What I am trying to say is that swimmers require a special mental approach which I call 'switch on, switch off concentration'. This means you have to switch your concentration on for a race, but once the race is over you must switch it off again. Switch on, switch off. Then when it's time to swim another race, you do this all over again. Let me explain how to do this. Before a race, you have to 'focus' upon it, to get yourself into the right mental state to swim well. But here's the part that most people don't know. Once the race is over, you must mentally switch yourself off and detach from the race (regardless of how you went in the heat swim).
You see, if you think about that last swim all day before your next race, you are going to be mentally exhausted by the time you get there! Believe it or not, your mind does not like to think about the same thing all day long, it wants some variety! So if you're worrying all day about a heat swim that didn't go so well, you're not going to be in your best shape for the heat that night, in fact, you're going to be feeling very tired for that race. Why? Because if your mind controls your body, then it makes sense that when your mind gets tired, then your body is going to feel tired as well!
So if you want to have lots of energy, then you need to rest your mind (as well as your body). A rested mind makes the body feel rested, too. So the best thing to do after you've 'switched yourself on' for a race, is to switch off and forget about it for a while. Once the race is over, have some fun. Chat to some friends or your family, watch some of your friend's races, read a book, talk to your coach, have a laugh, go outside for a while........ just think about other things for a while to recharge your batteries for your next race. Then as your next race approaches, you take some time to begin 'switching on' - visualizing the race you want to swim, talking positively to yourself.....then you go out there feeling mentally and physically refreshed, recharged, rejuvenated and ready to blow them out of the water!
Don't get me wrong, however, if you swim a fabulous heat in the morning, ENJOY it for a while! Think about how great you were, how brilliant you feel, how great everyone thinks you are, how those poor unsuspecting swimmers never had a chance against you....... but then, switch off. You can always come back and think about it again later, and there's the rest of your life to look back on that fabulous achievement. But don't just think about the race all day, or you will get tired. This is the approach to take when you have long days at the pool - switch on, switch off, and it's the way to stay 'tough' mentally and physically for every single race throughout the meet. Try it. If you take care of your mind, it will take care of your body.