AMYMSA Mile Swim

Race: 1,650-yard freestyle swim (scy)
Date: December 10, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA
Time: 27:42.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2

This was my best time to date. Last year I did the 1650 in 29:30. This year I figured I'd be faster so I put down 28:30. Beat it! I'm excited because I was not swimming in top shape. I had not been in the pool for 10 days prior to this. In fact I have not been working out since a week ago when I tore a muscle/tendon in my neck. It went "pop" last Sunday and I've had pain, significant restriction in movement, and fatigue ever since. Of course I've gotten a little better each day, but this morning I still had these symptoms and I wasn't sure whether I could swim at all.

The competition was in three heats. I sat at the end of a lane and counted laps for my teammates during the first two heats. Between tasks I got a chance to test out my neck. I got in an unused lane and started swimming. "Hey, I thought, this is fine." But then I realized I hadn't taken a breath yet. So, I snuck one between strokes and I was able to move my neck to do so, and there was no pain. I finished swimming the lap and got out of the pool. At that point I knew I could start the 1650 but I wasn't sure how long the pain-free period would last.

I swam in the third heat. I started in the pool rather than diving in. I also avoided flip-turns. I felt so slow and I wasn't sure where the other swimmers were so I snuck a peak at the lane counters in the adjacent lanes and saw that my competitors were swimming at the same pace--for instance, we all were on length 21, and then later, we were all on length 36. I really couldn't believe that I was keeping pace. I wasn't doing flip turns, I hadn't done anything physically taxing in a week, and I was still slightly injured. Nevertheless, I ended up beating a couple other folks in my heat (my good friend in the lane next to me did beat me by 13 seconds), and I beat my seed time. I'm very happy.

I'll also plan to have a stiffer neck tomorrow, as I know I forced it to work harder than I probably should have. But nothing went 'pop' again, so at least I didn't re-injure it to any large degree.

The only damper on the night was at the party where I played two lousy games of pool (billards) and lost both times by a lot. This surprised me, as the last time I played pool I remembered I had been pretty good. But then it dawned on me that I had been playing against some folks who had consumed some alcohol, and being the most sober person there, I was probably going to win even if I wasn't that good.