Race:
Date:
September 15, 2019
Location:
Edinboro University
The start of swim season! I've been concentrating on my running, plus work has been busy, plus I had a cut on my finger (squirrel bite), so I haven't been swimming much. That's pretty much what everyone else at Masters said, so I fit right in. No pressure today.
100-yard freestyle: I didn't beat my seed time, but was close. My turns were not explosive at all; my legs are tired from a 12-mile run yesterday.
25-yard backstroke: It took almost the whole length to get my legs up and finally get into a good rhythm. I feel like I might be kicking too hard at first, causing some kind of drag on my legs.
50-yard freestyle: I beat my seed time by almost a second, coming in at 29.18 seconds. This is not bad at all for the start of the season. It felt good; I concentrated on NOT fishtailing the whole way and took limited breaths.
25-yard butterfly: Felt good, but not fast at all!
Overall, a good time. I have just recently signed up for Ironman Lake Placid (July 2020) so I'm going to take my swimming more seriously this year. And my biking. And my running. And my protein intake. And my lifting. And my blogging! It's going to be my last full-length triathlon so I want to get the most out of it. We'll talk soon.
Showing posts with label 25 back. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 25 back. Show all posts
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Sunday, October 19, 2014
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.
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.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 17, 2012
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa.
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:07.87
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is 0.07 seconds slower than my best time, so this is great. At the 50-yard mark I decided to pull back the accelerator a bit so that I would have enough fuel to get through the next three events. This seems unneccessary to me now.
Event #2: 25-backstroke
Time: 16.95 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This beat my personal best by about 0.4 seconds. My friends tell me I started late, and I know I didn't do much of a dive. A sore trapezius muscle has restricted my neck movement and I had to be cautious at the start. So an even faster time is in my future.
Event #3: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 29.86 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This was two tenths of a second off my personal best. I am absolutely tickled to have broken the 30-sec threshold for a second time. I took only five breaths during the whole swim. I wonder what else I can do to get faster. Improving my start and turn will shave off another 2 seconds, but what then? I'll worry about that after I improve my start and turn!
Event #4: 200-yard Individual Medley
Time: 2:56.89
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
I did great, considering I have never competed in this event before. The butterfly segment felt easy but I had a lousy transition to backstroke. I started to feel just a little fatigue creep in during the backstroke, but it did not concern me. I was starting to breathe hard by the end of the backstroke and I was worried that during the breaststroke phase I would start to inhale water (I tend to do that), but I only did that once and maybe because I was so worried about it, I was ready for it and didn't let it bother me. At this point I think I was well ahead of everyone in my heat except Carol, and we were neck-and-neck. She pulled ahead by half a length at the start of the freestyle segment and I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. I almost did! That bit of competition was good because it kept my mind off the fact that I was running out of energy. I didn't notice I was spent until I was out of the water and had to sit down for a minute to catch my breath and make sure I wouldn't faint.
Date: February 17, 2012
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa.
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:07.87
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is 0.07 seconds slower than my best time, so this is great. At the 50-yard mark I decided to pull back the accelerator a bit so that I would have enough fuel to get through the next three events. This seems unneccessary to me now.
Event #2: 25-backstroke
Time: 16.95 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This beat my personal best by about 0.4 seconds. My friends tell me I started late, and I know I didn't do much of a dive. A sore trapezius muscle has restricted my neck movement and I had to be cautious at the start. So an even faster time is in my future.
Event #3: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 29.86 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This was two tenths of a second off my personal best. I am absolutely tickled to have broken the 30-sec threshold for a second time. I took only five breaths during the whole swim. I wonder what else I can do to get faster. Improving my start and turn will shave off another 2 seconds, but what then? I'll worry about that after I improve my start and turn!
Event #4: 200-yard Individual Medley
Time: 2:56.89
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
I did great, considering I have never competed in this event before. The butterfly segment felt easy but I had a lousy transition to backstroke. I started to feel just a little fatigue creep in during the backstroke, but it did not concern me. I was starting to breathe hard by the end of the backstroke and I was worried that during the breaststroke phase I would start to inhale water (I tend to do that), but I only did that once and maybe because I was so worried about it, I was ready for it and didn't let it bother me. At this point I think I was well ahead of everyone in my heat except Carol, and we were neck-and-neck. She pulled ahead by half a length at the start of the freestyle segment and I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. I almost did! That bit of competition was good because it kept my mind off the fact that I was running out of energy. I didn't notice I was spent until I was out of the water and had to sit down for a minute to catch my breath and make sure I wouldn't faint.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
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...
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...
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