Patience

When I think patience, I think of the kids who I teach who test me. I think of the kids, in and out of the pool, who bring a huge smile to my face for learning and doing better. I think of the amount of patience I must have to continue to teach the little ones, after nearly ten years, how to swim even though it's hard. Now, this patience, doesn't carry over to every aspect of my life and I'm not afraid to admit that. It's something I continue to grow and be challenged with but everyone has struggles.

Although I have been a competitive swimmer my whole life, patience isn't something that came easily in my career. For example, the 200 freestyle. I began swimming this event my sophomore year of high school and the first time I ever swam it was a 2:10. Pretty bad, but within that year, I made my way to a 2:00:00. Junior year of high school: 2:00:00. Senior year of high school: 2:00:00. Freshman thru half of senior year: 2:00:00. Now, when I continuously saw those numbers up on the scoreboard, I was frustrated beyond belief. I was training harder, stronger, faster, further than I had ever done in the past and I couldn't break that barrier. I became everything but patient. I was agitated that no matter how much work I put in, I couldn't break it. I was frustrated that my body couldn't bring home that last 50. I was unwilling to think of the race in any other way than what I had in the past. And what do all of these things cultivate? Impatience. The frustration, the agitation, the unwillingness led to tears after tears of disappointment when I touched the wall, looked up and saw another stupid 2 followed by four zeros.

Could I have really been that unlucky, or did I just lack the patience of the sport to develop into the swimmer my coach always knew I could be? Maybe it was a little of both, but when conferences came around, my coach put me as the anchor on the 800 free relay. I'd never been the anchor, because the anchor is for your best swimmer. The swimmer who can bring victory home. I was always number two or number three...the weakest of the relay but still a solid swimmer. Knowing that my coach, and me team believed in me, believed that I could bring a W home for the team was the biggest confidence booster ever. It made me realize that this race had become such a mental game. I lacked the patience to grow and alter my mind into believing I could break that barrier. Instead, I believed I was a 2:00:00 swimmer. I stepped up on the block and knew I had a three second lead over our rivals, the sure winner of conferences that year and I thought about my journey in this event. Patience. Having patience both mentally and physically will lead to success. I not only dropped five seconds in that race, I also touched out the swimmer next to me, giving us our first win of conferences, and leading to our tenth consecutive MIAA Conference Championship win.

The 200 free remains a great example in my life of how I have to trust the process and have patience that things will improve and be great. Which makes this next part quite ironic. I don't know how Dan puts up with me sometimes, but I am so thankful he does. That man must have patience built up like titanium because I challenge him and I put up a fight and I don't have patience in seeing the end product which he is all about. I'm part self taught, part coached and part observed from my sister in the world of triathlon. I haven't ever had the 100% guidance of a coach and people don't realize that.

A lot of people think I have been in the sport for a long time. The truth: I've been around the sport for a long time. This season was supposed to be my FIRST EVER Olympic distance triathlon. Heck, it was going to be my first ever over sprint distance triathlon. I've been a swimmer my whole life, I went on endurance rides with my dad during the weekends and I barely made it through running. I coached my sister through transitions, panicked in open water and dreaded the run. I've seen so many races and having seen that has amplified my want and my drive to be a triathlete. I'm driven and I'm a competitor and I want to be be great, which tests my patience.

Dan asks me to leave my pride at the door before I go out and do workouts. I'm used to running 7:15-8:00 minute/mile and used to riding 18-21mph, but Dan's process isn't about those numbers. It's about the numbers of your heart and creating those zones and following them to a T. It's so so so hard to slow down and run so much slower than I would like but Dan knows his stuff. I wasn't very good at slow running and Dan let me know in a way that made me understand it real quick and I'm trying very hard now. It's hard to switch from one view to a totally different view of how to train but I know that I have to trust the process and have patience in getting better. Coming off an injury and a great aqua bike season are two conflicting things. I want to train hard to be better than I was this season, but I can't push too hard to re-injure myself. Patience, Margaret, things will pick up and get better. When when you're training 27 hours a week, you may wish you were in this stage again.

Dan tells me leave my pride, trust the process, do the workouts and you'll see results. It's all about having patience. I'm optimistic that my patience will grow and I'll see those results this season. As the words of Dan: "A little less, Giddy Up!"