Subject: RE: My first OWS was the scariest thing I have ever done you got back in the water and finished the swim, so you overcame your fear at least once! Good job.
Treat each OWS race differently. No one race has been the same for me, no matter where I start in the pack and how many people start with me. I've started with 20 others and came out of the water with a swollen foot, scratches, and having swallowed more water from being pushed under than ever in my life. But I've also had races where I've started with an AG of 60 others, smack in the middle of all of them, and never had an issue. You can't psych yourself out and have a panic attack before every race moving fwd just because of what happened at one race. Take it one at a time.
I also began to take inventory of where my AG'ers like to start....for me personally, I noticed a lot of them crowd to the right front before the start so they can hug the buoy line. This gets the group all tangled up in each other. I've gotten stuck in that mess once and feared I wouldn't come out alive, but I just kept sighting my buoy, skipped to every other stroke for a breath (to prevent me from choking on water ) and counted out sprint sets 10 strokes on-5 strokes off so I can speed up out of the pile up of women.
It takes time. Stick with it, keep practicing OWS and don't get discouraged. |