However, I wasn't thinking about the GREAT 80's. When the song came on, it reminded me of a friend. We used to have a joke. For the life of me, I can't remember what the joke was or why I always chuckle when the song comes on, but I do. This song will probably remind me of him for the rest of my life. I'm pretty sure the joke is perverted and has something to do with swimming ahem the breast stroke.
If it makes me smile in the middle of my day, that's a good thing.
In other news, I'm OFFICIAL. My shirt and swim caps came in today.
At the beginning of this post, I said that I had a great day of workouts.
Yet, my swim was really jacked up today. In fact, it was so bad that my Coach came over to me at the end and the conversation went like this.
Coach: Tea, how'd you feel today?
Me: A little bit like a mess.
Coach: You looked a little bit like a mess. Do you know what you were doing wrong or why it felt like that?
Me: I was all jacked up. I was moving my arms too fast. I wasn't pulling deep enough. My pacing was entirely off. I started one interval way too fast. The next, I started too slow.
Coach: You're exactly right. Everything you said is what you were doing wrong. The good thing is that you can try out stuff at practice and see what works. It doesn't work, and you can sit on the wall for a second to figure it out. In a race, you don't have that luxury. Intentional or not. It was a good day for you.
I didn't intentionally try anything new. I was just jacked up. Nothing was going right. My swim which normally feels fluid and efficient, felt choppy and well, like a mess.
But what he said is absolutely true. I've recently been "finding" my own stroke. Today was a good way for me to see that a fast turnover just doesn't work for me.
Why did I swim like that? I don't know. Sometimes we just have off days.
I think it's really important to pay attention to those bad days. Don't just throw them out and say, "Meh. It just sucked today."
Find out what you did wrong. That's how we become better athletes. Like Coach said: we have the luxury to screw up in training. We can take a break and figure out what's going on. In a race, we don't have that luxury.
Those bad days can become some of our best training days.
Oh, and I just remembered the joke. heh heh heh.