Very brief update today as conscious that I waffled on a lot last time I wrote! Today I have some brilliant news. I have regained my positivity and my belief that I am actually capable of succeeding in the challenges I have set myself.
You may have gathered that I've been a bit flat, feeling slow, and filled with self-doubt. Well, as often happens in life, there was a random trigger which caused me to do something about this. I caught the ferry back to Manly from work one night last week (something I never do) to meet a friend for dinner. As we were leaving I thought "It's only 11km from the bridge to the wharf, so let's see how it feels..........". I was horrified as the expanse of water opened up in front of me, and could not help thinking that in only three weeks I would have to swim almost twice this distance. It was a real wake-up call, and I immediately realised I had to do something to prove to myself it would be ok. After all the rain we've been having I was keen to avoid the ocean, so I put together a "pyramid"-style programme (100m, 200m....1000m, 1500m, 2000m, back to 100m) totalling 15km which I could do in a pool. It provided the perfect opportunity to practice my feeding (both fluid and food), and test everything out for the big day at Rottnest.
Everything went brilliantly. After about 5km I relaxed and felt myself getting stronger, and towards the end I was still swimming well and could have happily carried on. Overall it took less than 5 hours, which I think is brilliant. I can't tell you how relieved I was, and now I genuinely feel great about my endurance. I must stop giving myself a hard time for being slow, because when I was in the pool with the general public today I was one of the faster swimmers in the fast lane! It's just Vlad's squad which is filled with super-humans.......testament to him and the other coaches.
Thank you all for your support. Fingers crossed all will be well for rotto. Just need to avoid getting my two year old's tonsillitis......................
You may have gathered that I've been a bit flat, feeling slow, and filled with self-doubt. Well, as often happens in life, there was a random trigger which caused me to do something about this. I caught the ferry back to Manly from work one night last week (something I never do) to meet a friend for dinner. As we were leaving I thought "It's only 11km from the bridge to the wharf, so let's see how it feels..........". I was horrified as the expanse of water opened up in front of me, and could not help thinking that in only three weeks I would have to swim almost twice this distance. It was a real wake-up call, and I immediately realised I had to do something to prove to myself it would be ok. After all the rain we've been having I was keen to avoid the ocean, so I put together a "pyramid"-style programme (100m, 200m....1000m, 1500m, 2000m, back to 100m) totalling 15km which I could do in a pool. It provided the perfect opportunity to practice my feeding (both fluid and food), and test everything out for the big day at Rottnest.
Everything went brilliantly. After about 5km I relaxed and felt myself getting stronger, and towards the end I was still swimming well and could have happily carried on. Overall it took less than 5 hours, which I think is brilliant. I can't tell you how relieved I was, and now I genuinely feel great about my endurance. I must stop giving myself a hard time for being slow, because when I was in the pool with the general public today I was one of the faster swimmers in the fast lane! It's just Vlad's squad which is filled with super-humans.......testament to him and the other coaches.
Thank you all for your support. Fingers crossed all will be well for rotto. Just need to avoid getting my two year old's tonsillitis......................