AMYMSA Championships 2018

I took my swimming league’s championship very seriously this year. Masters swimming is much less about beating other swimmers and teams, but instead, it is about setting personal goals and trying to beat them. My goal this year was to come as close as possible to repeating the performances I had last year when I achieved 6 personal bests out of 7 events. That was huge, so I didn’t think it would be realistic to perform quite as well this time. Instead of 6 personal bests, my goal was one. Good news! I beat that goal and set 2 new personal bests out of 7 events. Here’s a rundown:

 

SATURDAY

Event #3: 100-yard Freestyle

This would be my best opportunity for a personal best because I had not swum this at Spire before. The pool at Spire is state-of-the-art and due to design features, its waters are free of waves and turbulence that in other pools slow swimmers down. All I would have to do is lower my time by more than 1.5%, and I’d get a personal best. That seemed likely, given that in the past two years at Spire, I was able to lower my times by an average of 1.6%. On the starting block I pulled up my hips like Coach Josh had shown me a few days before, and I rocketed into the water at the starting beep. My dive felt fast, I kicked hard, and took no breaths in the first length. I almost missed the wall at the first turn, and that slowed me down a little, but I kept going and had a good turn the second time. Heading into the wall again at the opposite end, I flipped over too soon and only the tips of my toes brushed the wall for the push off. Danise said I came to a complete stop in the water. It’s hard to recover from that, but I tried. I finished the event in 1:03.88, which was 0.31 seconds slower than my personal best. This record could have been easily broken by 2 full seconds had it not been for that bad turn. Knowing this, I was optimistic about the rest of my swims at champs; this swim showed I was in peak condition.

 

Event #7: 50-yard Freestyle

I couldn’t imagine beating my personal best of 27.00 in this event, set at Spire last year. I do this swim every month at swim meets, and throughout 2017-18, I had never swum this faster than 28.50. I didn’t care. I would just go as fast as I could. I plunged into the water and pulled hard with my arms with each stroke. I had planned my breaths ahead of time: no breaths going out, and two breaths on the way back. This is where my personality gets in the way of things. On the way back, I didn’t really feel the need to breathe. But my plan said I should. The debate in my head caused me to take an awkward half-breath that didn’t do me much good. In fact, Shannan said I paused in my stroke when I took that breath. I finished in 27.26 seconds. That’s right; if I had skipped that (unneeded) breath entirely, I would have beaten my personal best!

 

Event #9: 50-yard Breaststroke

My personal best in this event was 37.34, set way back in 2013. My 2017-18 season’s best time was close, so in Spire’s awesome pool, I knew I had a chance to set a new record. The problem with breaststroke is that you can go fast in two different ways: (1) increase your stroke rate, or (2) increase the glide between strokes. I’m never sure which works best for me. For the last few years I have been doing the former. This year I planned to do the latter. I was talking to Gary about this as we lined up at the starting blocks. He gave me some pointers on what might make one’s breaststroke faster, and I appreciated that, but the moment before a race is never the time to experiment with a new technique. I don’t remember my dive or pullout, but what I do remember is the novel sensation of water rushing over my freshly shaven legs. I’ve never shaved my legs before, but for this one swim it was worth it. I concentrated on my kick, making it push as much water behind me as I could. I could feel every water molecule as I did it, and I savored the sensation. I finished in 37.15 seconds, a new personal best.

 

SUNDAY

Event #12: 500 –yard Freestyle

I felt less energy on Sunday morning than I did on Saturday, so I didn’t know what would happen with this long-distance race. I didn’t expect to lower my personal best set at Spire last year because in my training during the previous month I have been doing a lot of sprints and not practicing my longer distances. Anyway, I had two strategies this year. First, I wanted to quicken my pace after length 14, because that is when I typically slow down due to fatigue. To quicken my pace, I concentrated on reaching farther with my arms and pulling more water. Looking at my results, I see that this had no effect. I still got slower. I admit at this point I was thinking about my future swims and I didn’t want to go too fast. My second strategy was to stay with my nearest competitor in the water because he had a similar seed time. This didn’t work because I went too fast and got well ahead of him during the first half of my swim. He came charging past me midway through, and I didn’t have the energy to keep up at that point. Despite not improving in the ways that I wanted, I finished this swim in 6:50.65, just 0.41 seconds slower than my personal best. If only I had added one extra kick to length 11, or streamlined a little more on turn 6, or shaved the little hairs on my toes!! Missing my record by one tenth of one percent was the hardest thing to endure this weekend. The regret was sour! That’s ok, I can learn from this.

