Date: April 12, 2015
Location: Spire Institute, Geneva, NY
Another swim season has ended, and I am sad about this! I
have now been a Masters swimmer for 5 years, and each year has been different.
I remember last year I was concentrating so hard on swimming that I didn’t have
a lot of fun at meets. This year I had a lot more fun but didn’t make the
progress I wanted in the pool.
Our Championship meet was at the Spire Institute near
Geneva, Ohio. It has a huge indoor pool that is designed for national swim
meets at all levels, including Olympic competitions. I expected to feel like an
Olympian during my swims, but as the expression goes, “there is only so much
lipstick you can apply to a pig.” Plus, there was no one in the stands watching
the meet. The facility was so big, it swallowed our ~125 swimmers and their
families. It was too quiet. I still had a blast, but next time I think we
should kidnap about 500 people and bus them in to be spectators.
Swim Champs Day 1
I swam in 4 events on Saturday:
1.
200-yard Freestyle Relay: The Greensburg men’s
team conveniently had 4 members, so we formed a relay. Our respective ages were
40, 58, 67, and 74. We were more likely to break a bone than any pool record!
David, Allen, and Doug each swam their 50-yard segments and then I jumped in to
finish. I had a dive that was too deep, but I had a pretty powerful swim. I
didn’t give it 100% because there was little chance we would beat the other
teams, and I needed to save myself for my later swims. My split time of 30.95 was
reasonable, being 92% of my top speed.
2. 100-yard Individual Medley: I felt pretty good
about this swim, but my turns were still rough (a continuing problem stemming
from lack of concentration and practice). I surfaced too quickly after my
butterfly-to-backstroke turn, and I started the backstroke-to-breaststroke turn
too far from the wall. This latter problem cost me a second as I had to coast
in to hit it. My time was 1:14.16, which was 0.40 seconds slower than my
personal best (set in February 2014).
3. 50-yard Butterfly: I am in a rebuilding phase
this year with my butterfly stroke. I have been working with my coach pretty
hard to correct some bad habits and we aren’t quite done with modifications. I
knew this going into this race, so maybe my confidence was low. I swam the race
in 32.63, which is 1.05 seconds slower than my personal best (set in November
2014). Jim Thorton complimented me on my stroke as I got out of the water, and
that made me feel better.
4. 50-yard Backstroke: Disappointed with my swims
so far, I took a stroll around the Spire Institute to look at their other
facilities. What was wrong with me today? The design of this pool makes it the
fastest pool I have ever swum in. It’s the end of my season, and I feel like I
am in top shape (though Shannan reminded me that I had to take a week off from
training this past month when my college’s pool closed for Easter break). I
concluded that I wasn’t concentrating enough. I needed to get my mind thinking
about how to swim fast. I have surely been taught how to do it. Now I just
needed to put those tools to use. Yes, I can do this! I am ready! So I walked
back into the pool area and immediately I see Shannan running towards me. She
was running fast. Like hungry-tiger-chasing-her fast. “What’s wrong?” I wonder.
Then I glance at the pool and I see people swimming backstroke. I realize that
I am about to miss my heat of the backstroke. Shannan is running to me with my
goggles and deck card, yelling at me to take my jacket off. All of this is
happening in slow motion now, as my brain is attempting to stop time. I strip
to my swimsuit underneath my clothes, throw on my goggles, and jump in the
water with no time to spare. In fact, the officials waited about 3 seconds for
me to get in position, and then the starting signal went off. I completed the
event in 38.17 seconds, which is 1.89 seconds slower than my personal best (set
in January 2015). So much for the plan to concentrate more during my swim!!
Swim Champs Day 2
I swam in 5 events on Sunday:
1.
