I’ve had trouble with motivation the last 6 months, so my running, biking, weight-training, and swim training have all been less than normal. I started the weekend knowing I was not in top condition, but I still had hope for some good swims because I started taking my swim training more seriously in the last month. I did a lot of sprints to get my body used to swimming fast. Based on my results, it seems that even if I did wait until the last minute (figuratively) to get into shape, it worked! I am lucky. Here’s the rundown:
SATURDAY
Event #4, 100-yard Individual Medley
I had not swum this event in competition since Oct 2017, and I can’t remember the last time I actually practiced it. I had no expectation for this swim, so I told myself it was just for fun. However, I didn’t want to be embarrassed, so I decided to practice it three times about 90 minutes before my start. It didn’t feel good. My arms felt tired. Anyway, during the actual race I think my dive was fine but I forgot to streamline underwater before starting the butterfly stroke. Then on backstroke, my legs sank for half the pool length. By the time I got to the freestyle segment I was finally hitting my stride, and I powered to the finish. My finish time was 1:15.23, which was 5% slower than my personal best. I was pleased with this, as I had predicted a slower swim.
Event #6, 50-yard Butterfly
I always try to visualize my performance on the starting block before the starting beep. I had planned to concentrate on three things in this swim: a good dive, limiting myself to just 2 breaths, and stretching out my arms with each stroke. Unfortunately, I was distracted on the starting bock by the fact that I grabbed the wrong pair of goggles. I had on my older pair, and while there is nothing wrong with them, the inadvertent change in plans caused me to lose concentration. I dove well, surfaced, and then skimmed across the water. I was thinking about when I should take my first breath and then suddenly I was at the wall. I just wasn’t thinking ahead and because my goggles were fogged up, I didn’t see the black warning markers at the bottom of the pool. In mid-stroke at the last possible moment, I saw the wall and made a very awkward turn. My finish time was 32.35 seconds, my season’s best time, but 8% slower than my historical best time. Besides the poor turn, I totally forgot to increase my arm reach with each stroke, so that’s how I can improve next time.
Event #11, 200-yard Freestyle
I was fairly optimistic about this swim. I had practiced it at the YMCA all month, working on my flip turns, contracting my abs to keep a better streamline, and pacing myself so as not to tire out before the end. I had Coach Josh give me some pointers on my start and turns, and I think that helped. My dive was great and I felt strong with my stroke. However, I had two turns that were pretty bad. I turned too soon and didn’t have enough foot contact with the wall to push off with much momentum. Even so, I saw that my nearest competitors were well behind me. At my finish, I looked around and saw I had won my heat, having swum more than 11 seconds faster than I expected. I set a new personal best at 2:26.30, which was 1.15 seconds faster than the record I set a year ago at Spire. I know I have an even faster time in me. I could probably have gone a second faster with better turns, and after looking at photos that Arianne took of me during this swim, I see that my head comes out of the water a little too much during my breaths.
Event #12, 25-yard Breaststroke
This was actually my best shot at setting a new personal best because I’ve never swam this event at Spire before. The pool at Spire is state-of-the-art and helps swimmers achieve their best times. Anyway, I had a mediocre swim, finishing in 17.46 seconds, 3% slower than my personal best. I used to have a strong kick, but it didn’t feel that way today.
SUNDAY
Event #17, 100-yard Freestyle
Based on my swim season this year, I thought maybe I could set a personal best time today because my season’s best (1:06.23) was only 4% slower than my personal best time (1:03.57). At a pool like Spire, improving by 4% or more is certainly possible. My plan was to start with a great dive by pulling my hips up high on the block and taking full advantage of the angled wedge of the block; not to breathe until after the first turn; and kick rapidly during the last 50 yards. I carried this plan out to the letter. I finished in 1:01.59, setting a new personal best and coming in 7% faster than I had all season long. I was elated. Before today I would never have thought the 1:00 threshold could be broken (by me). But now I’m really close. Maybe I’ll do it next year!
Event #21, 50-yard Freestyle
Going into today, my season’s best time was 28.73 seconds, more than 6% slower than my personal best set at Spire in 2017 (27.00). Before this meet, I really did expect something around 28.00 seconds, but I thought 27.00 was out of reach. This expectation was reinforced just before my race when Shannan told me that during my 100-yard freestyle, my first split had been 28-point-something. “Yeah, that seems about right,” I thought. So on the block I thought about all the things I would have to do perfectly in order to beat 27.00 seconds, and the list just seemed too long. A short-distance race like this one is unforgiving if one makes an error like a dive that’s too deep, a bad turn, an extra breath, or a lazy punch of the pad at the end. At the beep, I plunged in and went as fast as I could. Everything seemed to go well. At the end, I knew I had done my best. I looked timidly at the timing board to see my result. It read 27.08 seconds. I smiled. I was happy with that. I didn’t deserve anything faster. But next year, maybe I will with more regular training.
Event #23, 50-yard Breaststroke
The last swim of a meet is rarely my best, and the relatively poor showing in my 25-yard Breaststroke the day before didn’t help my mood. Nevertheless, I feel good about my start and turns during this swim. It’s just the strokes in between that didn’t seem to have a lot of power and glide. Midway through, I attempted to improve my arm pull because it seemed my arms weren’t grabbing the water as much as they could. But the good kick I sometimes have just didn’t materialize. I finished in 38.86 seconds, an improvement of 1.47 seconds from my season’s best time, but still more than 4.5% slower than my all-time personal best of 37.15 swum at Spire last year.
It took 2.5 hours to drive home today, and that’s plenty of time to think about things. I set more personal bests this year than I thought, and it has inspired me to improve some more. That’s why I do these athletic events. I see what’s possible and then try to beat it. If I can do that at age 44 (and I am!), that’s something to really celebrate. I’ve got a marathon coming up in September. I think I’m going to beat my old time, and if I don’t, it will be fun trying.
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