 

Event #16: 50-yard Butterfly

This swim was the longest-shot for obtaining a new personal best. My season’s best time had been 32.18 and my personal best was 30.06 seconds. I’d have to increase my speed by more than 7% to set a new record. Not likely, but I love the 50 Fly and I really wanted this one to be my best swim of the weekend. I’d been practicing it a lot, and doing a lot of weight training to help my upper body strength. I was confident enough that I asked Shannan to record it on video. Dan and I were in adjacent lanes, and that can sometimes cause me some subconscious stress as I try to beat my friend and competitor. Today, though, I paid Dan no attention when we were in the water. As he said, “In a 50-yard race, there is no time to look around.” I’m really happy with my swim. I planned to take 4 breaths but only took one or two. My turnover was fast, and I felt like I was just skimming the surface the whole time. I finished in 30.75 seconds. Percentage-wise, this was my second-worst performance of the weekend, but I don’t feel bad about it at all. I did everything I had trained to do, and I had fun.

 

Event #20: 50-yard Backstroke

This is the one swim I am disappointed with. I had been practicing my backstroke a lot, and I felt I had a decent shot at breaking a personal record. Alas, I couldn’t get my hips up. This is not a problem in practice, but when I go at race pace, I somehow lose my posture and create a lot of drag under the water. I finished in 37.30 seconds, much slower than my personal best of 36.02.

 

Event #21: 200-yard Freestyle

I had little time to rest before this next event, my last of the meet. Since it was my last swim, I didn’t have to save any energy for a later swim. The chance of a personal best was somewhat low, given my season’s best time was 3.2% slower than my record of 2:27.86. I concentrated on a good dive and long stroke length. I felt invigorated and powerful. I punched the wall at 2:27.45 and smiled wide.

AMYMSA Greensburg

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: November 20, 2016
Location: Greensburg, PA

I'm starting to get serious about my competitive swimming again (after a lazy year in 2015 and the longer distance training for my 2016 Ironman). This meet illustrates that I still have speed, and by later in the season I am likely to have more.

My first event was the 100 IM. This was extra fun because Dan was in the lane next to me, and one of these days I'm going to beat him. I didn't have a great dive; I just wasn't ready when the signal sounded. My fly felt good though, and I was at the wall before I knew it. My turn was sloppy. I really need to think while I swim and plan ahead for these things. Anyway, Dan was ahead during the whole butterfly segment and I needed to get closer on backstroke. You can't see your competitors during backstroke so I just went as fast as i could. I felt my legs sinking a bit and solved the problem halfway through by kicking with my hips more than my knees. I had a nice turn at the wall and saw that Dan and I were neck-to-neck. My pullout in the breaststroke was a little short, but I was keeping up with Dan. His turns are better than mine, but in breaststroke I might have a touch faster stroke. At the wall I did a good turn and poured on the gas during freestyle. I kicked hard. I stopped breathing. I wanted to out-touch Dan. I think I improved my position from half a body length to getting even with him. We touched the wall at the same time...well, almost. He finished in 1:13.65. I finished in 1:13.88. I didn't beat him...this time! I still feel great about my race though, as I was just 0.12 seconds slower than my personal best. I can beat that next time.

My second event was the 50 Fly. I practiced this some during the previous week, but I'm pretty rusty after having ignored the stroke during my Ironman training. My dive was good and I added a few underwater kicks that seem to be helping me to surface in a more horizontal position. I concentrated on form and my swim probably looked really good, but I didn't have a fast turnover rate. My time was thus 1.69 seconds slower than my personal best. I am not unhappy with this. In order to get faster I had to improve my form. I didn't have good form last month; now I do, and I will get faster next swim meet.