200-yard Medley Relay: David started with the
backstroke, I followed with the breaststroke, Doug did the butterfly, and Allen
finished with freestyle. My split time for breaststroke was 43.86, which is
only 85% of my top speed. I am surprised to see how slow I was. Maybe the time
was slow because of my start and finish. I had a bad dive because David is
fairly tall and I was concerned about jumping into him as he finished his
backstroke segment. David was also in the way at my finish. I didn’t expect him
to still be in the lane, so it was a distraction. He can’t climb out of the
pool without using the stairs, so he had to wait for everyone to be done before
leaving the water. I can’t blame David for all of my slowness, though. It was
only a relay and I didn’t care much about it.
2. 100-yard Freestyle: If there was any event this
weekend in which I had a chance to set a personal best, it was this one. My
coach has been having me do timed sets of 100s over and over this year. I’ve
been approaching my 1:05.59 record during these practice sessions, even without
a diving start. This was it! I was going to kill it! At the start signal, I had
a grand dive, my arms felt strong, my first turn was good, and I was not
wanting for breath even after 75 yards. I contracted my core muscles to keep my
feet high in the water; I was using my triceps to pull as much water as I could
with each stroke. I kept my head down. Things were going great, except oops! At
my second turn I almost missed the wall during my flip turn. This took away
some momentum but I was still doing fine. At my third turn I repeated the
mistake, only this time I missed the wall completely. I stopped dead in the
water. I turned around, touched the wall, and headed into the finish knowing my
awesome swim was ruined. I finished in 1:10.91. My first split was 31.13, and
based on past performance, I could have done my second split in 33.83, which
sums to 1:04.96. It would have been a personal best by a significant
amount. I was sad. Not angry. Just sad.
My friends comforted me, and I felt their love. They reminded me that everyone
was having trouble with that far wall, because it really wasn’t a wall at all.
It was a movable bulkhead only extending 4 feet below the surface of the water,
and with no attachments to the 14-foot deep pool bottom, it was hard to judge
where it was. My sadness waned after just a few minutes because Jamie, who swam
in my lane immediately after me, did the exact same thing. She missed the wall,
too. Thanks for making me feel better! She showed me that anyone could have
made the mistake I did.
3.
100-yard Breaststroke. Dan was in the adjacent
lane. He got ahead of me right away, but this didn’t diminish my concentration.
I was determined to swim this event well. I concentrated on streamlined glides
and a spring-like stroke execution. I
didn’t worry about Dan until the very end when I pushed hard to surprise him at
the finish. I didn’t catch up, though. I set a new personal best at 1:20.78. My
old record was 1:22.54 (set in February 2015), so this was a big improvement.
When I got out of the pool, Shannan hugged me with a broad smile. Dan gave me a
high-five. It was a happy moment.
4.
50-yard Freestyle. Dan asked me what my goal was
for this swim. I said “under 29 seconds, I guess.” I sounded non-committal and
unconfident, and Dan pointed that out. I tried to readjust my attitude, and
mentally prepared a strategy: do a tight flip-turn, take 3 breaths at the most,
do rapid turnover of the arms, kick hard. The starting signal sounded and I was
in and out of the water in 28.72 seconds. This broke my old record by 0.26
seconds. It was set in January 2014. I got out of the water and Dan said “See,
I told you!” Yes, you did, Dan. Thanks.
5.
200-yard Individual Medley. Shannan had a
similar conversation with me about this event. She detected some tiredness in
me and tried to get me to step up to this last race of the season. My butterfly
segment went well, I felt fast on my backstroke, and nearly finished
breaststroke before feeling tired. I tried to ignore that, but by the freestyle
segment I had lost concentration and slowed down. I finished in 2:51.76, which
was 0.81 seconds slower than my personal best.
I had a lot of fun this weekend. My performances were not
what I was hoping for, but that did not diminish the fun in any way. I am so
appreciative of Shannan and my friends for their support and love. As for
swimming, sometimes I have my head in the game. Sometimes I have prepared
enough during my solo practices. Sometimes I can dig deep and push myself
beyond perceived limits. I don’t think I had these things with me this weekend,
but with swimming, there is always next year.
