AMYMSA Greensburg

Race: masters swim meet
Date: November 19, 2017
Location: Greensburg, Pa

I always skimp on a warmup at the Greensburg meet. First, we go to church so we arrive late and there is less time to fit in a warmup. Second, I sing the national anthem and my singing voice is negatively affected by all the chlorine I inhale during a warmup. So, I did two 25-yard sprints off the block and counted that as my warmup. Then I spent 10 minutes in the hot tub to warm my body in a different way. Ha!

I sang the national anthem with Shannan and Arianne and I think we sounded great. Then I swam in heat 2 of the first event so I had to get ready right away. The first event was the 100 Freestyle. I had a good race, finishing in 1:04.52, less than a second slower than my personal best of 1:03.57. Ben approached me later and scolded me for having lousy turns. "Be sure to tuck your head," he said, because it slows you down. "You were ahead of Dan most of the race but he beat you to the wall because you has a bad turn." Dan was three lanes away, so I had no idea where he was in the race. I just know that I was feeling pretty strong, I limited my breathing, and I kicked pretty hard. I was giving it everything I had, and I was surprised because I didn't think today would be a good meet. I swam only once in the last 7 days. My work life has been so busy.

My 100-yard breaststroke was pretty lousy. I was 5 seconds slower than my personal best. My kick didn't seem to be very strong, and I was still kind of out of breath from the 100 free, even though it was more than 15 minutes earlier. Maybe the air quality was poor?

The 50-freestyle was the very next event, so I had no time for rest. I felt pretty good while swimming, so I was surprised to see that I was 2.45 seconds off my fastest time! Part of this was a dive that was too deep. My underwater swimming isn't very fast.

I had mixed feelings about my 200IM at the start. I didn't feel like doing it, but another part of me wanted to work hard. I started with the butterfly and this went well enough. I didn't tire out or get out of breath..until near the end of the stroke where waves of water poured into my mouth on a couple of the strokes. I had good rhythm and I am happy that my knee didn't hurt, as that kept me from practicing the stroke for more than a week. I had a bad turn starting the backstroke (I was out of breath there, having swallowed water), but I am happy that I was able to keep my hips up. I liked my backstroke turn at the opposite wall, but my back-to-breast turn was nasty. My breaststroke was very sluggish. I didn't seem to have a lot of arm strength at this point, and my legs were not much better. I also swallowed more water. By the freestyle section I was just happy to be finishing up and I knew it was going to be a slow swim for me. I was more than 13 seconds slower than my fastest time. Ha! I had quite the leisurely time in the pool. I remained in a good mood, though. Swimming makes me feel young--an important feeling on a birthday weekend!

AMYMSA Franklin

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: February 5, 2017
Location: Franklin, Pa.

I enjoyed this meet a lot. My mood was certainly buoyed by my first event of the day, the 100 freestyle. I swam it in record time, 1:03.57. This shattered my old personal best of 1:05.59. Part of my success (maybe) was that "fast man" Dan was right beside me and I use him to pace myself. The other part of this success was simply that I have not swam this event recently, making a large improvement more likely. The last time I swam the 100 freestyle was in January 2016 when I swam it in 1:05.64. I have to go all the way back to December of 2014 to find that 1:05.59 record that I broke. Note to self: swim this event more often!

My second event was the 100-yard breaststroke. I have now swam it 3 times this season and today's swim was the fastest at 1:23.00. However, this is only an improvement of 0.58 seconds from October 2016, and it is 3.14 seconds slower than my personal best of 1:19.86 set last year at Spire. Dan was in my heat again, but one lane over, and I didn't look for him. Note to self: practice breaststroke more.

My third event was the 50-yard freestyle. I swam it in 28.84 seconds, which is 0.46 seconds slower than my personal best of 28.38, set at Spire last year. I am confident I can lower this again at Spire at the end of this season.

My last event was the 500-yard freestyle. I swam it in 7:06.76. This was 2.4 seconds slower than my personal best, set last year at Spire. I have swam this event three times this season with the goal of improving my pacing. I have been mildly successful. The STDEV of my split times today was 2.48 seconds, compared to the 4.04 seconds calculated from split times in October. The goal is to get this as low as possible, so I'm heading in the right direction.

AMYMSA Sewickly

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: December 4, 2016
Location: Sewickly, Pa

100 breaststroke: This felt like a strong and fast swim but I finished 3.63 seconds slower than my personal best. That's a lot of time for a 100-yard race. I am puzzled. My only explanation is that my warmup swim of 300 yards was more than an hour before and I wasn't "warm" anymore.