My third event was the 50 Back. I don't swim this often because I don't feel good about my start (and it is hard to practice it at my pool). Anyway, I learned from the 100 IM and made sure to kick with my whole legs instead of just below the knees. I pulled a lot of water with my arms and I did the best I could. Even my turn and finish were really good. My finish time was 36.16, which was just 0.14 seconds off my personal best. Again, I feel like I can lower this next time I swim!

Feeling good about my previous events, I felt the pressure to perform lighten and it appears I took the 200 Freestyle a little too easy. A swimmer at the block was talking to me about how important it is to swim a little slower during the first half of the event so that you still have power at the end. I decided to take this advice so I reigned in my swimming during the first 3 laps. But this backfired because by the last lap my arms were still fatigued and I couldn't go any faster. My finish time was 2:31.27, almost 3 seconds slower than my personal best, and 0.39 seconds slower than two weeks ago.

Overall, I had a great time, and made an effort to talk to more people, too. The meets in 2015 were not as fun because I wasn't as social and I wasn't training as hard, either.

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 swim meet

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: February 21, 2016
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa

I had mixed feelings going into this meet. I was looking forward to the competition today, but I was feeling sluggish. The sluggishness dominated during my first couple events:

Event#2: 100 IM. My butterfly felt strong but my stroke rate was rather slow. Backstroke felt slow. Breaststroke felt slow...and my legs felt stiff from my long run the day before. I hadn't noticed I was sore from that until this part of my swim. I tried to recover in the freestyle segment, but my time was 1:15.49, or 1.73 seconds slower than my personal best.

Event #4 50-yard Butterfly. I decided to work harder in this event after my "slow" performance in the 100IM. I planned it out in my head before the start. I would take only 3 breaths. I followed my plan, and had a quick turn at the wall. My stroke rate was good. One of the faster swimmers in our league complimented my form, saying it was only a matter of time before I would be in his heat. Always nice to hear that! (I realize I will need to do more fly during workouts to achieve this). My only regret about this event was my dive. It was too deep and I took too long to return to the surface. I finished in 32.45, which was 0.87 seconds slower than my personal best.

Event #8: 50-yard Backstroke. What a disappointment! I put my heart into this race and had a great performance until the very end. I looked for the backstroke flags overhead, did 2 or 3 strokes and then peered over my shoulder to find the wall too far away for me to touch. I should have just kicked a little more, which would have provided the necessary thrust to move me forward. However, I panicked and didn't think of that until what seemed like 3 seconds of fruitless reaching. My time was 37.92 seconds, which was 1.9 seconds slower than my personal best. I could have had a best time today, but I failed! I was angry.

Event #9: 200-freestyle. "Ok, calm down. Let's do the 200-free. I should do well in this because I have been practicing this distance a lot in training." At the buzzer I dove in and tried to take it out a little slow. This was my strategy; I wanted negative splits. However, I seemed to be leading my heat after the first turn. I continued to increase my lead for the next 3 lengths. I felt myself kicking more than normal, but I wasn't too out of breath. My turns started out really good, then got progressively sloppy. I finished whole seconds ahead of everyone else with a time of 2:28.45, a new personal best. My old time was 2.2 seconds slower.

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 meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: October 25, 2015
Location: Greensburg, PA
Time:
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: X out of X
Results: http:

50-Backstroke: I wasn't excited to be at this swim meet because I knew I was not in top condition. I didn't want to see how bad I would be. My 50-back featured a turn that sent me to the pool bottom (I tried not to push off from the bottom, but I dragged my feet). Despite this, my swim didn't turn out too bad and I snapped out of my funk.

50-Fly: This went really well. I might concentrate a little more on my turnover rate, but I completed this race without even being out of breath.

25-Free: I hardly ever do 25-yard races but I wanted something easy this meet. I came close to a personal best today.

