Saturday, December 7, 2013

AMYMSA Postal 1650 swim

Race: AMYMSA 1650 swim
Date: 07 December 2013
Location: Greensburg, Pa.
Time: 24:53.87
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4

Annual 1650-yard meet. I beat my time from last year by 13 seconds. That is an improvement of 0.9%. Wish I went even faster, but small improvements sum up to large successes. I will keep swimming!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA swim meet
Date: 01 December 2013
Location: Sewickley, Pa.

A good solid swim meet for me. Qick recap:

Event #1 was the 100-yard Individual Medley. My old personal best was 1:15.24, set a month ago. Today I swam it in 1:15.09. I think my turns were good. I was well ahead of my heat until my breastroke-freestyle turn. Nevertheless, I remember concentrating more on my breaststroke and freestyle segments more this race than a month ago. I maintained good streamlining during breaststroke and refused to get tired like I usually do. Then during the last half of the freestyle I found some extra energy for a sprint and made a good finish. I felt sick afterwards, which suggests I gave it my all.

Event #2: 50-yard Butterfly. I swam this in 33.60 seconds, about a second off my best time. I did not push it, and was not out of breath at the end.

Event #3: 100-yard Backstroke. I swam this in 1:27.25, well above my personal best of 1:22.61. I was still tired from the earlier swims. Indeed, I need to work on my endurance in this event, since I get tired after 50 yards (true for all my strokes except freestyle). My friends tell me I still need a lot of work on my turns, as I initiate them much too late. Also, my finish was terrible. I didn't quite run into the wall, but my arm hit the top of the touch pad and it was a second or so before I realized I needed to touch it on its face to stop the clock. Once agian, my legs were burning and I felt sick. In fact, very sick. I got lightheaded and nauseated. I thought about scratching my next event but eventually felt rested enough to go for it.

Event #4: 200-yard freestyle. I swam this in 2:42.89, well above my personal best of 2:38.11. I am surprised how slow I went. When I was in the water I felt like my strokes were strong and effortless. I was grabbing water and pushing it behind me. It's always nice to end with a good swim.

I truly did my best this meet and have no regrets. I am still very happy I lowered one of my personal bests in the 100-IM. In the spring I will train harder and do even better.