My coach was at the pool yesterday morning when I showed up
for my swim. We chatted for a couple
minutes and then he went back to focusing on his client and I started my
workout. Later that day I got the
following email from him:
“BTW, your form looked good in the water today!”
My reply:
“Thanks... It didn't feel like it was good. I don't
know what I expect - I am having a hard time accepting that anything I do in
the water is right/good.”
I regretted this reply as soon as I sent it.
I met Matt about a year ago and he has coached me in both
group and individual sessions. So I
think he knows me pretty well, and I know him pretty well. He is always straight with me and can
sometimes be pretty blunt and I like that!
He doesn’t hand out compliments easily and when he gives a compliment,
he means it!
So, my response should have been: “Thanks!”
And I should have accepted it and more importantly BELIEVED it! In every other
aspect of my training, I do accept and appreciate his compliments but, when it
comes to swimming I have a mental block for some reason (and I think I figured
out why – keep reading).
The other part of my response in that email that really
bugged me after sending it was the “I don’t know what I expect…”. WHAT???
How can I not know what I expect, I can’t wander around aimlessly. So I spent the evening and a sleepless night
trying to figure out what I expect. The
truth is I do know what I expect – I just needed to admit it.
So here it is: In the
back of my mind I have this goal of wanting to finish the Ironman swim in 1
hour 40-45 minutes. Based on where I am
right now with my swimming, this is a completely unrealistic goal so after
every swim workout I come away with “It’s not good enough”, “I’m not fast
enough”, “I’m not getting any better” and I am frustrated and a bit down.
The Ironman swim time cutoff is 2 hours 20 minutes. I do believe that I can complete the swim in
this amount of time barring any equipment malfunctions or physical problems. But, I also believe that if it takes me that
long to finish the swim I will miss either a bike cutoff or run cutoff time at
some point in the day, and then not be able to finish the race. So, for whatever reason I set this 1:40-1:45
swim time goal giving me a 35-40 minute cushion for the rest of the race. I really don’t have any basis for wanting
this time but, it’s there and now that I have admitted it what should I do???
Should I set a more realistic swim time goal which would
probably make my swim workouts more acceptable and less frustrating. But, then will I have enough cushion for the
other parts of the race?
Or
Do I stick with my unrealistic time goal and continue to
work my butt off trying to achieve it, while at the same time mentally beating
myself up over not being fast enough or good enough?
I don’t have an answer for myself yet.
Do you have any insights into this?
Do you set unrealistic goals for yourself?
You are awesome Chris! Here is my two cents worth...Don't change your ironman goal, at least not yet. Divide the improvement you need to see into 4 or 5 parts and assign deadlines to each increment. When you swim, focus on the short term goal.Then you will have several successes over the course of training and can appreciate all your improvement. It may help you with some of the negative self talk and week help you see stay progress. Just a thought! You got this,Chris!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas. Thanks Jodie!
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about your swimming but 1:45 is a very reasonable Ironman swim time goal. I am not a swimmer and my first Ironman time was 1:28. Just keep working on it. Do you know your time for 100 yards or meters at an easy pace? That should be a good way to evaluate if this is a reasonable goal. I set unrealistic goals for myself all the time. Sometimes I meet them and sometimes not so much. But we have to have something to work towards, right?
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy - I will have to go look up my 100m time (don't know it off the top of my head).
DeleteBuild your endurance and don't worry so much about speed. I am not a fast pool swimmer but I can go for a long time. Focus on long gliding strokes and finding a comfortable rhythm and you may find your goal becomes more achievable. Good to have both stretch goals and then mini "milestones" so you can keep focused on the long term goal but also celebrate success along the way. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelli, I appreciate the advice!
DeleteThe swim is something that will take time to work on. I was an ok swimmer when I started doing triathlon but I've improved immensely by 1) swimming with others and 2) having someone video tape my stroke and tell me what I was doing wrong and show me how to correct it. It's always a work in progress.
ReplyDeleteSwimming is a big learning curve for most people. I would suggest sticking to your existing time goal, but to give yourself a "B" goal as well, in case as your IM gets closer, if you know you won't make the first goal time you won't be disappointed having to fall back on a secondary goal.
ReplyDeleteI set unrealistic goals all the time. If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough. But I know that sometimes I will reach them, and sometimes I won't. So what? It's not the destination that matters, its the journey there. What IM are you doing? If it's a river, the current may help. If it's the ocean, it might be harder than a pool. Practice if you can on the open water so you know what you can do out there. And finally ... I'm not a coach, but if swimming is not your thing and you know you will be ok with the cut off, then maintain your swim but instead of worrying abt taking off minutes of your swim, focus on getting faster on the bike so you dont miss those cut off times there. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI obsess over segment times too and what I hope/think my swim/bike/run will be. And I want to get faster at the swim and I feel like I know a few things I need to do to get there. It's so hard to wait and have patience as the pieces of the puzzle/technique come together. Good luck with it!!!
ReplyDelete