100-IM: My fly took me to the wall fairly fast, but then I messed up my turn. I ended up on my chest and took a freestyle stroke until I remembered I was supposed to be doing backstroke. I don't know why I got confused. I had played over the event for several minutes before this race to review what I had to do. Anyway, I briefly got discouraged from my mistake, skipping a full breatstroke pull-out, but I recovered and started speeding. I gained a lot on my opponents during the freestyle at the end, but my final time was still a couple seconds too slow.

I look forward to the next meet. I've got this now.

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 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 meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 11, 2015
Location: Grove City, PA

We had our AMYMSA Masters Swim meet today at Grove City YMCA.

I swam the 50-yard Butterfly in 32.54, which was 0.22 seconds slower than my personal best. My dive was good but my dolphin kicks getting me to the surface were weak. I am also still pausing with my arms ahead of me during each stroke, which makes it hard to maintain the proper rhythm. I took only 3 breaths during the event and did not feel at all tired at the end (does that mean I should have worked harder?). Overall, I can’t complain because my speed was still good relative to past performance, and it is fun to think about how much faster I will be when I can work out these glitches.

I swam the 25-yard Freestyle in 12.99 seconds, shaving 0.3 seconds off my previous personal best. It took me a few seconds to invent my strategy (I should do this before the race!) of kicking hard and reaching far out ahead of me to grab as much water as possible with each arm stroke.

I swam the 50-yard Backstroke in 36.32 seconds, breaking my old record by 0.22 seconds. I feel great about this race. I think my arms, legs, head, and torso were all doing what they were supposed to be doing. My only failure was at the end when I started my glide into the wall much too early and I spent (what seemed like) a full second forcing myself to the touchpad. I am confident that my swim would have been well under 36 seconds without that mistake.

The 200-yard Freestyle was the very next event. I was not tired or sore yet, but I was still winded from the 50 Back. My strategy was to conserve energy and not go too fast during the first half of the race. I usually swim my fastest at the start and then get fatigued prematurely. I found that Dan Nadler was in the lane next to me and it seemed like he was maintaining a pace about right for me. It was helpful to pretend that we were driving cars in adjacent lanes of a divided highway, and we had set our respective cruise controls to the same speed. I was content to just swim next to him until the last 50 when I planned to step on the gas pedal and beat him. It didn’t quite work that way because I think he still beat me, but that last 50 was fun because of this competition, and I had something to distract my thoughts away from physical discomfort. I paid a heavy toll when I was done. I got out of the water and immediately felt wobbly and lightheaded as I walked to my chair. I plopped down without grace and sat there for 10 minutes as I caught my breath, massaged my very heavy-feeling and painful arms, and stared into space. I had reached my physical limit. I am proud of that. I didn’t beat my personal best (I was about 2 seconds slower today), but I am content knowing I gave it everything I had.

AMYMSA Masters Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA Masters Swim Meet
Date: November 16, 2014
Location:
Results: http:

I swam in four events and did not set any personal bests. This is maybe only the second time this has ever happened in my short swimming career, and I'm fine with it. I was distracted by a few things before/during the meet, I did not warm-up, I was poorly hydrated, and my confidence was a notch lower due to discovering some problems with my butterfly on Friday, only two days before the meet. I knew all of this going in, and it helped me relax and have fun instead of worrying about setting a personal best.

100 IM: 1:14.12 was 0.26 seconds off my personal best.
50 Fly: 31.58 may be a mistake. If accurate, I beat my personal best by 0.74 seconds and beat Dan by 0.01 seconds.
50 Back: 37.23 was 0.69 seconds off my personal best.
200 Free: 2:38.16 was 5.06 seconds off my personal best. I went out too fast and got tired at the end. I also had lousy turns.

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.

AMYMSA Championship Meet

Race: Masters Swim Championship Meet
Date: 5- 6 April 2014
Location: Indiana, Pa.

