AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: 23 February 2014
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa

Swim Meet at Cranberry YMCA
I swam 4 events and set 4 new personal bests. I feel very well accomplished and can’t wait to hit the pool tomorrow to build on this success.

Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
I lowered my personal best in this event by 0.93 seconds to 1:13.76. I started with a good dive and a strong butterfly. My butterfly-to-backstroke turn was especially good, as I did not surface for a while after the turn. Like usual, I was looking for the wall at the end of the backstroke segment and lost some momentum as I glided in. Breaststroke and freestyle segments seemed average. I was very pleased to have met and exceeded my goal for this race today, because I have been sick and skipped some training sessions this past week. In fact, my stomach felt a little weird going into this swim. Was this just a symptom of a body recovering from illness, or was it nervousness? Probably the latter because it went away after the swim. I cannot remember the last swim meet when I did NOT set a personal best, so having reached that benchmark so early in my day, I could relax a little.

Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I tried to stay relaxed for this event. In the past I have often sped through the first 50 yards, only to experience significant muscle fatigue during the second 50. So I purposely held back on the first 50. That’s a hard thing to do well, though, since if I go too slow…well, I would be going too slow. It seems like I did this perfectly today. My quadriceps were only slightly fatigued at the end of this swim, and I beat my previous personal best by 2.65 seconds to 1:19.92. Some of this improvement can also be attributed to a good (for me) start from the block with a streamlined glide and then a very good turn at the 25 yard mark (though Dan says I was still too close to the wall). I then overcompensated on the turn at the 75 yard mark, and nearly missed the wall completely. That’s a very awkward feeling; there is a moment when I am suspended under the water, bobbing upward but with hardly any forward motion.

Event #9: 200 Freestyle
Would my success hold up? Yes, it would. I swam this event in 2:33.10, cutting 5.01 seconds off my personal best. That’s more than a 5% improvement since December 1, 2013 when I last swam this event. I started with a too-deep dive but otherwise the swim felt strong and easy. I was paying close attention to my hand position under the water because Shannan had noticed something strange about that earlier in the meet. Whatever it was, it was less apparent during this swim, so in retrospect I am thankful she mentioned the potential problem. Several others at the meet said I swam well in this event (I had Lane 1, which was right in front of a row of spectators). I may have more ability to shave time off this swim in the near future; I was not tired enough after this swim, so I could have gone faster.

Event #10: 25 Breaststroke
I cut 0.12 seconds off my personal best, which isn’t all that much, but a win’s a win. I tried to make my dive shallower this time, since diving deep would cause me to waste some time trying to get to the surface. With breaststroke this is perhaps even more important because of the extended underwater glide. Anyway, I think my dive was good. I felt like I had good lower body propulsion but I may not have thrust my arms forward enough with each stroke. It is so tempting to increase the stroke rate while ignoring the value of increasing the distance traveled per stroke.