50-free: I finished in 29.21 seconds, which is 0.83 seconds slower than my personal best. This would be a mediocre result if I hadn't slipped on the starting block at the start. Because I didn't have a good start, I know I could have finished with a faster time, coming much closer to my personal best if not setting a new one.

25-yard butterfly: I signed up for this event just for fun but after my disappointing 100-breaststroke earlier in the meet, I wanted to do this one well. Nope! I finished in 14.96, which is 1.22 seconds slower than my personal best. That's terrible for a 25-yard event! **But in 2015-16 season my best time was 14.98, so at least I am better than last year.

500-free: I finished in 7:08.78, which was 4.42 seconds slower than my personal best. I had a really solid first 300 yards, beating or staying with my nearest competitor two lanes away. Shannan says I was on pace to finish around 6:50. But my last 200 was slower. I think I could have beat my time but I didn't have the motivation.

AMYMSA Edinboro

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: October 16, 2016
Location: Edinboro, PA

500 free: swam in 7:15.73. This was about 11 seconds off my fastest time, and I'm ok with that. It's a good start to my swim season and I feel I can lower that to an even 7:00 with practice.

25 fly: I swam this in 18.66 seconds, which is ridiculously slow. I messed up on the dive, which really matters on a short swim like this. I laughed it off.

50 free: My time was 29.65, a little more than a second off my best time. Again, this is an ok time for me given it is the start of the season. I can brush up on my dive and turn and get this down to my fastest time in a few months. Today I had a breathing plan, too, but I forgot to execute it during the swim. I took 0 breaths in the first length and then 4 in the second. If I even this out, I can maybe swim faster during the second length.

100 breast: I swam this in 1:23.58, which was about 5 seconds slower than my personal best. The swim felt good except for my pull-outs at each wall. I don't usually have a bad turn so it just wasn't in the cards today. A faster swimmer complimented my stroke, so I am pleased. There were 25 people who did this event and only 4 of them were faster than me.

AMYMSA Champs

Race: Masters swim season championship
Date: April 9-10, 2016
Location: Spire Institute, Geneva, OH
Results: http:

As usual, I headed into champs with some dark feelings: I haven't been training like I wanted to, I haven't been setting nearly as many personal bests this year as in past years, and so why should I be excited for championships? Should I swim hard, or, knowing that I will inevitably disappoint myself, maybe I should just swim for fun and to heck with trying to be faster? I had all these thought before I jumped in the pool to warm up. My mood turned a little more positive when I felt the embrace of the smooth water (the pools at Spire are of a world-class design that dampens waves). Plus, I was wearing a brand new racing suit that felt like I was wearing absolutely nothing (mmm, feels good!).

My first event was the 100-yard breaststroke. I figured I'd give it a shot. With the help of world-class diving blocks, I rocketed into the water and glided pretty far before doing a dolphin kick. In the breaststroke you are only allowed one dolphin kick, and I almost did second one before I surfaced, but I caught myself and quickly converted it to a rather decorative breaststroke kick which may or may not have been legal. I slowed down briefly as I thought through that series of strokes, but then I took it all out as I realized I was getting distracted. I was in Lane 4 and it seemed like I was keeping the lead. I finished in 1:19.86, which was 0.92 seconds faster than my seed time and a new personal best. What a relief! This swimming thing is fun after all.

My second event was the 50-yard freestyle. Now having some motivation to do well, I visualized how I would swim this race. I would breath 3 times and have a fast flip turn. I jumped in the water and swam it in 28.38, which lowered my personal best by 0.34 seconds.

Wow, so now I started to get nervous. I had one more swim today, and I felt pressured to set another personal best to keep my streak going. The problem was, my next event was the 200-yard Individual Medley. I remember saying to Shannan that there is plenty of opportunity for mistakes in that event because there are so many different kinds of turns. "What kind of attitude is that?" she chided. I set about gathering more motivation and mentally planned all those turns.

The starting blocks have a ramp at the rear for placing one of your feet. The ramp is adjustable, and since I am tall, I always had to move it from the 3 position to 4 before my swim. This gave me some confidence because I knew I was setting things up just right for me and no one else. This was my race. I was here for me. Let's do it!

With the buzzer I leaped in and started the butterfly segment. I concentrated on keeping a faster stroke rate than normal, trying to duplicate the technique from a video Shannan had played for me a few days before. At the start of the backstroke, I wasn't tired yet. During my backstroke, all I could think of was my upcoming turns. Backstroke turns are difficult for me because I either start them too early or too late. I think I did great at the far wall, and I came up just a bit short at the starting wall. I kept my momentum through the breaststroke, which seemed faster and stronger than normal, and then the freestyle was easy because I knew I was almost done. I wasn't out of breath yet, so I stopped breathing entirely on the last 20 yards, just to finish fast. My time was 2:48.62, which was 2:33 seconds faster than ever before. I was 3 for 3!

