"Stress Stage"

Well, the Coach likes to do everything in stages of three weeks. Last week was the third week, so our first stage was over for swimming.
This second stage we're now in he likes to call the "stress stage." "Apart from practically drowning you in the pool, I will work you really hard in dryland."
Dryland ain't too bad. You are given a number, and there's about seven groups. You're randomly grouped together. The very first stage is with the Coach. It's a simple preschool game of "simon says." Only it's hard, since you do pushups, jumping, etc., and if you do anything out of line or wrong, you go back to the end of the line, to try again. Everyone in your group has to be perfect. If you pass that stage, you head over to Ron, who works mostly on legs, running, jumping, etc. After that stage, you work on core. Push-ups, bridges, mountain climbers galore! It is definitely the hardest stage of them all. If you successfully pass that stage, you work on abs. That's pretty hard too, but nothing is hard like push-ups or bridges. If you pass that, you are rewarded by starting all over again.
I've always ended up in the group that actually does well and goes the furthest. Some groups never pass the simon says stage. But both times, my group has to go through it three times! Sometimes I wish we weren't so great, because those other stages are MUCH HARDER than silly simon says.

Anyhow, on to the swimming. Today was our first really "stressful" set. In normal swim practices, you are given a set, you finish the set...wait around for coach to tell you another set to do.
Today, the workout was much different. No rest at all in between intervals, so you have to really listen when you're on the wall.
If you don't leave on time, or if you don't perform as well as they'd like, or if your technique is getting sloppy, you're kicked out from the rest of practice. You're not allowed to linger, get off the deck, and don't come back.
The first few people to get kicked out didn't swim fast enough for the 200 all out.

Later in the workout, we had to use snorkles. I've never used snorkles before. I swallowed so much water, and I started panicking, because I wasn't getting any air. I struggled through that, lasted a couple more sets, but I just could not breathe and was waterlogged.
So when we were told to do 4x25 on :30 all underwater dolphin kick, I died on the first one and got kicked out.
Sorry, but a body has to breathe!

Afterwards, in the locker room (I was one of the last girls to go in), the girls were all stressed and mad that they didn't get very far. "We should go and do dryland to punish ourselves!"
"We should do extra after practice tomorrow"
"STOP SMILING! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE MAD AT OURSELVES!"
"Well, who's going to do dryland with me? We have to show Coach that we want to work hard."
"No, that's stupid!"
Angry glares and stares...

I didn't do the extra dryland. I don't believe that's the point of this stress stage. I know I did my best, I went far as I could, hard as I could. And I will give my best each and every day. Just because I didn't get far as I wanted today doesn't mean I'm going to punish myself. I see it as a foundation. I got this far today. Maybe I'll get a little further next time. I'll keep working at it, and learning, and growing. I gave it my best shot, and that's pretty much the most you can do.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk in there with no regrets, no anger, and work my heart out again. And since I'm supposedly doing this for fun, I am going to smile. Whether you like it or not. Not enough people smile around the pool these days.