Confidence Building

I have been doing a lot of reading and I had a panic attack in the water. This is apparently common in open water swimming and I just need to do a few things differently next time and get more exposure to open water.

But because of that I guess I will just say that I lost a lot of confidence last weekend in that race. I posted at the end of the race report that I am considering dropping down to the sprint rather than the Oly for my next race. My coach disagreed and wants me to do the Oly but I have some serious doubts.

So this week has been pretty standard. With pool swims Monday and today, a bike on Tuesday and a run on Wednesday.

Monday's swim went ok. I CAN still swim, I did prove that to myself. My breathing was still not quite right and the intervals that I would normally have no issues hitting I struggled with today.

Tuesday's bike ride went GREAT! I did a core workout first along with some stretching before heading out into the nice crisp fall air (oh wait, it is June). I was well rested and felt pretty good. I last did this loop ride in October and I took 7 minutes off my time. I didn't go into my small ring at all on the hills either which was a first.

My HR was right where I like it, and my breathing wasn't labored. It is amazing how much better I perform when my HR isn't pegged like it was on Sunday. So it was a great confidence building ride.

My run yesterday started with a 5 mile bike ride to loosen up. Nothing hard, just an easy spin since that worked well in my shakedown ride last week. It turned out to be my longest run to date. First time for 5+ miles, and set a 5k PR! The 5th mile was brutal, it is just a long slow climb. Nothing steep, just always uphill.

I did 2:45/0:45 for the first 3 miles, then about halfway through mile 4 I switched to 2:30/1:00 and used that to the end. But overall I felt great during this run.

Today Coach was out sick for our swim class so I ended up "leading" the class (there were 3 of us regulars). I pulled out a previous workout I had written down and was in my bag. I got the whiteboard and marker, wrote it out and off we went. It was a workout that didn't require anyone to send us off, we were able to do it ourselves.

I had zero motivation this morning to swim. Just one of those morning where I would rather have stayed in bed. But I had a good swim, fast sprints and felt much better than Monday.

So overall this week has been very positive for me.

1. I have proven to myself that I can swim, even if it is in a pool
2. People were impressed that I actually finished the race despite what I went through. I hadn't really given that any thought, but in reality I never felt like quitting.
3. My fitness has improved in the past 8 months quite a bit and I keep proving it to myself.
4. I did a bunch of research and I think I know what set off my panic attack and how I am going to fix it

I am looking forward to trying open water swimming again and proving to myself that I CAN do that too!