Some really good advice

I had a terrible swim on Tuesday morning. My back and neck were sore from learning how to water ski on Monday, but I still should have been able to handle the swim. The workout wasn't hard. But regardless, my stroke sucked, I was hitting 21-22 strokes per length, and I need to be around 17-18. I couldn't hit the times, I didn't even have the energy to flip turn, I was short of breath...I was a mess.
Maybe I was too sore, maybe I didn't realize how much the 126mi bike ride affected me? I don't know. I do know that I was depressed and totally unmotivated. The rest of that day I sat around the house watching mindless television. It was bad. During this momentary lapse of pathetic-ness I emailed my swim coach to ask how I should deal with days like this, and if she had any good advice. Her reply almost made me cry. I love my coach. Here is her answer:

Don't be so hard on yourself. you are one of the most dedicated, focused and hardest working swimmers i've got. all of us have days like you had today. one of the things to do on those days is to choose one thing to focus on that you can do even if you don't have a lot of energy to swim hard. for example: work good turns, work on the finish of the stroke, work on swimming slowly with some every 5 breathing, work on dropping stroke count--since you're not hitting the times you want go slowly and feel good about hitting 17-18 strokes. This way you can leave feeling good about something that you worked on even if you're tired.

Try to get a little more rest this week if you can, and you should be fine by next week.

This kind of advise is something that I can refer back to for swimming, biking and running, I really appreciate how much she cares about everyone she coaches.