Masters Swim Champs 2019

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.

AMYMSA Allegheny Valley

Race: masters swim meet
Date: October 1, 2017
Location:

Event #1: 100 IM. My fly was good, but the backstroke--oh boy--do I need to work on that. My legs sank, despite my head being in a good position and my efforts to contract my buttocks during my kicking. Shannan says I need to concentrate on raising my hips, so I will work on that. My finish time was 1:16.49, which was 0.9 seconds slower than Dan, and about 4.7 seconds (6%) slower than my personal best. My quads were burning a little after this race, so I know I put an appropriate amount of effort into it.

Event #4: 50 Fly. Dan and I were in the same heat and we talked about strategy. I said my speed would depend on whether or not I took a breath during this swim. I did, in fact, go without a breath for the first 25 yards and I took about 3 breaths on the return. If I had skipped just one of those breaths I would have beat Dan, since he beat me by 0.01 seconds. My finish time was 32.18, which was 2.1 seconds (7%) slower than my personal best. Danise says Dan was well ahead of me at the turn and I just about caught up with him in the last 25. I wasn't aware of any of that, but I know that my rhythm felt better during the last half of my swim. I concentrated more on my kick during that time, and less on my arms.

Event #9: 200 Free. There was lots of talk before this race about what a difficult race it is. You can't sprint the whole time, but it's not a long distance, either. I went fairly confident that I would pace myself well. I have a long history with this distance--I've done it a lot at meets--and I do a lot of these distances in practice. I was in heat 1, lane 6. This made it hard to judge my pace because the people next to me were much faster. Anyway, I finished in 2:32.52, which was 4.7 seconds (12%) slower than my personal best. Given this result, it appears I went slower than I could have. I am not surprised. I was not extraordinarily tired or winded when I got out of the water. I did feel some lactic acid circulating through my body (a queasy stomach feeling), but it didn't last long and was probably just from sprinting the last 25 yards. I had more fuel in the tank and I should have burned it.

Event #10: 25 Breast. I had a good race until I swallowed water during one of my strokes. It is terribly hard to get air after that because with each successive breath my timing was off and I kept getting more water in my mouth. Oh well. My result was 17.16 seconds, which was 0.18 seconds (1%) slower than my personal best. This record will definitely fall sometime this season.

Event #11: Mixed Medley 200 Relay: I had the freestyle segment. There were no splits so I don't know how I did. I felt really good, though, at least after a lousy dive.

AMYMSA Duquesne

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: January 22, 2017
Location: Duquesne, Pa

100 IM:
3 JIM KELLAM 42 M GRBG 1:13.79
35.21 38.58
This was just 0.03 seconds slower than my best time, so I am happy with it. Dan beat me by 0.04 seconds, so it was a good match.

50 Butterfly:
2 JIM KELLAM 42 M GRBG 32.25
This was 0.67 seconds slower than my personal best. I had a good swim. I never got tired but as I headed into the wall at the end I felt my stroke got short. I tried to lengthen it by adding some bigger kicks that probably didn't help me in the end.

200 Freestyle:
4 JIM KELLAM 42 M GRBG 2:30.13
34.59 37.03 39.05 39.46
This is 1.68 seconds slower than my personal best. I'm kind of in a funk with this event. I am concentrating on maintaining a consistent pace (not tiring out at the end). I did this a little bit today but I still need improvement.

25-breast:
2 JIM KELLAM 42 M GRBG 17.35
I missed a personal best by 0.37 seconds, which is a lot. Perhaps I was distracted by the false start the guy next to me did.

AMYMSA swim meet

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: February 7, 2016
Location: Franklin, PA
Sunday morning Shannan Jones-Kellam and Jamie DePastino Brandon and Daniel Pruzinsky and I went to our master's swim meet in Franklin, Pa. This is a 2-hour drive each way, and we enjoyed each other's company during the carpool. At the meet, I performed surprisingly well for my somewhat-still-sick and sleep-deprived state. 

(1) My first event was the 50-yard butterfly. I swam in 33.06, which was 1.48 seconds slower than my personal best. Indeed, it was just an average swim. It felt ok, and I had a good stroke rate, but my dive was too deep. That probably cost me a second.

