talk to me about swimming under stress
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Ok, so I got a faceful of what it's like to be spazzed out on adrenaline and try to swim at the same time yesterday. Very hard. To give an idea of how I react, I started sleeping poorly 2 nights before, and started losing my appetite the night before. I don't use a HR monitor, but my pulse was high the whole morning, and from 2 hours before the race and throughout it all my mouth felt parched, even though I'd been drinking steadily. All this for a race which is supposed to be short and fun, where I was a first-timer and had no pressure whatsoever.
Anyway - I ended up panting uncontrollably at the start of the swim and had to keep my head above water for 400 metres. Any time I tried to put my head under I got a really strong gasp reflex. For the final 350 metres I finally managed to swim properly, and started passing people.
How should I go about curbing this? I know everyone has nerves and beginners always fear the swim, but I've never in my life felt so out of it when swimming. I'm not expecting to become a good swimmer overnight, but it is annoying to not even be able to swim the stroke I actually can swim. And practicing under non-race conditions just doesn't give me that adrenaline hike I struggled with. A good warm-up in the water should help, but there was a pre-race meeting right before so I didn't think I had the time.
Winter riding is much less about badassery and much more about bundle-uppery. - malkin
1995 Kona Cinder Cone commuterFrankenbike/Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow
2008 white Nakamura Summit Custom mtb/Terry Falcon X
2000 Schwinn Fastback Comp road bike/Specialized Jett