DAY#2
On the second day of our championship meet I had a personal winning streak to defend. I set 3 personal bests on Saturday—out of three events. How long could this streak last? Thinking back to previous champs, I don’t think I ever had more than three personal bests in a weekend. This was certainly an unusual and unexpected situation. So how could I best prepare for my swims today? I decided to do an abbreviated warm up of 300 yards. This seemed to go well until I did a length of butterfly, and then I realized my arms were not at 100%. This didn’t concern me. I didn’t feel weak on the freestyle, and today’s events would only feature about 150 yards of butterfly.

My first event was the 500-yard Freestyle. In past years I have not even warmed up for this, so now you can see how serious I was about doing well. Off the blocks I swam easy and fast. It was a pace faster than comfortable, but I felt I could sustain it for 500 yards. Lap after lap, I saw that the two competitors on either side of me were well behind, but there were swimmers at the far side that were keeping up and challenging my speed. I felt really good through the first 300 yards. I could hear Joanne and Shannan and maybe others cheering for me at the opposite wall. They sounded excited, so that kept me excited, too. I had some early turns where I barely hit the wall, but this didn’t diminish my drive. My legs began to fatigue in the last 150 yards. I kept my effort up, but I started to wonder if I would have anything left for the end. I finished as strong as I could, and ended up 5th in my heat (out of 8). I was out of breath, my legs were spent, and I even felt the nausea that comes with anaerobic energy expenditure. I really had given it all I had, and it made a difference. I finished in 7:04.36, which was 5.46 seconds faster than ever before. I was 4 for 4. My streak of personal bests was still secure!

My second event of the day was the 100-yard Individual Medley. I remember mentioning to Shannan that I had not lowered my time in this event all year. Alas, that remains true. I swam as fast as I could and I even had good turns. I had good rhythm in the butterfly and I pushed hard with my arms during the backstroke. Gary, a fellow swimmer in my age group, had complimented me on my breaststroke the day before, so I tried to show my skill during that segment today. I again minimized my breaths on the freestyle segment as I surged my hand forward to touch the timing pad. Still, I finished 0.14 seconds slower than my personal best. My streak had ended, but who could complain? Being a tenth of a second off was still close enough to be happy and content.

My third event was the 50-yard butterfly. My legs were starting to feel fatigued now, and my arms were already tired from yesterday’s swims. Shannan said I looked good and I felt fast. I finished in 32.22, which was 0.64 seconds slower than my personal best. I did the best I could. There wasn’t anything more I could give, and that felt good.

I also felt really hungry now. I have perfected my food intake during swim meets over the years, and I tend to stick with a mix of salty pretzels, fruit snacks, and the occasional bagel (water and Gatorade, too). On day 2 of such a diet, I think I was deficient in calories and protein. I still had one more event to swim, but I consumed a banana and promised myself more after I got done.

The 50-yard backstroke was three events after the butterfly, so I had some time to eat that banana. I also had time to get into the warm-up pool and practice my backstroke start. I had planned to do that because my start needs practice, and the starting blocks were different from what I was used to. But I now I didn’t feel like doing any more practicing. I was tired and wanted to be done. When it came time to do my event, I didn’t consciously decide to swim slow, but that’s how it turned out. After a good flip turn at the far wall, I finished with a poor one at the end; I misjudged and struck the touchpad with my elbow. I finished in 38.09 seconds, 2.07 seconds slower than my personal best. That’s not good at all, but I was too tired to care!

I had a superb championship meet, and Shannan had done really well, too. I feel energized for more swimming work this spring and summer, which is good, because my next big swim event is the 2.4 mile swim associated with the Ironman I have in September. A long-distance swim of 4,224 yards is an entirely different sport compared to what I did this weekend (<500 again="" be="" but="" can="" fall.="" i="" in="" ll="" masters="" meets="" my="" next="" see="" shape="" span="" start="" swim="" t="" to="" up="" wait="" what="" when="" yards="">

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: January 24, 2016
Location: Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Results: http:

We had another AMYMSA swim meet yesterday, this time at Duquesne University pool. The university women's swim team was there helping run the meet, and they had a great time cheering for all of us old people trying to be competitive. For example, the whole pool deck irrupted in cheers as Frank and Elaine, ages 83 and 78, respectively, raced in adjacent lanes during the 200-yard individual medley. The touch pad results indicate that Frank beat Elaine by 3 seconds, but all who watched the race saw that Elaine hit the pad before Frank (but she hit the top of the pad instead of the center, so it didn't register). In any case, it was a very close, slow-motion swim between husband and wife, and everyone celebrated. The 20-something university swimmers were definitely impressed.

