VDAY SWIM MEET (Resched) - 4 Day Countdown!

We're back on the countdown my first swim meet in over 20 years! For those of you just checking-in from my previous VDAY Swim Meet countdowns, the meet was rescheduled to February 24 because of Blizzard Nemo, which meant I had an extra two weeks to prepare!!!

Last week was quite productive, really felt my strokes, turns, transitions and even my dive-ins to be much more consistent. I was really comfortable and looking forward to this week to truly prepare and gear up for the meet. Well, I came back from Connecticut with asthma and a cold, which turned into bronchial asthma and I haven't been to the pool since last Saturday!

Finally got some much needed drugs - a handy ZPak and Prednisone and I've been trying to nurse myself back into better shape to prepare for Sunday's meet. Well, today is Thursday and it seems like I am on the mend, in the way that all the congestion stuck in my lungs has loosened but I am most definitely not in any shape to go back to the pool today. UGH!

Left - ZPack, Prednisone, inhaler, humidifier and box of tissues
Righ - My swim gear displayed for inspiration, and a reminder I've been out of the water for 5 days!

I
 was IMing with Coach Jonas yesterday, since it seems quite suspicious to not have seen me at the pool all week - but he could see from my FB status updates that I've been sick. He thinks I'm good to go, and his advice is that one week out is all about your mental state and not your physical state. So I've been home trying to visualize my swims - from the dive, each stroke, each transition and turn down to the wall finish. Once in a while, I let my legs hang off the bed and try to practice my breast stroke whip kick... This is all I can do right now. 

I want to say that aside from being sick, this week has been quite busy in other aspects of my life. The career search is busy and I actually have back-to-back interviews today. Things have not been easy in the home front either, simply just a lot of compounded stress. As soon as these interviews are over, I can't wait to just lay in bed and simply rest. So that's my job right now - rest, rest, rest and get better in time for Sunday's meet. 

It's not the ideal situation, since I've really been looking forward to this meet and been trying to prepare as best as I can. But life happens, and I'm sure this is not the first meet I will encounter being sick and the best thing to do is prepare myself mentally... When it comes to swimming sometimes it's just a matter of mind over matter, plus maybe the asthma inhaler and extra steroids might just give me an extra boost - in the legal aspect of performance enhancing drugs... (seriously kidding about the last one!)

On that note, it's back to bed for me for a little while...