Until the referee rings the bell
Until both your eyes start to swell
Until the crowd goes home
What we gonna do ya'll?
Give em hell, turn their heads
Gonna live life 'til we're dead.
Give me scars, give me pain
Then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me
There goes the fighter, there goes the fighter
Here comes the fighter
That's what they'll say to me, say to me, say to me,
This one's a fighter ~
"The Fighter"
(feat. Ryan Tedder)
I love this song…and the ladies I swam with today, well, here comes the fighters. I went out to act as “swim angel” to my friend, Misty, who is doing her first Iron Girl Tri Relay – she is doing the swim – and she was not feeling it at all. Two other ladies that are doing Iron Girl showed up and both were a bit skittish.
Understandable. Open Water Swimming can/will render the strongest of us into basket cases. Its can be daunting. However, what I’ve found is that it is one of the biggest mind games on the planet and the very minute you let negative or self defeating thoughts creep in - the race/the swim is OVER. Your done.
My goal today was to give the ladies a few “coping” skills. Things they could do when they got scared, tired, or just plain freaked out. Going out, I decided to just see what they could do, what they were doing and keep everyone calm enough to get the 500yrds to the beach. And we had the “jellyfish” challenge to contend with.
So, one of the ladies had a jelly brush up against her and it was all like “OMG!!! What is that! Why does it sting. WHY DOES IT STING!.” I swam over to her, had her flip over on her back and said “It’s over. It’s the past. YOU ARE OKAY! Calm down. Give me 10 slow deep breaths and then I want you to drill – let’s do a glide drill.” AND SHE DID.
Everybody got to the beach! And they were amazed that they could. I wasn’t. Watching them, I knew they had it in them, they just need to stay calm. GET OUT OF THE WATER BY ANY STROKE NECESSARY!! And they did.
Here swims the fighter! What ya gonna do, What ya gonna do? GIVE EM HELL!
At the beach, we discussed our stroke and we agreed to freestyle the entire way back by DRILLING our way back. DRILL BABY DRILL. Fingertip drill all the way. Repeat after me…Elbow up, drag fingers, hand in chute, GLIDE. AGAIN. Elbow, drag, chute, glide. AGAIN. Say it in your head over and over. You won’t have time to think about jelly’s or tired or I can’t or how far. DRILL BABY DRILL
And everyone got back to the dock 2-4 min faster than on the way out. THERE WENT SOME FIGHTERS.
They are gonna rock Iron Girl. ROCK IT! GIVE ‘EM HELL, Ladies!
