Mind over Matter

This past weekend was a milestone in my triathlon training: I participated in a one-mile lake swim in beautiful Virginia.

I had signed up for this race as this was going to be a great practice for the upcoming triathlon in Miami, where the swim will take place in a lake as well. And given that I had learned freestyle just 3 months ago and had no prior experience with lake swims, this was a promising race.

However, it did not quite go as expected. Well, let's say, I knew it was going to be hard, but I had no idea that it was going to be that hard! It turned out to be the toughest race I have ever done so far! Not because it was physically challenging; no, the challenge was all in my mind.

My heart rate went right through the roof from the beginning, and I did not get control over it until I got out of the water. Which was about 45 minutes later... I think now I really know what a panic attack feels like, and it is incredibly hard to overcome it. I was starting to freak out as soon as I started swimming and was convinced that there was absolutely no way I would finish a whole mile. I thought I was going to have to signal the rescuers any time soon to get me out of the water... Don't really know how I actually managed to swim the whole thing. Well, I just converted to breaststroke for quite a significant portion of the race, which is why it took forever...

But I finished and that is what is most important. :) So, now I need to keep on practicing my mental techniques, but I am not yet sure how to attack this issue. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Some fun pictures can be found here: :)

http://www.restonmasters.org/montclair06.html