
Today was quite humbling, which is good from time to time. It's difficult to describe how disappointed I am. I'm sure my family will tell me I'm too hard on myself... but lets be realistic. Those were some (by comparison) horrendous times. A few short months ago I was a 49 second 100 backstroker, and now I'm a 53 second backstroker. wow.