(2) My second event was the 25-yard freestyle. I swam it in 12.85 seconds, which broke my old record by 0.09 seconds. I even beat Gary, one of my age group competitors. He pointed that out and it made me feel good.

(3) My third event was the 50-yard backstroke. I swam it in 36.02 seconds, which beat my old record by 0.26 seconds. I had no idea I was in personal record territory, but I sure felt great during this swim. Well, actually, I didn't feel great. What I mean to say is that I worked as hard as I could...and that feels great. I kicked hard throughout, and I had a good start and turn at the wall. This swim was as perfect as I could make it, in the technical sense. At around 35 yards I felt tired and heard myself whimper. But I didn't let up. I will plan to do more whimpers during future swim meets and see if that helps my performance.

(4) My last event was the 25-yard breaststroke. I swam it in 17.43 seconds, which was 0.39 seconds slower than my personal best. I am not surprised. I'm not sure my legs were doing the kick right. It felt funny to me.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: 23 February 2014
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa

Swim Meet at Cranberry YMCA
I swam 4 events and set 4 new personal bests. I feel very well accomplished and can’t wait to hit the pool tomorrow to build on this success.

Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
I lowered my personal best in this event by 0.93 seconds to 1:13.76. I started with a good dive and a strong butterfly. My butterfly-to-backstroke turn was especially good, as I did not surface for a while after the turn. Like usual, I was looking for the wall at the end of the backstroke segment and lost some momentum as I glided in. Breaststroke and freestyle segments seemed average. I was very pleased to have met and exceeded my goal for this race today, because I have been sick and skipped some training sessions this past week. In fact, my stomach felt a little weird going into this swim. Was this just a symptom of a body recovering from illness, or was it nervousness? Probably the latter because it went away after the swim. I cannot remember the last swim meet when I did NOT set a personal best, so having reached that benchmark so early in my day, I could relax a little.

Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I tried to stay relaxed for this event. In the past I have often sped through the first 50 yards, only to experience significant muscle fatigue during the second 50. So I purposely held back on the first 50. That’s a hard thing to do well, though, since if I go too slow…well, I would be going too slow. It seems like I did this perfectly today. My quadriceps were only slightly fatigued at the end of this swim, and I beat my previous personal best by 2.65 seconds to 1:19.92. Some of this improvement can also be attributed to a good (for me) start from the block with a streamlined glide and then a very good turn at the 25 yard mark (though Dan says I was still too close to the wall). I then overcompensated on the turn at the 75 yard mark, and nearly missed the wall completely. That’s a very awkward feeling; there is a moment when I am suspended under the water, bobbing upward but with hardly any forward motion.

Event #9: 200 Freestyle
Would my success hold up? Yes, it would. I swam this event in 2:33.10, cutting 5.01 seconds off my personal best. That’s more than a 5% improvement since December 1, 2013 when I last swam this event. I started with a too-deep dive but otherwise the swim felt strong and easy. I was paying close attention to my hand position under the water because Shannan had noticed something strange about that earlier in the meet. Whatever it was, it was less apparent during this swim, so in retrospect I am thankful she mentioned the potential problem. Several others at the meet said I swam well in this event (I had Lane 1, which was right in front of a row of spectators). I may have more ability to shave time off this swim in the near future; I was not tired enough after this swim, so I could have gone faster.

Event #10: 25 Breaststroke
I cut 0.12 seconds off my personal best, which isn’t all that much, but a win’s a win. I tried to make my dive shallower this time, since diving deep would cause me to waste some time trying to get to the surface. With breaststroke this is perhaps even more important because of the extended underwater glide. Anyway, I think my dive was good. I felt like I had good lower body propulsion but I may not have thrust my arms forward enough with each stroke. It is so tempting to increase the stroke rate while ignoring the value of increasing the distance traveled per stroke.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: January 6, 2013
Location: Grove City, Pa.

Event #1: 100-yard Individual Medley
Time: 1:18.81
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
I had a great swim meet today! It's not even that my times were that great, but I had a lousy week and I needed this success. I started off with the 100-IM. My goggles leaked on my initial dive, but not terribly so. I was well ahead of my nearest competitors at the 50-yard mark. But then in the middle of my breast stroke I swallowed water, and then more, and then a third gulp failed to get me air. Once you're in a rhythm, it's hard to break it, even if it is all wrong! I panicked and paused at the wall before finishing the 25-yard segment of freestyle. I looked over to my competitors and half of them were just starting their freestyle segment, so I threw on some power and plowed through the water on that last segment. I finished ahead of a few of them. My time was two seconds off my personal best. Not bad, considering the situation.