My fellow swimmers all seemed to have good swimming times, so it was fun celebrating with them. Shannan Jones-Kellam had a wonderful day, beating her seed times in all 4 events she swam. "Where did that time come from?" she asked with awe and disbelief when she saw she dropped scores of seconds off her 200-fly.

My enthusiasm for my friends helped keep me in good spirits, even though my swimming performance was rather average in my 4 events. My first event was the 100-yard freestyle. Shannan tells me that my diving start was excellent, and I broke out well ahead of my heat. In the pool, I was preparing for a personal best by kicking hard, pulling hard with my arms, and minimizing surface breaths. But then at the 50-yard mark I began my flipturn too early and nearly missed the wall. This halted my momentum, and I saw that the other competitors had caught up. I angrily discarded my hopes for a personal best and tried to catch up to the other swimmers. I finished in 1:05.64, just missing my personal best by 0.15 seconds. I would have broken that record by more than a second if I hadn't messed up at the turn. One day later, I am still fuming a little at my mistake!

My second event was the 100-yard breaststroke, and this was also full of drama! My best buddy Daniel Pruzinsky was in the adjacent lane and some day I will beat him. Stepping up on the starting blocks, we were both wondering if this was the day (it wasn't). My strategy was to do a lot of gliding during the breaststroke. I think I'm good at that, and the alternative--increasing my stroke rate--doesn't do much for me other than tire me out. So I glided through the first 50 yards with Dan always there at my side. His turns seemed to be faster, and I was 0.58 seconds behind him at the halfway point. So on the last 25 yards of the race I took it up a notch and concentrated on pushing more water with my arm stroke and increasing my stroke rate a bit. This caused me to gain ground on Dan and I really thought I was going to win. In fact, that might have been my downfall, as I was celebrating in my head during the last couple strokes. Meanwhile, observers say that Dan gave it everything he had right at the flags, and he threw himself into the wall, out-touching me by 0.02 seconds! What?! Wow, what a good race. I don't mind he beat me. I had so much fun. Interestingly, competing next to Dan did not push me to set a personal best. My time of 1:21.39 did not beat my personal best of 1:20.78.

My third event was the 50-yard freestyle. I am trying to beat my 28.72 best, set last year. My time was 29.41. I felt like I had a great swim. I was a little surprised I wasn't closer to my best time, but upon further reflection, it makes sense that I didn't. My dive was a little deep, my turn not so quick, and I breathed 4 times instead of the 3 breaths I had planned.

My fourth event was the 200-yard individual medley. I finished in 2:52.38, which was 1.43 seconds slower than my personal best. I admit to having mixed feelings during the swim. During the backstroke and breaststroke, I started to push hard, then I'd pull back. I'd push a little more and then pull back again. I was weighing the amount of work required to swim fast versus how much discomfort I was experiencing, and I sometimes chose to minimize my discomfort. Races are not won by people who go the easy route. Analysis of my split times shows I have an endurance problem. After accounting for the dive in the beginning, my fly segment was 3 seconds slower than a 50-fly; my backstroke segment was 6 seconds slower than a 50-back; my breaststroke was 7 seconds slower than a 50-breast; and my freestyle segment was 8 seconds slower than a 50-free. In sum, I was getting slower and slower as the race went on.

I don't mean to end on a sour note. This was surely the most fun swim meet of my season. I've got some good swims ahead.

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: Janury 10, 2016
Location: Grove City, PA
Results: http:

Just a quick report on my swim meet at Grove City YMCA last Sunday. I swam in 4 events and had fun. It's important to note that I had fun. I usually [have fun] or [work hard and swim fast]. I usually can't do both at the same meet. I wish I could! Anyway, here's my stats:

100 Breaststroke: 1:23.33 (2.55 seconds slower than my personal best)
50 Freestyle: 29.00 (0.28 seconds slower than my personal best)
200 Individual Medley: 2:55.93 (4.98 seconds slower than my personal best)
500 Freestyle: 7:17.52 (7.70 seconds slower than my personal best)

Essentially, I am stuck at my times from 2014. This may still be due to a lower swim training volume in most of 2015, but I started swimming more in November and December, and expected to be a bit faster by now. I will be patient.

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: November 8, 2015
Location: Clearfield, PA
Results: http:

I feel good about this meet. My times were still slower by about 3% from last year, but I think I'm getting closer.

