I am Über excited. Also Über nervous.
I feel fit, and rested. I love racing at 2pm as I get to sit here in a cafe, nice jog to get the cobwebs out, rock out to some motivating music trying to limit the dancing around the hotel room. Rest up for the race. ;)
I find this blog is a good way to release some nerves. Share my emotions, in which there have been plenty.... At the moment, I am going through too many scenarios. In the advice from Simon, I must go through the race once in my head, set it aside and watch a movie or play a video game. Find a distraction!
My thoughts for the moment are with the swim. I am ranked 8th but due to a 7min late arrival to the race briefing, I will have last pick of a start position. Not the worst thing, just means I will have to have a strong swim start and a good warm up. It does however toy with my fear of "Quicksand." The fear of having one swimmer on my left hip and another on the right. I try to loose them but in my efforts I only burn myself up. This has happened in swim practice but never in a race situation. I over come this by reminding myself that yes, it is a 1500m swim and the race is not decided in the first 400m. 1500m is a long time to acquire strong positioning.
I am not a big UFC(Ultimate Fighting) kind of guy. To be honest, I have a hard time watching it on TV. Maybe it is the blood. I don't get faint or anything but when Im getting my blood tested, I can't watch. Anyway, before most races the movie, "Never Back Down" really does get me excited for either training or racing. It gets me in the mindset that, "Ya...This is my battle", "ya...never back down, never give up," "Im touff." Yes I know I spelt tough wrong. From the book 'The Outsiders' they called themselves, 'Touff' because they felt they weren't the 'Tough' that got in fights but the 'Touff' that had potential, could take a beating and keep coming back for more. Anyway, after watching "Never Back Down" it makes me feel touff and ready to make it a hard race. There is also the lesson of taking 'control of the outcome' and I really like the idea that I have full control over myself as we should. This I feel is super important in not only racing but in life. So I watched it last night while shaving(I know, Ironic. Touff guys shave their legs too!) and I'll watch it before I leave for the course today.
Well those are my thoughts, I am off to mend to my many shaving cuts.... ha ha.
Hope all is well,
Congrats to all the Junior Elite and youth racers yesterday. Very inspiring and makes me excited to perform today.
Ciao for now,
Andrew
From the Never Back Down Soundtrack is this song, 'Above and Below' by The Bravery
No comments:
Post a Comment