So I'm taking a swim class that starts next week, it’s intermediate swim and I could swim to survive but that’s about it haha. So Kenady was kind and taught me the different strokes this morning so that I can at least know something going in. Didn’t spend much time on back, breast or free because I had those mostly down, just need to work on the breathing. Spent the rest of the time trying to learn butterfly, it’s freaking hard. I sort of had it by the end, I was just exhausted so I could only do like 5 strokes at a time. I’ll probably attempt it again sometime this weekend and see if I can do it better when I’m not so dead.
I went through the graphs of my mileage to see how much I really have done in the past few years and I was surprised. I didn’t really believe coach until I looked at the graphs, cause I was like pfft I ran high miles in high school and was fine! But back then I wasn’t always at 80 miles and my miles were slow, now they’re faster and I’m much more consistent with mileage. And my body has changed a lot. But yeah. Coach is right yet again. When I push my miles and start believing I’m only going to be fast with those high miles I get injured.
I think my problem with running has been that I haven’t 100% trusted in the program or the coaches. It’s been more like 80%. There’s still been a part of me that has doubted whether or not this would really work for me and wants to start pulling in things from my training in high school, mainly the higher miles. But I think I’m ready to let go of that once and for all and start trusting more in Coach and Paul. As I think about it, I have gone along with things and done everything they have asked, but there’s always been a nagging part of me that’s thought, what if this doesn’t help me? How am I going to improve? But I’m surprised when I learn the thought process behind it. For example, here I am wondering how the heck I’m going to improve enough to move into the other group when my group is only doing half of the workouts. I didn’t like the separation, I don’t like feeling inferior to the other group. But then I remind myself that Coach didn’t just put me in this group, it was a mutual decision. I knew I wasn’t ready to jump into intense training right at the beginning of the semester. I needed to come back slower so I didn’t reinjure myself. And it gives us an opportunity to be coached more individually. But now that I’m able to do the workouts and be confident about finishing and Im starting to maintain paces, I’ve started looking at how I’m going to progress to completing the whole workout, if we just do half of the other group’s then I’m never going to get faster or eventually be in the other group. I was surprised when I asked Paul about it yesterday and he’d already been thinking along those lines and already has a plan, he’s still refining a few things but was on the same page. I guess I’m just starting to trust more in Paul and Coach, and am finally starting to let go of what I thought I knew and just trust that Coach and Paul are going to help me get to where I want to be. And I don’t have to worry about doing things wrong because they’re always thinking a couple steps ahead of me when it comes to training. So, from now on, I’m going to stop comparing everything we do now to what I did in high school. It’s never going to be the same, the training we do now is a step up from that, and is so much more successful than the training I did in high school. I guess I’ve tried so hard to be independent of a coach because I realized after high school that I’m not always going to have one, and because of some things that happened I wanted to prove to myself that I didn’t need a coach. Which is dumb because I have two amazing ones here trying to help me.
Both of our teams this year have a shot of going to Nationals. That’s never happened before. And I know the girls, I know where they used to be and where they are now. Coach has a knack for seeing potential in people that others can’t, and I think maybe he sees something in me too.
50% today, dikes + canyon. 7:43 average
HR 52
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