200IM = 2:57.22 (personal best is 2:50.95). My butterfly and backstroke were strong but I lost fuel on the breaststroke. My triceps and shoulders felt fatigued and I don't know why. Jim F. told me I could improve with a better streamline off the walls.

50Free = 29.31 (personal best is 28.72); I've been doing a lot of 50s in practice, so it makes sense I'd do well here.

100Breast = 1:26.89 (personal best is 1:20.78) I found I couldn't glide as much as I wanted to. Just too fatigued.

100Free = 1:07.84 (personal best is 1:05.59) Felt good.

AMYMSA Championship Meet

Race: Masters Swim Team Championship meet
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.

AMYMSA swim meet

Race: AMYMSA masters swim meet
Date: December 7, 2014
Location: Sewickley, PA
Results: http:

Two personal bests in 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. I came very close to setting two more personal bests in 50 freestyle (-0.16 seconds) and 200 IM (-0.56 seconds). This was the most fun I've had at a meet in a long time. I was relaxed...AND I swam well. I haven't been able to find that balance until now.

AMYMSA swim meet at Hollidaysburg

Race: AMYMSA master's swim meet
Date: October 19, 2014
Location: Hollidaysburg Senior High School
Results: http:

Most Master’s meets have between 60 and 120 swimmers. This one had around 40, for a variety of reasons, one being that it is on the eastern geographic edge of our league so a lot of people decide not to travel there. My usual carpool partners were absent, too, so I just drove myself and made it into a day trip that included a visit to the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark near Altoona and a hike on the Ghost Town Trail near…well, nothing (hence the name).

The swim meet was at the local senior high school instead of the YMCA, and this was an excellent choice. The facility was clean and recently renovated, I liked the huge bank of windows on the side, and we even had touch-pads at both pool ends so I can now examine my split times to get a better understanding of how I performed during the longer events.

EVENT #4: 200 Individual Medley (2:50.95)
I swam this 1.35 seconds better than my old personal record. This was probably all due to my butterfly, which felt effortless. I was a second ahead of Nick in the adjacent lane. I fell half a second behind Nick on the backstroke, but that’s actually good. I usually slow way down during the backstroke to recover from a too-fast butterfly. Today I continued to feel strong and negative-split my backstroke segment (second 25 yards was faster than my first 25 yards). I pulled ahead of Nick again during the breaststroke, with my 49.46 second segment solidly beating his 53.03 second segment. I negative split here, too. I was burned out by the end of the breaststroke and had a weak showing in the first 25 yards of freestyle. I found new energy at the end and negative split once again (23.18 seconds vs. 20.17). Nick beat me by around 5 seconds. It appears I am still inexperienced with pacing myself during longer races. I can also improve with my turns, as most were poor today.

Following the race I was dizzy and lightheaded. I wonder if I might have hyperventilated during the breaststroke; this would have caused the fatigue I felt during the freestyle.

EVENT #8: 100 Breaststroke (1:23.99)
I had plenty of time to recover from the 200 IM and gave a good showing with my breaststroke. I finished about half a second slower than my personal best. My dive and initial pullout were expertly executed and I had very consistent splits over the next 75 yards. I was finishing much slower than others in my heat, though, so I decided to increase my stroke rate considerably at the end. This led to a negative split of around 0.93 second in the last 25 yards.

EVENT #9: 25 Backstroke (16.91)
This was just for fun. I thought this was a personal best, but after reviewing my records I see I missed my best time by 0.41 seconds. Given the short distance of this swim, I wasn’t even close! But I beat everyone in my heat (in fact, all the other heats, too) and I felt quite full of testosterone.

EVENT #11: 100 Freestyle (1:09.46)
I swam 3.5 seconds slower than my personal best—not real good! But oh well. By the fourth event of a meet I am usually fatigued and don’t set a personal best. The meet director greeted me at the end of my swim and apologized for hitting the start buzzer before I was ready. He definitely rushed me, but it didn’t affect my time. Instead, I think I just got ahead of myself. I have been working with my coach over the last two weeks on a shoulder-driven freestyle technique that is used during short distance events. My brain switched immediately into this fast-but-inefficient stroke during the first 25 yards of my swim. I felt strong and it was fun to power through it. But I still had 75 yards to go, so I switched to hip-driven freestyle for the middle 50 yards and then tried to return to shoulder-driven strokes in the last 25 yards. My turns were still sloppy and just like last meet, I don’t remember thinking much about swimming during this race, so my mind wasn’t in it. That’s ok. I had a lot of fun today and swam very well.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Master's Swim Meet
Date: 9 March 2014
Location: Edinboro, PA