Saturday, April 5, 2014
I have now completed my 3rd year of swimming competitively for the AMYMSA organization. In my first two years I experienced a rapid improvement in race times as I learned to perfect my strokes. In this third year, my strokes still need some work, but I have been doing a lot more training sessions at race speeds to improve my endurance and my overall pace. I have continued to improve my times for most events this year, but only by fractions of second in most cases. My performance at this weekend’s championship meet is a reflection of this state of affairs; I set 2 personal bests (out of 7 events) and came very close to my top times in the remaining 5. Alas, I was hoping for even greater success. I am still pleased with how well I swam this weekend because I have been suffering from a fairly potent cold since Wednesday. Symptoms included sinus congestion, chest congestion, laryngitis, lethargy, and even a bout of diarrhea on Saturday morning. Sorry to be so graphic about that, but I am really proud of myself for even getting in the pool, and even more, swimming at or near my top speed for all events. I express my apologies to anyone who catches my cold in the coming days…

EVENT #2: 200 yard Medley Relay **personal best**
This event was swum by 4 male members of the Greensburg team in the order of backstroke, breast, fly, and freestyle. We agreed that I would do the backstroke segment. This was a wise choice; I swam it in 35.99 seconds, which is 0.55 seconds faster than I have ever swum 50 yards of backstroke. Unfortunately, medley segment split times are not counted when my season’s best times are posted on the organization website, so I won’t use it as a new benchmark for backstroke.

EVENT #3: 100 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 1:07.17, which is 1.23 seconds slower than my best time. In the water, I felt pretty good about this swim. But during the last 25 yards I noticed that my arm turnover rate was really fast and I didn’t seem to be gaining any extra speed from that. In fact, I swam the first 50 yards in 31.87 seconds and the second 50 yards in 35.3 seconds. These splits are not too bad, but Shannan noted that I wasn’t stretching my arms in front of me to grab enough water with each stroke, so I burned extra energy and gained nothing from the effort.

EVENT #7: 50 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 29.48 seconds, which is 0.50 seconds slower than my best time. Shannan complimented me on my dive; but again, I wasn’t throwing my arms forward enough to grab the water. I also found myself taking breaths when I didn’t even need them. I should plan my breaths ahead of time for the 50 free, just as I do for the 50 fly.

EVENT #10: 200 yard Individual Medley **personal best**
I swam this event in 2:52.30, beating my old personal best by 1.69 seconds. I felt my speed in the pool. My butterfly segment felt smooth and effortless; I was not especially winded when I started the backstroke. Backstroke went well until the wall where I had a sloppy transition to breaststroke. Breaststroke felt good and strong. I don’t remember much about my freestyle segment, but looking at my splits, this is where I faltered, relative to my age group competitors. I came in 4th out of 4 men in my age group. At the end of the butterfly I was ahead of Nick, the eventual 2nd place finisher. At the end of the backstroke, Nick had shot ahead, but I was on pace with Gary, the eventual 3rd place finisher. At the end of the breaststroke, I was still within 3 seconds of Gary. But my freestyle split was 42.83; Gary’s was 34.31 (Nick’s was 34.94 and Ben’s was 36.94). I slowed down at the end much more than my competitors. Despite this being a personal best for me, I can still make a lot of improvement next year.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
EVENT #13: 200 yard Freestyle Relay
Just as on Saturday, I swam in a relay with my teammates. All of us swam freestyle, though, and I was in the third position. My team never practices relays and the only time I ever do one is at champs. I am therefore a little wary of the dive, since I have to dive over the teammate who is finishing his segment as I am beginning mine. I can say that today’s dive may have been my best ever. I was in the air for a long time and traveled really far before hitting the water. Then I pressed the gas pedal. My turn was excellent and I my arm stroke was fully extended. My split time was 32.23 seconds, which is far from my fastest 50 free. Perhaps the dive wasn’t as awesome as I thought; or maybe it was my breathing. I again found myself turning my head for a breath even though I did not feel the need to breathe.

EVENT #14: 100 yard Individual Medley
I swam this event in 1:13.97, which is only 0.21 seconds off my personal best. I don’t have any specific recollections about this swim. I swam it as fast as I could, and my quadriceps were burning a little after I got out of the pool. In fact, I felt nauseated for the next few minutes. This is not a pleasant sensation, but it indicates I pushed myself beyond my aerobic limit. Anaerobic metabolism takes over at that point, and I ate a package of fruit snacks to recover from the energy deficit.

