Believe in yourself....

Its been an awesome start to the week of training, with a recovery swim on Monday morning, then squad on Monday night, and being the only female in the squad at the moment, it was great to try and keep up with the guys, as they are faster and a lot taller than me, always good training with them. It was a great rest day yesterday and that means a lot, as I really don't like doing rest days, but I have come to learn how important they are.

Today was a great 2700m, done as reverse pyramids, which is a 200m warm up rest for 1 minute, then into 600m (50sec rest), 500m (40 sec), 400m (30 sec), 300 (20 sec), 200m (10 sec), 100m (10 sec), 4 x 50m (with 5 second rest between each 50m), cool down of 200m. This is a great swim when you are fatigued already and becomes a mind session, to keep going when you really just want to stop. So when it comes to swimming the Rottnest Channel, I can remember these kinds of sessions and know that even when I am sore and fatigued I have the ability to keep going.

I guess this can be used in everyday life, when you get to the point of feeling like something isn't going right, if you just keep plugging away it will happen. Even during the session this morning remembering why I was in the water and focusing on my stroke technique and breathing, to make sure I was efficient in the water was so important to help reduce the mental fatigue and physical. Everything in life is 90% mental and 10% physical, so it is so important, in my view to make sure you hold a positive attitude, and yes that is easier said that done, and I don't go into a negative at times, but I make sure I can move away from that negative and move to a more positive place in my everyday life, and swimming.

I have seen many a negative person, and the way they dwell on the bad things in their lives, and how that has a ripple affect around them, as others fall into the rippling water...Some people can pull themselves out of that negative hole, but others can't, and for me it is important to be able to walk away from negative people and situations and put myself in a better place.

Have an awesome day...

Hayley xx