It finally happened, and it's ok. I swam in a swim meet and set no new personal bests. Here is how it happened:

6:30AM I woke up in my hotel room in Youngstown, OH.
7:00AM I ate a pancake with a huge quantity of syrup, followed by a bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal.
9:00AM I was watching Shannan's daughter at a district swim meet and I felt the thrill of competition. "I will feel this way in a few hours when I swim," I said to myself. Meanwhile, my stomach was hurting from the pure sugar I consumed at breakfast.
9:45AM I get in my car and drive toward Edinboro, PA.
10:50AM I feel a great fatigue come over me. It may be the "crash" that inevitably follows a sugary meal, or it may be a tiredness that comes from a busy weekend and shift to daylight saving time (though my fit-bit tells me I slept for 7 hours and 6 minutes, which isn't that bad). Either way, I am drowsy enough to consider pulling into a rest stop. I reject the idea, and keep going.
11:20AM I start my warmup in the pool. I feel sluggish and there is a kink in my neck, but no big deal.
12:00PM I swim in Event #2, the 100-yard freestyle. My time is around a second slower than my personal best. "That's ok, I can't always out-perform myself," I say to myself. But there is darkness inside me. I don't feel optimistic about my next swims. In fact, I leave the pool and get a Pepsi from a vending machine. I chug it down as fast as I can and joke to myself that the bubbles of carbonation will help me float. I do not ingest caffeine daily. But I really wanted to boost my mood and my performance. I hoped it would affect me in time for my next swims.
12:30PM I swim in Event #5: 100 yard breaststroke and swim about 2 seconds slower than my personal best. I had a good dive and pull out, but I could tell when I got to the opposite wall that I was not covering a lot of distance with each stroke. I saw the wall coming up long, long before I actually reached it. Gees, where is my power?! After my swim I reason with myself again: "You rarely practice your breaststroke, so of course you didn't do as well today." That argument made sense. I need to practice my breastroke more.
12:40PM Event #6 was the 50 yard freestyle. I swim as fast as I can. I concentrated on taking long arm strokes and kicking hard. My calf muscle complained and I let up on the kicking a bit in order to avoid a cramp. I was actually pleased that my time was 29.5 seconds. That is still a second slower than my personal best, but coming in under 30 seconds meant I was still in the game.
1:00PM. I swim in my premier event, the 200 individual medley. By "premier" I mean this is the event that meant the most to me. I had a specific goal to reach for this event on this day. My goal was 2:52.50, which was already several seconds faster than my personal best, 2:53.99, set in January. I started the swim really well. My dive took me deep into the water and I stayed there a while as I dolphin-kicked. I finally surfaced around the middle of the pool length. I felt no anxiety, no breathlessness doing the 50 yard butterfly segment, and I was keeping up with the others in my heat. I did a nice fly-to-backstroke turn and maintained my momentum and position for the next 50 yards. I gently hit the wall (literally) at the end of my backstroke, and I heard my friend Dan go "oh!" (thanks Dan), but I headed right into my breastroke to show everyone I was fine. But it was here that I started to fall apart. I just couldn't find any power in my stroke, and I got slower and slower. My freestyle segment was fine and I floored it during the last 25 to try to recoup what time I had lost. But alas, I finished in 2:58, several seconds slower than my goal.
1:15PM It is time for me to leave. As I head down the stairs to the locker room, I realize my quadriceps are so weak that I have trouble keeping upright. This wasn't a great swim meet for me, but I am not discouraged. I look forward to championships next month!

AMYMSA Championship Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet Championship
Date: 7-8 April 2013
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania
Results: http:

DAY#1
I had an excellent start to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 5 events I swam today.

Event #2: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 1:52.59
Age Group Team Rank: 4 out of X
John swam the first leg, followed by Trevor, then me, then Matej. My dive seemed really high and arched as I tried to avoid hitting Trevor at the wall. Despite the shape of the dive I did not go too deep into the water and I trucked through my 50-yard segment. I did not feel sespecially fast, but it turns out I swam those 50 yards faster than ever before. My old record was 29.66; I swam this today in 29.26 seconds.

Event #3: 100-yard individual medley
Time: 1:15.91
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
My butterfly segment was strong but I forgot to dolphin-kick before surfacing. My fly/back turn was weird. Other than that, I went as fast as I could and set another new personal best at 1:15.91. My old record was probably 1:18.81. I say "probably" because there was a swim where a 1:16.00 was recorded for me, but if I remember correctly it was somebody else's time and not mine. Either way, I established a new benchmark.