EVENT #16: 50 yard Butterfly
At this point I had already proven to myself that my butterfly stroke was back (in the previous week, I had worked with my coach to fine-tune my butterfly because it had become choppy). So with confidence, I swam this event in 32.52 seconds, which is 0.20 seconds off my best time. Oh so close! But I was sick, and had I been well I surely would have set a new record.

EVENT #17: 100 yard Backstroke
Now I was worried; I had only 6 minutes to rest between the 50 Fly and the 100 Back. It was just enough. I jumped in the water with Shannan right there rooting for me. I felt good. But then the buzzer went off a little sooner than I expected and I didn’t have a good start. I ignored the stumble and sliced through the water. I started to feel tired at the 75-yard mark, but something really strange happened then. I was looking at the ceiling and I saw a wire strung over my head and parallel with my lane. I completely focused on that wire and tuned everything else out. I pondered what the wire was for, and I pretended that it was where the TV camera would be if I were swimming in the Olympics. I did not want to let down this pretend TV audience so I swam harder. I felt my legs quicken and I lurched forward toward the touch pad. I felt tired, but in concentrating on the ceiling feature I was able to ignore it. In reality, my splits show I slowed down from 39.11 seconds during the first 50 yards to 41.04 seconds during the second 50 yards. But it felt like I was going 100 miles per hour at the very end. I finished the event in 1:20.15 seconds, 0.23 seconds slower than my best time.

EVENT #19: 100 yard Butterfly **personal best**
I had only 12 minutes rest between my 100 Back and my 100 Fly. This is really rushing things, but I felt relaxed during this whole swim meet. Maybe I need to get sick more often, just to dampen my normal nervousness. I swam this event in 1:21.00 seconds, beating my old time by 0.24 seconds. I did fine for the first 50 yards, started to tire at yard 75, and then I fell apart in the last 25. I was breathing on every stroke—or at least trying to. My arms would not pull themselves over my head. I had a moment when I thought about quitting but by that time the wall was just about within reach so I took another couple “strokes” and got there. Despite my poor health and my lack of endurance for butterfly, I swam this faster than ever before. It was great to end my 3rd year on swim team with some success.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: 9 February 2014
Location: Franklin, Pa

AMYMSA Swim Meet in Franklin, Pa.
I had a great meet. I got three personal bests out of four swims. Most importantly, I am still on track for meeting my end-of-season goals. Let me set the stage: Last fall I had been swimming well enough at meets, but I was not improving to the degree that I was used to, nor what I knew I could accomplish. So in early January I worked with my coach to set some goals, with the realization that reaching those goals would require a commitment to pushing myself harder during practices. Today’s meet was my chance to test whether I was on track in the 50-yard butterfly event. My goal today was to set a personal best of 32.43 seconds, which would position me well to swim it in 31.5 seconds by the end of the season in April. Read on to see if I met today’s goal….

Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
My time was 1:14.69, which lowered my personal best by about half a second. My swim was not without flaws, since my back-breast turn was sloppy. But otherwise, this swim felt effortless to the point where I had to remind myself to swim faster. My backstroke felt particularly fast today. My stroke rate is often slower than my competitors due to my long arms, but I was easily keeping up with them. I elected to use the strength of each stroke propel me rather than quicken my turnover rate (this is a quality over quantity argument; I went with a stronger stroke rather than a faster stroke). My back-breast turn was poor because I initiated the turn too soon and found myself a bit on my stomach before reaching the wall. I would have been disqualified for that if anyone cared. My breaststroke segment felt good and I concentrated on a more rapid stroke rate in combination with good forward thrust of the arms. I saw no one in front of me during the breaststroke so I thought maybe all my competitors were behind me. I continued to think I was leading my heat during the freestyle segment. But at the end of the race I saw that fellow age-grouper Gary was on my left and had beat me by a second. I did not see him because I breathe on my right. We had a good chat after the race.