Event #2: 100-yard Backstroke
Time: 1:22.61
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
My second event was the 100 Backstroke. I avoided backstroke all last year but now I'm really enjoying it. I guessed at a seed time since I had not done this event before. The swim felt good and I finished almost 5 seconds faster than I expected. My quadriceps were burning now, but they recovered during the 20 min before my next event.

Event #3: 100-yard butterfly
Time: 1:20.24
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
My third event was the 100 Butterfly. I have been working on my butterfly stroke with my coach recently, and as a consequence I am a little less confident about it. Does that make sense? Let me explain: My work with the coach has revealed to me that my stroke wasn’t as good as I thought, so now I am working on fixing all the little problems. My work is not complete, so I swam this event with a knowingly imperfect stroke. (Of course, it will always be imperfect…). Nevertheless, I did the first 50 yards with ease and then got tired at the end. My finish was more than a second faster than my personal best. I got mildly nauseous following this swim (a sign of lactic acid buildup), so I know I put in 100% effort. That’s a good feeling, since you know you swam as fast as you could and couldn’t have done any better.

Event #4: 25-yard breaststroke
Time: 17.56
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
My last event was the 25-yard Breaststroke. I purposely chose an easy swim as my last event because I knew that I’d be tired by this time. My dive went quite deep so it took too much time for me to surface. This caused a mediocre performance of 17.56 seconds, about a third of a second slower than my personal best. All in all, I am very happy with my swims today.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters swim meet (scy)
Date: September 16, 2012
Location: Sewickley, Pa.

First swim meet of the season at Baierl Family YMCA:
Event #1: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 2:12.23
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Great to have a new team member who appears to be one of the top 3 fastest people at the whole meet. I am not as fast as him, but my dive was awesome.
Event #2: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 33.53
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 7
I beat my personal best by >1 second, had a great dive and a great turn, and I only swallowed one mouthful of water (oops).

Event #3: 100-yard butterfly
Time: 1:21.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I beat my personal best by almost 2 seconds despite having to pause at the midway point. I pulled myself together though, and finished the last 4 strokes without breathing.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:41.57
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
Arms still burning from the butterfly, I had a great dive and kept neck-to-neck with everyone in my heat for 125 yards. Then the guy next to me took off. This depressed me for 50 yards or so and then I went all-out at the end. I did not beat my personal best but it was a good swim and I'm happy.
Event #5: 25-yard breaststroke
Time: 17.16
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 3
No great expectations here since I knew I'd be tired. But I covered the distance in 17.16 seconds, beating my old time of 18.5.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA Swim Meet (scy)
Date: October 23, 2011
Location: Hollidaysburg, PA

I competed in 4 events:
(1) 100-yard Individual Medley. My seed time was 1:27 and my swim time was 1:21. That's a significant improvement from only a month ago.
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

(2) 50-yard Butterfly. My seed time was 38.42 seconds and my swim was 37.25 seconds, so this is good, too.
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

(3) 200-yard Freestyle. My seed time was 2:57 and my swim time was 2:52.73 Another personal best! This was a funny swim because I was the only one in my heat due to other people scratching. There were folks in later heats that could have moved up, but I guess they were too scared to compete with me :)
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

(4) 25-yard breaststroke. My seed time was 18.53 seconds but my swim was 18.84 seconds, so this was the one event where I did not out-perform myself. Oh well, can't win them all.
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: March 5, 2011
Location: Sewickley, PA

Event #1: 25-yard Breaststroke
Time: 18.53 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4

Event #2: 25-yard Freestyle
Time: 15.31 seconds
Age Group Rank: 6 out of 6

Event #3: 100-yard Individual Medley
Time: 1:28.26
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 9, 2011
Location: Grove City, PA

Event #1: 25-yard Freestyle
Time: 15.86 seconds
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2

Event #2: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 3:12.15
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3



Me at the wall. I'm not sure if this is the start of my race or an open turn (I am not sure I knew how to do a flipturn at this point)