check the clock

[sg516]

last night i had one of my group swim practices and we did our usual warm up followed by drills, then the next part is just a 20 minute swim. avoid touching the wall or the bottom of the shallow side and just keep moving for 20 minutes. everyone in my lane is new to this swimming thing so we have a tough time with the 20 minutes nonstop. so i look at my watch and its 8:17 when we start. i didnt look at my watch again since its easier to see the clock they have on the wall at the pool. anyway, we are going for what seems like an eternity and i look up at the clock and it says that we have been going for about ten minutes! so i am like o sh!t i am never going to survive a 1.5k open water swim if i am drained in 10 minutes. so we keep going. i look up after i think about 10 minutes has passed and i see that the clock hasn't moved. i check my watch and we swam for about 35 minutes. now i know that isn't long and it still isnt the distance of the tri event but its nearly twice as long as we were supposed to go and i have to tell you i felt good about having done it. i learned two things. when i don't focus on the length/time/distance and just do it i can go a lot longer than when i am constantly thinking of how much is left to do. and i need to make sure the clock i am using actually works.

[emartin10]

OWS's are a lot easier than you'd think, especially during a race. Your adrennaline is PUMPING and you have a lot of people around you to focus on not getting kicked by. It goes much faster than you'd think. Good luck with it, and don't look at clocks, they are the devil!!

E