Event #4: 50 Butterfly
My time was 32.32, so yes, I beat my goal and set a new personal best. I had a fairly shallow dive and came to the surface a little sooner than I like. Also, I glided too much into the far wall; I should have taken another stroke to keep my momentum. But I was at least a body length ahead of everyone else in the pool and I can’t tell you how exciting that is. I knew this was going to turn out to be a great swim. After I got out of the pool, a particularly fast swimmer named Jim came over to me and gave me much encouragement. He said I had a powerful arm pull that carried me through the water (you will always be my friend if you compliment my upper body strength, which personally, I think is lacking). He said I could easily bring my time below 30 seconds with a couple changes to my swim. First, I should keep my head down. This advice surprised me, since I never really thought about my head position when I am not taking a breath (I only took 3 breaths in 50 yards). Second, my shoulder blades should pinch in the back as I bring my arms out of the water on the recovery. He didn’t say why this would be an improvement, but now that I think about it, I think this is just another way for me to thrust my chest forward, which is what my coach has been trying to get me to do.

Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I have this event on my list of things I like but it is far from my best event. My time was 1:22.57, which lowered my personal best by exactly 0.04 seconds. I did not expect to break this record because most recently I swam the event in 1:27.25. But in the water I felt really good. The roof rafters and flags were really passing me fast overhead. My turns were really quite good, too, which is a big improvement from last fall. I kicked like crazy to get me to the finish.

Event #8: 50 Backstroke
My personal best in this event is 36.54. I swam it today in 36.84. It took me a long time to recover from the 100 Back. My heart rate took a while to slow down and my quadriceps were hurting so bad that I walked with a limp. But somehow, at just the right moment, everything settled down and I jumped in the pool to start my 50 back. I still felt fast and my turn at the wall was pretty good. However, I misjudged where the wall was at the finish, so I turned on my side way too early…coasting, reaching, and eventually finding the touchpad with the grace and speed of a manatee. Before I was out of the water, John K. raised his voice and told me my finish sucked. Yep, that was true. He and I have a great relationship, so while this might have sounded harsh to people who don’t know us, I felt the love inside his rebuke. He wanted me to do well and I didn’t. Or at least, I didn’t do as well as I could have…because 36.84 was only 0.30 seconds off my best, and I would have beaten my time by a lot if I didn’t mess up the finish. Later, I was talking with Victor and he said I should work on my streamlining at the start: “Let your dive carry you farther before starting your stroke.” Then I watched an 80 year-old woman do exactly that. If she did it, I should do it. I should definitely start watching old ladies in the pool! (but seriously, thanks for the advice Victor).

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: 20 October 2013
Location: Indiana, PA
Results: http://www.amymsa.org/Results/S2013-2014/IndianaOct13.html

Second swim meet of the season. I felt great, even though I haven't been doing a lot of training in the pool lately.

Event #1: 200 freestyle
New personal best of 2:38.11. This beats my old personal best of 2:38.45 I set in April 2013. This was a great swim. It felt perfect. I shattered my seed time, which I always set as my personal best so I know immediately if I have set a new record. I made a mistake this time, though. I submitted a seed time for the 200-free based on the 200-IM, so I did not shatter my old record by as much as I initially thought. Oh well, it's still a new PB.

Event #2: 50 backstroke
I swam this in 38.49, missing my personal best by about two seconds. I was still tired from the 200 free, and I misjudged the wall and failed to do a good turn.

Event #3: 50 butterfly
This went pretty effortlessly. I swam in 33.17, which was just a half-second away from my personal best of 32.43. I could have sped up my stroke rate and gone faster.

Event #4: 100 Individual Medley
I swam this in 1:15.24 which bested my previous time by 0.67 second. I was pretty tired by this time but this felt good. I was breathing really hard after I got out of the pool, so I know I did my best.

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: March 3, 2013
Location: Indiana, Pa.

I had a good swim meet at Indiana University but not not exemplary. I swam the 400 IM, 50 backstroke, 25 freestyle, and 50 butterfly.

