AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA Swim Meet
Date: 15 Sept 2013
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

This was my first AMYMSA masters swim meet of the season. I started with a 400 warmup. It felt good, so why push it? No stress.

Event #1: 100 freestyle
Finished in 1:07.37, about 1 second off my personal best. This is great, since it is the first swim meet and with the triathlon season just finishing, I haven't been training for short races. Dive was great, first turn was perfect. Then my turns got progressively worse. I felt sick with lactic acid for several minutes after this race, so I know I worked hard. My stroke felt really wild; my body was not rigid as it should be, so there is a lot of drag I can reduce and wasted energy I can recoup with improved form and less panic.

Event #2: 50 free
Finished in 29.53, which is a personal best. I knew this was going to be a fast swim when I was in the water. It felt perfect.

Event #3: 50 breast
Finished in 37.34 seconds which beat my old personal best by 1.28 seconds. That's a big improvement, and it was probably due to my dive and underwater glide. My coach and I practiced that a couple days ago. I put it to good use and didn't surface until well past the 15-yard line. Otherwise, my stroke felt rushed and inefficient. I was fast (for me), but there is a lot of improvement I could still make.

Event #4: 25 fly
Completed in 13.74 seconds, which was 0.98 seconds faster than my previous personal best. I smashed it. My dive was great, I did some strong dolphin kicks to get to the surface, and then I sped up my stroke cadence. In the past I have paused a bit with my arms outstretched ahead of me but I have been working this summer to get rid of the pause.