The same sequence every race — built so a swimmer who gets excited on the blocks steps up calm and locked into her race plan, instead of blowing out the first half chasing.
Suit, cap, goggles and a spare, towels, water, and food packed. A real dinner, in bed early. One sentence about tomorrow, then let it go.
Real food and steady fueling — distance swimming burns a lot and the day is long. Keep her calm; a distance race is a patience game, and it starts on the deck.
Warm-up (before her event)
- A proper pool warm-up — never race a distance event cold.
- Some pace work to feel controlled speed.
- A few sharp turns and underwaters, and a race-pace effort or two.
Timed so she's warm and race-ready near her event, not hours before.
Pick one thing to carry to the blocks — this season it's usually go out controlled or sharp walls. One cue is a reminder; five is a lecture that gets in her head.
A breath, and a single thought: her race plan. The whole point is to leave the blocks committed to going out controlled, not chasing whoever sprints the first 50.
After a bad swim, the cue is short: "My race, next one." Her engine handles the swimming — the routine's job is to keep a bad swim or a rival's fast time from making her abandon her plan.
Why the sameness matters: Maya gets excited and goes out too fast when a race feels big or someone's ahead. A routine she's run a hundred times keeps her locked into her plan, so a championship final feels like an ordinary pace set. That's the edge.