Event #1: 400 Individual Medley
Time: 6:46.44
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

My seed time was 6:45.00 so I feel pretty good about my swim. I had never swam the 400 IM at a meet so there was some extra excitement and nerves going into the race. I felt my right oblique muscle tense up and my left toe cramp as I watched the heat of swimmers ahead of me. Oh boy, I thought, I hope I'll be OK. There is always some inner drama when I am competing! The swim itself was OK but not great. My butterfly segment felt easy until I swallowed water at yard 20 and spent the remaining 70 yards trying to clear my airway. I know this description makes it sound serious, but it wasn't. I've swallowed water lots of times and it's never pleasant but I swim through it. Still, it always distracts for the rest of the race. My backstroke turns were terrible, and by the time I was doing breaststroke I felt weak in the arms (but strangely, not very tired). My breaststroke turns and pull-outs were half-hearted. I even did an open turn during the freestyle segment. In sum, I swam this to get it done. Even so, I swam this faster than I ever did in practice.

Event #2: 50 Backstroke
Time: 38.28
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2

My time was about 2 seconds slower than my best time. That's not a good swim! But I only feel that way in hindsight. It felt good in the water. I think the problem was my start. The official was running the heats super fast and I felt rushed. The start tone surprised me, so I got a late start. In my head I like to "play a tape" of me swimming each race before I actually do it. It's an imaging thing that helps me prepare. I didn't have the chance to do that with this event.

Event #3: 25 Freestyle
Time: 13.29
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

This was actually my best event of the day because I set a personal best. I was a little angry that I hadn't met my goals in the previous two events, so I plunged through this with every ounce of desire.

Event #4: 50 Butterfly
Time: 34.00
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4

This might be my favorite event in swimming but I felt tired by this point. My stroke was good but not especially strong. My arms didn't pull as much water as I know they are capable of. I think I took three breaths, an improvement from the five I took last time. My turn was late and too close to the wall. And speaking of the wall, I have finally figured out why my turns are so bad at swim meets in comparison to practices at my home pool. My home pool's walls are of a different design and in "away" pools I get disoriented about where to put my hands during breaststroke, butterfly, and IM turns. That doesn't explain my poor backstroke turns, though. I'm just bad with estimating my position as I approach.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: Clearfield, PA

My meet yesterday was at the Clearfield YMCA. It’s a brand new pool. I did 4 events and set personal bests in all of them:

1. 100 IM = 1:19.64 is about 2 seconds better than when I did the event in October. Somebody on my team told me I flutter-kicked between backstroke and breaststroke. I said “yes, that sounds like something I would do!” I’m within 6 seconds of my best friend, so I know I’ll beat him at some point. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.

2. 50 Fly = 35.45 is about 2 seconds faster than my personal best. The swim went well, but my ending was terrible—I hit the wall at midstroke so that was a little awkward and probably added a second to my time. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

3. 25 Free = 13.72 is about 0.3 sec faster than my personal best. Of course there is a lot of measurement error with such a short event combined with human stop-watch operators. I remember breathing a few times, and this shouldn’t be necessary so I know that’s one way to improve. I got first place in my gender-age group for this event because no one else did it. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.

4. 50 Back = 41.16 is considerably less than the seed time of 47.0 that I submitted, but that was simply a guess because I had never done this event before. I think my start was reasonably good for someone who hasn’t had much practice. I don’t know if my hands and head landed in the right spot, but it felt fine. I really flew on the first 25 and despite paying attention to the flags I flipped over far too late to do a flipturn at the wall so I did an open turn. On my way back, my friend said my hips/torso was undulating side-to-side too much. I sometimes (often?) do this in freestyle, too, and I’m not sure whether this is fatigue or just too much [wild] enthusiasm during a race. Speaking of wild enthusiasm, at the end of the 50 yards I somehow ended up in the corner of the lane and missed touching the pad, so I think I might have been a second or two faster than indicated. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.

I’ve now acquired 100 points over 6 meets this season. I’m still the slowest member of my gender-age group but I’m having a blast.