Event #5: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 32.43
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is by far my favorite event in swimming. I did this with ease, which means I could have gone faster. Nevertheless, it broke my old personal best by 1.08 seconds, an improvement of 7.6%. This swim was recorded; I am in lane 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADQKgQF6lI&list=PLyL7N7XBHL4360OB4z7GVd7kJi8IGe3C6

Event #9: 50-yard backstroke
Time: 38.01
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
This is the only event in the entire weekend when I did not set a new personal best. I missed it by a fair amount: 1.45 seconds. My start was OK, but I was too far from the wall when I tried to turn and that caused me to lose momentum. I would probably have been disqualified if the officials were on that side of the pool.

Event #10: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:38.45
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
I still set a new personal best, but it was close. My old record was 2:38.86. I am still happy with setting a personal best, but it doesn't reflect the effort and planning I put into this. The strategy I worked out with my coach was to do the first 75 yards at about 80% effort. I would then build during the next 50 yards, and then do another 50 yards at 100% effort. The last 25 yards would be afterburners, hoping I'd have enough to get to the wall. This was my last race of the day and I wanted to give it everything I had. All of this sounds like a great plan but I failed miserably! The first 75 yards went so fast that I was halfway through the next 50 by the time I realized I should be increasing my speed. At that point I wasn't sure then how far I had swum. Was I on the first 50 or the second? I decided I was on the first 50. However, I was wrong. As I got to the wall at 200 yards, I thought I had another 50 yards to go. I was therefore surprised at my flipturn to see that two people to my right had already finished the race! At yard 205 I decided that it was impossible for me to be so far behind, and at yard 210 I decided that I must have mis-counted my yards and I was now the only one left swimming. I could have stopped at that point. Or I could have stopped at the opposite wall at yard 225, but I had already done half an extra lap and why not follow through with what I had begun? Believe it or not, I maintained my all-out pace through the end (but not the after-burners part of the plan), even though it didn't count. My 2:38.45 time therefore is a pretty big overestimate of my "real" time because (a) a flip turn at yard 200 would not be as fast as a streamlined finish, and (b) I hadn't even reached my full speed.

The paragraph written above is what happened in my mind. But now I see my splits. My first 50 yards took 35.14 seconds. My next 50 yards: 40.39. Then 41.05, then 41.87. I am puzzled that I slowed down by 5 seconds per lap during the period when I thought I was quickening my pace. Crazy race.

DAY#2
I had an excellent finish to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 4 events I swam today.

Event #14: 200-yard medley relay
Time: 2:14.88
Age Group Team Rank: 5 out of X
I started the first leg (backstroke), followed by Dan (breaststroke), then Matej (butterfly), then Trevor (freestyle). I threw on the throttle, concentarting on getting my arms out of the water as fast as I could (I have a strong stroke, but my cadence tends to be slow). My backstroke turn was not perfect but overall good. I was pretty sure I had a personal best but had to wait the entire meet before they posted the splits. Sure enough; my time was 34.XX seconds. My old record was 36.54. The great thing is that the one event yesterday where I didn't set a personal best was the 50-back, so this replaced that rough race. Our team actually won our heat. That felt good.

Event #15: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:06.48
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Another fantastic race. I remember having a perfect dive; I probably didn't surface until the 15-yard mark, the legal limit. I cremed my old personal best of 1:07.80. My legs started to burn.

Event #18: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:23.46
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
At this point I had had a string of great races and I wondered if I could keep up the pace. I did. I started with another good dive and some OK turns, and I didn't even swallow any water. I felt some fatigue as I got close to the end but I scolded myself not to slow down. "Streamline, streamline," I said to myself. My old personal best was 1:25.29.

Event #22: 200-yard individual medley
Time: 2:54.97
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
Once again, could I fight off the fatigue and do this race justice? Happily, my answer was yes. I broke my old record of 2:56.89. I'm actually surprised a bit that I did not break this record by a greater amount. I gave it everything I had...to the point where I felt nausous. I used to avoid that feeling, but now I look forward to it because I know I pushed myself to my limit, and that's why I race--to push myself to do more than I think I can do. The best part of this race was the fact that I was swimming neck-to-neck with the swimmer next to me (Gian P.) for the first 190 yards. Our butterfly segments were the same; our backstroke segments were the same; I pulled ahead in the breaststroke by maybe a body length; but then in the last length of freestyle he was fierce. I could see him thrashing his arms and splashing hard with his legs each time I took a breath on his side. He was frantically trying to beat me, and I pushed forward, too. Ultimately though, my effort was too late. He was already accelerating toward the wall before I was able to match his speed, and he beat me by 0.25 seconds. He and I had a friendly recounting of the event as we grabbed our towels to dry off.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters swim meet (scy)
Date: October 21, 2012
Location: Hollidaysburg, Pa
I competed in 4 events and I started strong but ended with some disappointment.

Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:07.80
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
My first event was the 100-yard freestyle. I swam this in 1:07.80, which is a new personal best (old record was 1:09). I swam next to a work colleague of mine who I didn't know was going to be there until I saw him. What fun it was to discover something new about somebody who you have worked with for a year. Neiether of us knew that the other person was a swimmer!

Event #2: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:25.29
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
My second event was the 100-yard breaststroke and I finished in 1:25.29, which beat my old personal best of 1:27. The consesus of my friends is that my turns and pull-outs still need a lot of work; otherwise, my stroke is fast. I was in lane 6 today, so I was swimming with folks who were faster than I. So I pushed myself hard on this swim. My quads were burning afterward.

Event #3: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.45
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
My third event was the 50-yard freestyle. I swam this in 30.45 seconds. This is my second-fastest time ever, and I'm happy with it. I had almost no time to rest between this and the previous event and I was still a little out of breath as I mounted the starting block. I am sure that in a more rested state I could have taken this swim down to the sub-30 range. My quads were burning more at the end of this swim.

Event #4: 500-yard freestyle
Time: 7:27.35
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
My last event was more than 30 min later. It was the 500-yard freestyle. I finished in 7:27.35, which is just a fraction of a second faster than my previous best time, set in March 2012. So on the one hand I should be pleased that I had another top performance, but on the other hand, with a whole summer to improve, I am disappointed I did not chop 10 seconds off my previous time. Plus, I didn't beat Dan, who was in the adjacent lane (I didn't really expect to, but one can always hope). My strategy was to start with a fast pace, slow a bit in the middle, and then push again for the last 100 yards. Dan kept pace with me at the beginning but he moved slightly ahead with each pool length, and I lost my fight. I stopped pushing and slowed down for about 150 yards to catch my breath. Dan never slowed down. So when I got to the last 100 yards I knew he was uncatchable. I waited another 50 yards before pushing on the gas pedal and speeding into the wall. I wasn't too much out of breath at that point, which means I could have gone harder. I hate being out of breath. But I also hate knowing I didn't reach my potential.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: March 4, 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I did four events: (1) 500-free in 7:27.50, which beat my old record set last October by 22 seconds. Ha! This was the most fun I've had in a while, as I was neck-to-neck with the guy in the adjacent lane for the whole race. And then I gave it everything I had and beat him in the last 25 yards. He finished in 7:29.  Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

(2) 50-free in 30.37 seconds, which beat my old record of 30.60 seconds. I wanted to break the 30-second barrier but I'll take the incremental improvement and break it next time. Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5.

(3) 100-breast in 1:29.40. I failed to break my old record of 1:27.70. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.

(4) 25-back in 17.37 seconds. I had not done this event before so I have no old time to compare. This was another race where my lane neighbor and I were swimming at the same pace; in fact, we tied. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

Duquesne University's pool seems really old and in poor shape. I was mildly disappointed to see this. I'm surprised a university would have a pool in worse shape than most of the YMCAs where we typically compete. My next swim meet is Chapionships at Clarion University at the end of March. Maybe they'll have a better pool...

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: November 20, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA

Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.57
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

Event #2: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:27.68
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

Event #3: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.94 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4

Event #4: 500-yard freestyle
Time: 7:49.63
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

The meet was in Greensburg, not too far from me. I did a 400-yard warm-up. Then I competed in the following four events:
(1) 100-yard freestyle. I swam this in 1:09.57 which is just half a second off my personal best.
(2) 100-yard breaststroke. I swam this in 1:27.68, which is good I guess, but I have not swam in this event before, so I have nothing to compare it to. A swimmer I admire took me aside and said "Your stroke is awesome, but your turns are horrible." He showed me how to push off the wall and delay the first stroke until you are past the backstroke flags. I actually knew of this technique before but it seems awkward and I don't do it. But he's right; if I did the turn right, I could cut 5 seconds off my time.
(3) 25-yard butterfly. I did this in 15.94 seconds which was a big surprise in a bad way. I had a seemingly perfect dive and I felt strong and fast. But this time was off my personal best by 0.13 seconds. Now that is not a lot, so it isn't a big deal.
(4) 500-yard freestyle. I have never swam in this event before, but I exceeded my goal by a lot. I submitted a seed time of 8:30 but swam it in 7:49.63. People told me this was a fast time for someone who just learned to swim three years ago. I beamed in this praise. I don't do any of ths for the praise of others, but it feels good when you get it :)