Swimming to the surface

Let's be honest.  Swimming is great cross training and provides a non-impactful way of getting a work out in on a daily basis.  But who am I kidding, I'm not a swimmer.  I was raised around a pool, but playing mermaids and horsing around was the extent of my swimming.  To be able to swim endless laps without gasping for air, is a gift!  When I do practice and incorporate swimming into my routine, I'd have to admit that I do go from horrible to decent, to a point where I'm not scared of the swim section of a triathlon.  I used to tell myself, "just get through it", just survive.  What lies ahead is where your strength is and I can finish strong.

Too many times do I look at life events this way.  Just get through it, why is God testing me, what is the purpose of this trial.  So many doubts and chatter have threatened to drown me.  Fears and failures have sunk me to the bottom.  But what if those moments were to make me more faithful, more knowledgeable?  

As I am reading, Crash the Chatterbox, by Steven Furtick, I am realizing that the negative chatter can drown us all.  He says, "Instead of trying to avoid your what-ifs, you can dive headfirst into them.  Because you know what you're going to find every time: the faithfulness of God."

Countering these negative thoughts can always be applied to running & training.  If I could have a dollar for the times that I walked and/or gave up because of negative thoughts, I would be a millionaire!  I think it's ok to have an "off" day, but it shouldn't run your life and/or your training.  I believe that stress, anxiety, and negativity can change how your body functions.  I will openly admit through experience that dealing with anxiety can paralyze how your body performs.  You don't have to be a head-case forever.

I had the pleasure of being a Graduate Assistant to Cindra S. Kamphoff, Ph.D., director of the Center for Sport and Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University.  In, Train Your Brain To Run Your Best, she says that: 

In sport, fatigue is highly subjective. The brain processes physical cues (chemical and electrical signals from the muscles) and environmental information (how we expect to feel) and concludes, Hey, we're done here. But years of research shows that the mind can override the body—that fatigue, more often than not, is a product of perception rather than true physiological depletion. "Fatigue is simply a sign that you need to put your mind on something positive." 

The subject in the article uses mental training to overcome being a head-case.  She stated: 

 I quickly came to love mental training. All the positivity—or at least the lack of negativity—proved seductive and I hungered for it. I started using form cues on every run. Awareness built. One morning while ruminating on all I'd rather do than run, I pictured the golden mountains I'd see on the trail. By the time I was out the door, I felt like running.

The lesson of today is this: just keep swimming.  No matter what, we WILL have a bad day/a bad race.  But if we use proper training, in our minds and in our faith, we will be prepared for the negative chatter that we all experience.  Even if we experience fear and pain Steven Furtick says, God will...

• protect me
• restore my joy
• give me peace that passes understanding
• put me back together
• open my eyes to new opportunities
• catch me
• hear my cry
• cover me
• draw me close