7 weeks in & I need ideas to calm down in the pool

This week didn’t go as planned! (How often will I be saying that??!)

Sunday – Half hour swim. = 1/2 hour

Monday – Went with my Mom to her post-op appointment in the afternoon (everything is healing well!), so I started my morning early! Did a trifecta class at 6am. There, you do 3 rounds (tri) of about 10 exercises, doing them in 60-second intervals, back-to-back-to-back. You’re consistently moving to different muscle groups, but you’re consistently moving! It was a jam packed 45 minutes. Then ran 5 miles easy. = 1.5 hours

Tuesday – Half hour swim session with my friend Christine. She’s a great swimmer. She said I wasn’t as bad as I made it sound! So, that’s something! Then, a half hour later I was in the cycle class. Phew, felt tired from the very beginning of the class. Yet, I was able to keep a good effort going throughout the 45-minute class. It was my first time going from swim to cycle. It took a bit to get my cycling legs under me, but then they kept going! = 1.25 hours

Wednesday – Off.

Thursday – Off. Didn’t plan for this day to be off. I was traveling and had planned 1.25 hours in the fitness center doing about 45 minutes of strength and 45 minutes of running. I slept badly (which is rare) and when I woke up to exercise, I had a mild headache – so I bagged it and went back to bed.

Friday – Didn’t want to miss my second swim session. So, I did a half hour of swimming. I’ve decided that I’m completely psyching myself out. Every time I’m winded after swimming one length of the pool, I’m telling myself that I have to do 150 times that and get myself panicked. I need some tactics to stay cool and calm in the pool. Here’s what I’m thinking:

Find out how long the swim is for the first tri that I’ll do. Then, focus on working up to that. Don’t worry about the final end game right now.
See if I can get some milestone dates from my swim instructor or Ironman athletes that have gone before me. Where should I be at 10 months out, 6 months out, etc.? (I’ll send my swim instructor an email tonight!)
Remind myself that I’m often winded when I’m running and I don’t consider that a problem!
Other ideas for me??! I’m open to them.

Then, later in the day I did a 9 mile run. It was to be a medium effort. It felt good to get out and run a little longer. I enjoyed it. I was running into the wind in the first half (that doesn’t usually happen, usually I run into the wind northbound on the way back). I averaged 9:28. Felt really great about that effort. Was SORE Friday night from these efforts. That feels good too. Usually I feel sore from strength workouts. It’s nice to be able to do a variety of sports and work different muscles. = 2 hours

Saturday – Cycle class. Sore muscles continue! = 1 hour

TOTAL = 6.25 hours