Race:
Masters Swim Championship Meet
Date: 5-
6 April 2014
Location: Indiana, Pa.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
I have now completed my 3rd year of swimming
competitively for the AMYMSA organization. In my first two years I experienced a
rapid improvement in race times as I learned to perfect my strokes. In this
third year, my strokes still need some work, but I have been doing a lot more
training sessions at race speeds to improve my endurance and my overall pace. I
have continued to improve my times for most events this year, but only by
fractions of second in most cases. My performance at this weekend’s championship
meet is a reflection of this state of affairs; I set 2 personal bests (out of 7
events) and came very close to my top times in the remaining 5. Alas, I was
hoping for even greater success. I am still pleased with how well I swam this
weekend because I have been suffering from a fairly potent cold since Wednesday.
Symptoms included sinus congestion, chest congestion, laryngitis, lethargy, and
even a bout of diarrhea on Saturday morning. Sorry to be so graphic about that,
but I am really proud of myself for even getting in the pool, and even more,
swimming at or near my top speed for all events. I express my apologies to
anyone who catches my cold in the coming days…
EVENT #2: 200 yard Medley Relay **personal best**
This event
was swum by 4 male members of the Greensburg team in the order of backstroke,
breast, fly, and freestyle. We agreed that I would do the backstroke segment.
This was a wise choice; I swam it in 35.99 seconds, which is 0.55 seconds faster
than I have ever swum 50 yards of backstroke. Unfortunately, medley segment
split times are not counted when my season’s best times are posted on the organization website, so I won’t use it as a new benchmark for
backstroke.
EVENT #3: 100 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 1:07.17, which is 1.23
seconds slower than my best time. In the water, I felt pretty good about this
swim. But during the last 25 yards I noticed that my arm turnover rate was
really fast and I didn’t seem to be gaining any extra speed from that. In fact,
I swam the first 50 yards in 31.87 seconds and the second 50 yards in 35.3
seconds. These splits are not too bad, but Shannan noted that I wasn’t
stretching my arms in front of me to grab enough water with each stroke, so I
burned extra energy and gained nothing from the effort.
EVENT #7: 50 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 29.48 seconds, which is
0.50 seconds slower than my best time. Shannan complimented me on my dive; but
again, I wasn’t throwing my arms forward enough to grab the water. I also found
myself taking breaths when I didn’t even need them. I should plan my breaths
ahead of time for the 50 free, just as I do for the 50 fly.
EVENT #10: 200 yard Individual Medley **personal best**
I swam this event
in 2:52.30, beating my old personal best by 1.69 seconds. I felt my speed in the
pool. My butterfly segment felt smooth and effortless; I was not especially
winded when I started the backstroke. Backstroke went well until the wall where
I had a sloppy transition to breaststroke. Breaststroke felt good and strong. I
don’t remember much about my freestyle segment, but looking at my splits, this
is where I faltered, relative to my age group competitors. I came in 4th out of
4 men in my age group. At the end of the butterfly I was ahead of Nick, the
eventual 2nd place finisher. At the end of the backstroke, Nick had shot ahead,
but I was on pace with Gary, the eventual 3rd place finisher. At the end of the
breaststroke, I was still within 3 seconds of Gary. But my freestyle split was
42.83; Gary’s was 34.31 (Nick’s was 34.94 and Ben’s was 36.94). I slowed down at
the end much more than my competitors. Despite this being a personal best for
me, I can still make a lot of improvement next year.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
EVENT #13: 200 yard Freestyle Relay
Just as on Saturday, I swam in a
relay with my teammates. All of us swam freestyle, though, and I was in the
third position. My team never practices relays and the only time I ever do one
is at champs. I am therefore a little wary of the dive, since I have to dive
over the teammate who is finishing his segment as I am beginning mine. I can say
that today’s dive may have been my best ever. I was in the air for a long time
and traveled really far before hitting the water. Then I pressed the gas pedal.
My turn was excellent and I my arm stroke was fully extended. My split time was
32.23 seconds, which is far from my fastest 50 free. Perhaps the dive wasn’t as
awesome as I thought; or maybe it was my breathing. I again found myself turning
my head for a breath even though I did not feel the need to breathe.
EVENT #14: 100 yard Individual Medley
I swam this event in 1:13.97, which
is only 0.21 seconds off my personal best. I don’t have any specific
recollections about this swim. I swam it as fast as I could, and my quadriceps
were burning a little after I got out of the pool. In fact, I felt nauseated for
the next few minutes. This is not a pleasant sensation, but it indicates I
pushed myself beyond my aerobic limit. Anaerobic metabolism takes over at that
point, and I ate a package of fruit snacks to recover from the energy deficit.
EVENT #16: 50 yard Butterfly
At this point I had already proven to myself
that my butterfly stroke was back (in the previous week, I had worked with my
coach to fine-tune my butterfly because it had become choppy). So with
confidence, I swam this event in 32.52 seconds, which is 0.20 seconds off my
best time. Oh so close! But I was sick, and had I been well I surely would have
set a new record.
EVENT #17: 100 yard Backstroke
Now I was worried; I had only 6 minutes to
rest between the 50 Fly and the 100 Back. It was just enough. I jumped in the
water with Shannan right there rooting for me. I felt good. But then the buzzer
went off a little sooner than I expected and I didn’t have a good start. I
ignored the stumble and sliced through the water. I started to feel tired at the
75-yard mark, but something really strange happened then. I was looking at the
ceiling and I saw a wire strung over my head and parallel with my lane. I
completely focused on that wire and tuned everything else out. I pondered what
the wire was for, and I pretended that it was where the TV camera would be if I
were swimming in the Olympics. I did not want to let down this pretend TV
audience so I swam harder. I felt my legs quicken and I lurched forward toward
the touch pad. I felt tired, but in concentrating on the ceiling feature I was
able to ignore it. In reality, my splits show I slowed down from 39.11 seconds
during the first 50 yards to 41.04 seconds during the second 50 yards. But it
felt like I was going 100 miles per hour at the very end. I finished the event
in 1:20.15 seconds, 0.23 seconds slower than my best time.
EVENT #19: 100 yard Butterfly **personal best**
I had only 12 minutes
rest between my 100 Back and my 100 Fly. This is really rushing things, but I
felt relaxed during this whole swim meet. Maybe I need to get sick more often,
just to dampen my normal nervousness. I swam this event in 1:21.00 seconds,
beating my old time by 0.24 seconds. I did fine for the first 50 yards, started
to tire at yard 75, and then I fell apart in the last 25. I was breathing on
every stroke—or at least trying to. My arms would not pull themselves over my
head. I had a moment when I thought about quitting but by that time the wall was
just about within reach so I took another couple “strokes” and got there.
Despite my poor health and my lack of endurance for butterfly, I swam this
faster than ever before. It was great to end my 3rd year on swim team with some
success.
