The Comparison Trap and the Next Step

I may have overstretched myself doing that two and a half miles.   My shoulders were hurting for several days and I wasn't feeling too great.

That kinda scared me.  I have some ambitious swims I'd really like to do, and the idea that a piddly little two and a half mile swim set me back scared me for what I'd like to accomplish.

Here's the reality:

I got back into swimming seriously in October and it's now the beginning of April.  On top of that, it wasn't like I was getting back into swimming with a base of having been diligent about working out to support me.  Oh, no..

I hadn't really been working out seriously for two years.   The reality is that going from nothing at all for a couple of years to being able to swim two and a half miles in a span of six months is actually just fine.

The only reason it doesn't look fine is because I am comparing myself to world-class athletes.  I'm looking at my progress and comparing it to English Channel swimmers, for God's sake.  At my level, it's kinda dumb.

I need to stop thinking about the big events and stuff I want to do and concentrate on the ones I have scheduled next.  What I have scheduled next is a two mile open water swim.  The two mile part, I've got down pat.  What I need to start looking at is getting in the open water experience, and even that's got a few weeks before I need to worry too much about it. It's April, I live in Northern New England. I ain't puttin' a damn toe in open water until May 1, and I'm getting my husband to read the hypothermia chapter from Open Water Swimming Manual before then so that he knows what to do if I get myself in trouble. (Of course, I've already read it.  I'm gonna re-read it, too!)

What I need to do now is just keep swimming six days a week, stop filling my head with nonsense I'm not ready for yet, and get ready for what I have planned.  The only way to get there is to concentrate on the next step, anyway.