AMYMSA at Baierl

Race: masters swim meet
Date: September 10, 2017
Location:
I started with 100 freestyle, finishing about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. That will be pretty easy to lower as my season progresses.

My second event was the 50 freestyle. I swam it in 28.50, exactly 1.5 seconds slower than my personal best. Again, I am happy with that. Dan and I were in adjacent lanes and while he beat me quite solidly, I think that happened at the turn where he got ahead. Otherwise, my strategy to do the swim without breathing really helped me keep up.

My third event was the 50-breast. Dan and I again were in the same heat but in opposite sides of the pool. My stroke felt really strong, so I employed more glide with a slower stroke rate. This led me to finish 0.63 seconds slower than my personal best. This has to be taken with a grain of salt because this meet was relying on stopwatch timers and not electronic touch pads. But if my time was accurate, that's a big deal. I can easily improve over the next few months and finally break a personal record set in 2013.

The 200 IM was the next event so I didn't have much time to rest. I didn't care. I knew I had not practiced this event in months, so I had low expectations. I decided to swim it for fun. My time was 3:03.16, much worse than my 2:48.62 personal best. I was considerably out of breath when I finished, so I know i didn't totally slack on that race, but my muscles didn't feel tired or sore, so I also know I didn't work very hard. One good thing about this swim was my legs didn't sink during the backstroke, which has been a recent challenge.