AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 25, 2015
Location: West Virginia University, Morgantown WV

We dodged a bullet today. Rain was just mixing with snow as I pulled into my garage at home following the meet. If the precipitation started earlier, or it was colder, we could have been stranded at the West Virginia University natatorium. It is a great place to have a swim meet, but I was cold the whole time. I wouldn’t want to stay there longer than necessary. Anyway, I had a great day! I set two new personal bests.

Event #2: 100-yard Individual Medley
I had high expectations for this race because I did a lot of IMs in practice this past week. I did fine today, but finished in 1:14.72, which was 0.96 seconds slower than my best time. I have not lowered my time in this event in a while. Today I blame my butterfly segment. I was unable to find a good rhythm as I pulled out of the dive. I want to blame the fact that the water was only 4 feet deep and I was distracted by the giant plain of white cement just below my face. Examined at close range, the cement forming the pool bottom reminded me of an English muffin, with all those nooks and crannies. Or maybe a lunar landscape. To be honest though, I am not sure my proximity to this alien underwater world was the problem with my butterfly. I just went slow. My turns could also be improved, especially the back-breast turn where I never know where to find the wall.

Event #3: 200-yard Breast Stroke
I set a new personal best in this race, finishing in 3:03.56, which was 4.73 seconds faster than my old time from 4.5 months ago. I do not swim this event regularly, so it makes sense that I would see big improvements here as my experience and general conditioning improves. With 4 years of competitive swimming experience, I am still a novice swimmer. Today’s strategy was based on my previous performance in September. My arms fatigued too soon, and I was burned out by the end of the race. To prevent this from happening again, I concentrated on doing a lot of glide between arm strokes. It felt good and I felt fast, so I assumed I was staying ahead of my competitors. However, by the 100-yard mark I realized my competitors were mostly ahead of me and my arms were not tired, so I changed my stroke to emphasize a stronger arm pull and faster stroke rate. This was not sufficient to win my heat (I was last), but it was still a winning strategy for beating my old time and not tiring out too soon.

Event #8: 50-yard Backstroke
I don’t remember my finish time, but it was a second or two slower than my 36.28 second personal best. I felt good during the race, employing a fast kick and rapid arm turnover. My turn was not very good, though. I was too close to the wall and Shannan said my streamline was not tight. That stupid wall. I think I’ve had one good backstroke turn in my entire life. I guess I need to practice that! I need to practice my start, too. Shannan told me a way to stagger my feet to prevent them from slipping.

Event #9: 200-yard Freestyle
This felt GOOD. I was pretty sure during the race that I was on par with my fastest time, and I was correct. I finished in 2:30.98, which was 2.12 seconds faster than ever before. I’ve been doing a lot of practice with my turns—especially streamlining off the wall—and this paid off. Most of my turns were good, though I got a bit tired or lazy in the middle and didn’t assume the best position. Today I also concentrated on keeping my head low when I took a breath; this preserved forward momentum. I will be interested to look at my splits because I think I maintained a pretty steady pace throughout.

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 11, 2015
Location: Grove City, PA

We had our AMYMSA Masters Swim meet today at Grove City YMCA.

I swam the 50-yard Butterfly in 32.54, which was 0.22 seconds slower than my personal best. My dive was good but my dolphin kicks getting me to the surface were weak. I am also still pausing with my arms ahead of me during each stroke, which makes it hard to maintain the proper rhythm. I took only 3 breaths during the event and did not feel at all tired at the end (does that mean I should have worked harder?). Overall, I can’t complain because my speed was still good relative to past performance, and it is fun to think about how much faster I will be when I can work out these glitches.

I swam the 25-yard Freestyle in 12.99 seconds, shaving 0.3 seconds off my previous personal best. It took me a few seconds to invent my strategy (I should do this before the race!) of kicking hard and reaching far out ahead of me to grab as much water as possible with each arm stroke.

I swam the 50-yard Backstroke in 36.32 seconds, breaking my old record by 0.22 seconds. I feel great about this race. I think my arms, legs, head, and torso were all doing what they were supposed to be doing. My only failure was at the end when I started my glide into the wall much too early and I spent (what seemed like) a full second forcing myself to the touchpad. I am confident that my swim would have been well under 36 seconds without that mistake.

The 200-yard Freestyle was the very next event. I was not tired or sore yet, but I was still winded from the 50 Back. My strategy was to conserve energy and not go too fast during the first half of the race. I usually swim my fastest at the start and then get fatigued prematurely. I found that Dan Nadler was in the lane next to me and it seemed like he was maintaining a pace about right for me. It was helpful to pretend that we were driving cars in adjacent lanes of a divided highway, and we had set our respective cruise controls to the same speed. I was content to just swim next to him until the last 50 when I planned to step on the gas pedal and beat him. It didn’t quite work that way because I think he still beat me, but that last 50 was fun because of this competition, and I had something to distract my thoughts away from physical discomfort. I paid a heavy toll when I was done. I got out of the water and immediately felt wobbly and lightheaded as I walked to my chair. I plopped down without grace and sat there for 10 minutes as I caught my breath, massaged my very heavy-feeling and painful arms, and stared into space. I had reached my physical limit. I am proud of that. I didn’t beat my personal best (I was about 2 seconds slower today), but I am content knowing I gave it everything I had.