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 Masters Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: September 14, 2014

Overall, I feel great about this swim meet. My level of fitness is at its peak. I set one personal best today, and came very close in two other events. The fourth event...well, let's just not consider it, ok? Here are my results:

EVENT#2: 100-yard Individual Medley--
I swam this is 1:13.78, which was only two one-hundreths of a second off my personal best of 1:13.76. My dive was great and my butterfly seemed effortless. In fact, I was almost to the wall when I decided I should take a breath, even though I didn't need one. Note to self: skip it next time. I can breathe during backstroke. My backstroke was good, though my hips tended to sway too much. The breaststroke went well; I felt like I slowed down toward the end of the 25 yard length. Freestyle was fast, but I could have gone harder. I knew my next event would be in less than 5 minutes so I raced conservatively. Shannan says my hips were swaying here, too. This may be a chronic problem, but at least for this short event I can tone down the hip rotation and concentrate on a shoulder-driven stroke, and this will clean up my excessive swaying.

EVENT#3: 200-yard Breaststroke
I finished in 3:08.25, which was 2.5 seconds faster than my previous best time of 3:10.76. Shannan said I looked good, and it felt good. Earlier in the week, my coach told me breaststroke was my best stroke. I am not so sure, but it looks like his confidence gave me more confidence! I found today's swim to be relaxing, and I didn't feel tired until I got out of the pool. I got an early lead in my heat, and I admit to pausing at each wall longer than needed. I was scanning the pool to see where people were in the other lanes. The best thing about this swim was I didn't hurt my knee. Earlier in the week, it got very painful during practice. Once out of the pool, my quads and biceps were burning. It was very, very unpleasant. I wanted to sit down immediately and give them a rest but I waited for Shannan to finish her swim.

EVENT #7: 50-yard Backstroke--
I swam this in 36.75 seconds, which was just a fraction of a second slower than my personal best of 36.54. I had a sloppy start and a sloppy turn, but otherwise I am pleased with the swim. I once hurt my calf muscle on a backstroke start, and I couldn't risk that today, so I just kind of plowed into the water without much momentum. I was paying close attention to Dan in the adjacent lane. I have endeavored to beat Dan someday in something--anything--at a swim meet, and in past years I have come closest in backstroke events. He seemed slightly ahead at the halfway point so I sped up my cadence. I also, for the first time, had a perfect finish. By this I mean that I stopped my arm stroke well ahead of the wall and dove backwards with my right arm stretched toward the touchpad. I have never done this successfully before. I usually hit the pad with a bent elbow when I realize I am too close to the wall to do anything else. Anyway, Dan out-touched me by 0.25 seconds, so he remains my friendly nemesis.

EVENT #8: 200-yard Freestyle--
I finished in 2:41.56, much slower than I have in the past (2:33.10). I got off to a rough start because I was surprised by the start signal--I was not ready because the man in the first heat was not yet out of the water. But this isn't really why I had a poor swim here. My mind simply wasn't in it. After 100 yards I found myself thinking about next weekend's half-ironman race. And then I realized I had gotten far behind Dan in the next lane over, and there were several men watching the race from the pool deck (I was in lane 1, so they were basically standing over me), and I wondered if they had noticed how slow I was, and then I studied the way the stairs go into the water next to my lane, and Shannan was cheering for me and I smiled underwater because she seemed so supportive even though I was going slow. See what I mean? I can't tell you about my swimming during this event because I wasn't paying attention. I reached the end of the swim, and I was happy I was done. I didn't care if I was slow today. I know I have it in me to do it faster, and I had fun.