I got my sea programme on Friday from my coach. As Lisa Cummins put it "All swims are in the OW - consider your pool membership revoked." Eilis sets the bar high for everyone and as a result has a high success rate. That is fine in theory but the panic that set in when I read my 14week sea programme nearly made me pass out. Thus began the five stages below.
Denial
"She can't honestly expect us to do that"
"You're not the boss of me"
Anger
"It's so unfair!"
"I'm later in the year than the others"
"I bloody well won't do it!"
Bargaining
"Right, if she lets me half the programme, I'll do it."
"I'll do as much as I can"
"I'll do some of it in the wetsuit"
Depression
Right now, I'm going through depression. I am really really down. Dean comes in to find me sitting on the couch with my head in my hands, silently weeping. Okay, that might be a stretch, but seriously I am uber-down. Feeling dejected, not good enough and generally miserable. I am swimming in the OW daily - sometimes twice a day. I am pushing to just before hypothermia each swim. But it just seems overwhelming.
I know, boo hoo, I signed up for this, what else was i expecting, right? But as Captain Webb said "nothing great is easy". I'm not looking for easy, but perhaps something short of insurmountable would be nice?
Acceptance I'm not there yet, but soon I'm sure I will adjust and build my mileage up again, there may even be occasional swims when I am not cold, and hey! That Channel isn't going to swim itself!
yep to all of the above, without the slient weeping of course. I do have some standards after all.
ReplyDeleteI was full of doubts until the day before my swim. Had a terrible session in Dover harbour, shivering after a 2-hour session in 16+ degrees. Now that I think about it I had very few satisfying OW session before the Channel apart from two or three 6-hour swims, the one during Ned's camp with support from 50+ people and a couple other swim quite late in the season. It got much better on The Day! Sending loads of positive vibes from rainy Sweden!
ReplyDeleteWow, the inner demons of a channel swimmer exposed.. You'd never have guessed seeing your chirpy face down sandycove way!
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