Day 9: My Magic Words

9 Days until Nationals! 

I've flip-flopped a lot this season with motivation. I had a really rough first semester and was often forced to put swimming low on my priority list. That was a huge struggle for me because swimming is my exercise outlet, my escape, and a huge part of my world. 

As I've fought to clear my head before Nationals, I drew inspiration from a few SwimSwam articles. One of my favorites details the truths of being a fast swimmer. This article was a huge mental re-adjustment for me.  

It talks about how each swimmer will get different results from the exact same training. I've been really anxious about being properly tapered for Nationals so this one really hit home. Some of my teammates have their taper down to a science over the years. Honestly, I don't know if I've ever properly tapered in my swim career. Reading this helped me understand that the perfect taper doesn't work for everyone. What is a foolproof method for one of my teammates might have the opposite effect on my races and that's okay. 

The article goes onto to talk about how the fastest swimmers are the ones who consistently work and never give up on their training. I think swimming is unique in the intensity of training required for success. I often get frazzled when I have an off-day at practice. Whether it's something about my stroke that doesn't feel quite right or I'm just plain exhausted, I easily get worked up that I'm doing something wrong. 

From this article, I developed a motto with two magic words: Consistency, Resilience. 

I've actually written these words out to hang them over my door. They serve as a constant reminder that a bad practice doesn't mean I'm destined for a bad season. They encourage me to push forward with my training even when I'm starting to lose sight of my goals. The best swimmers are the ones that are always show up for practice and work. 

I've been saying those words to myself quite often in the days leading up to Nationals and it's been working. I'm keeping my focus on my goal of a top 3 finish, and I've been doing what's necessary to get there even if it means early practice or extra stretching to take care of my body. I'm staying resilient with my training despite my still-sprained ankle. I'm consistently working in and outside of the pool to prepare for Nationals. My motto is working and I feel better about competing each day. 

Count down to Nationals: 10 Days

We leave for Nationals in 10 days! 

I've decided to celebrate the 10 day countdown by posting something to help me get pumped up for ECCs each day. It'll vary between topics like taper strategies, getting psyched, goal setting, tech suits, etc. I also plan on having my teammate and absolute favorite freshman Josh help me with the countdown. He may be one of the only humans I've met who loves swimming as much as I do. 

Day 10: Pump up Playlist

I am a huge mental swimmer. Forgetting headphones at a meet is a death wish for me. Music helps me focus and psych up for sprint races. 

I typically make a new playlist for all my big meets i.e. the MUSC home invitational and ECC Nationals. I prefer loud music with a fast pace. I go through phases with artists, and right now I'm on a Kanye West/Jay Z/Childish Gambino kick. 

Ultimately my meet playlists are a huge jumble of music. I've got anything between 90s rap, Latin pop and top 40 jams. At the end of the day, I'll listen to whatever gets me psyched the most. 

So here's a rough draft of my ECC Nationals Playlist for 2015. The songs are in no particular order because I'll listen to them on Spotify which makes me shuffle them anyways. I'm also a huge swimming geek and name each of my meet playlists after a goal time I want for the meet/season. It's an extra reminder to keep me focused on my goals. 

******warning there are probably bad words/strong language in almost all of these songs. Listen at your own risk. If you can't handle a few four letter words, you probably shouldn't click on any of the songs**********

ECCs Playlist 2015: 24.8

I'm sure I'll add more in the next few days. You can follow along with my musical journey on Spotify as I add more and more pump up jams.

Have a suggestion for my pump-up playlist? Tweet me @katiegrunik and I'll add it to my playlist! 

Nationals Preparations

We're officially less than two weeks away from ECC Nationals! I am BEYOND excited to compete this year.

Here's my checklist of things I've done so far to help me prep my mind/body for competition:

• I ordered my tech suit. Mine is black/sapphire. My teammate Josh, or as we call him Shoes, works at a swim store and is bringing it back for me from spring break. It's bad ass and beautiful and I cannot wait to compete in it. 
• I made a master spreadsheet of my times so far this season. I broke most of my races down by 25 times. I've been able to analyze my splits and fine-tune my sprinting. 10/10 would recommend. 
• I had a fantastic last meet of the season at the University of Illinois. While I didn't PR, I held some times that I haven't been able to be consistent with all season. It went exactly how I wanted my last meet before ECCs to go. 
• I changed my laptop background to a celebratory photo of the women's medley from the 2012 London Olympics. Nothing is more motivating than the look of pure joy on a swimmer's face after a race. 

Things I didn't plan to do before ECCs, but they happened anyways: I sprained my right ankle. 

I am so unsuited for land that walking is what took out my ankle. Instead of focused training over spring break, I spent my time icing my ankle and pulling. I'm still recovering, but I did finally swim a full practice yesterday. 

Unfortunately, I am too competitive to stop swimming, especially this close to nationals. Swollen ankle or not, I will be on that block in my tech suit, ready to take on my races. I'm out for an individual medal this time around, and I will not be stopped on my quest to the podium. 

Here's a throwback to our 4x200 free relay (I'm the one actually swimming in this)

And here's our 4x50 free relay standing on the podium with our second place medals.

U of I meet

On the way to our last meet before nationals! We're heading to University of Illinois this weekend.

This is my last meet to gage where I'm at before heading to Atlanta. We have a really big group traveling this weekend so it should be a lot of fun. I'll post some meet results when I get back. 

Required car selfie to start off the adventure:

Loving my sport

This week, my friend Bia made a microdocumetary about me as a swimmer. It was so much fun to make, and she did a fantastic job! You can view it here: https://vimeo.com/121246230

While interviewing me for the micro doc, Bia simply asked me to talk about swimming. I started to share with her how important my team is to me, but she stopped me. She asked me to talk about the sport--about racing and practice and how it feels to be underwater. I then realized that I've been forgetting about why I love the actual sport of swimming.

If you sit down and explain a swim practice to someone, they'll think you're crazy. Why would a team of 30 or so college kids want to stare at a black line for a hour every day? They will all say more or less the same thing: it's impossible to quit. Despite how mental my sport is, I would be lost without it.

Swimming is all about goal-oriented discipline. You train the same four strokes for the whole season (Or in my case just one because I'm a specializer) in order to drop a fraction of a second. Whether your goals are Olympic trials or being able to complete a hard set at practice, it's important to keep them at the forefront of your training. If you train without your goals in mind, this sport can be miserable.

While talking to Bia, she asked me specifically what it feels like to get in the water for practice. I don't think I've ever stopped to think about that feeling. It's the feeling of everything from your day being washed away. I love those few seconds when I'm underwater. No sounds. No worries. Just me suspended in the cool chlorine.

And then the hard work starts. Your heart pounds while you try to make the interval. Since I've been a part of MUSC, I've taken to training next to the boys, which means I'm pushing myself even more. By no means am I fast enough to keep up with them. They hold a faster pace than me, but it motivates me to work harder.

Nothing compares to the feeling of getting out after a hard practice. Your body aches but in a good way. And of course, you can go home and eat to replenish all the calories you just lost.

I love swimming. I love everything about this sport. It's my escape from the world on a bad day. It's my workout to stay in shape. It's my competitive outlet. It's how I met my best friend. It's where I go to see my swamily (swim+family) at every practice. It makes me smile from ear-to-ear to think about how blessed I am to be a swimmer.

So now I have Bia's video bookmarked, along with many other inspiring swim videos, to help me when I'm out of motivation. I listen to my own words in that video and know that no matter what, the pool will always be there for me whenever I need it.