AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: Clearfield, PA

My meet yesterday was at the Clearfield YMCA. It’s a brand new pool. I did 4 events and set personal bests in all of them:

1. 100 IM = 1:19.64 is about 2 seconds better than when I did the event in October. Somebody on my team told me I flutter-kicked between backstroke and breaststroke. I said “yes, that sounds like something I would do!” I’m within 6 seconds of my best friend, so I know I’ll beat him at some point. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.

2. 50 Fly = 35.45 is about 2 seconds faster than my personal best. The swim went well, but my ending was terrible—I hit the wall at midstroke so that was a little awkward and probably added a second to my time. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

3. 25 Free = 13.72 is about 0.3 sec faster than my personal best. Of course there is a lot of measurement error with such a short event combined with human stop-watch operators. I remember breathing a few times, and this shouldn’t be necessary so I know that’s one way to improve. I got first place in my gender-age group for this event because no one else did it. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.

4. 50 Back = 41.16 is considerably less than the seed time of 47.0 that I submitted, but that was simply a guess because I had never done this event before. I think my start was reasonably good for someone who hasn’t had much practice. I don’t know if my hands and head landed in the right spot, but it felt fine. I really flew on the first 25 and despite paying attention to the flags I flipped over far too late to do a flipturn at the wall so I did an open turn. On my way back, my friend said my hips/torso was undulating side-to-side too much. I sometimes (often?) do this in freestyle, too, and I’m not sure whether this is fatigue or just too much [wild] enthusiasm during a race. Speaking of wild enthusiasm, at the end of the 50 yards I somehow ended up in the corner of the lane and missed touching the pad, so I think I might have been a second or two faster than indicated. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.

I’ve now acquired 100 points over 6 meets this season. I’m still the slowest member of my gender-age group but I’m having a blast.