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.

Split times of 500 Free at Spire

These split times represent the time it takes for me to swim each successive 50-yard lap during a 500-yard race. The lower the line, the faster I am swimming. The best strategy is to go at a consistent speed for the whole race. However, my recent swims show I am still slowing down toward the end of the race (the lines increase at the right side of graph). I set a personal best last week, and this was accomplished by swimming faster throughout the whole distance. Meanwhile, I am still tired out at the end, and I could improve my overall finish time by keeping a consistent speed.

AMYMSA Champs at Spire

Race: Masters swim meet, championship
Date: April 8-9, 2017
Location: Geneva, OH

This past weekend was my Master’s Swim Association Championship Meet at the Spire Institute near Geneva, Ohio. I had a good feeling going into the meet; I thought I was going to do well because I felt prepared and strong. I even posted to Facebook the day before we left, saying “I’m going to kick butt at champs!” This ended up being completely and undisputedly true.

Event#3: 100-yard Individual Medley
I swam this in 1:11.78, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set in February 2014. I kicked this old record good, lowering my time by 1.98 seconds, a decrease of 2.7%. My friends report I was first in my heat at the halfway mark but my competitors caught up during my breaststroke. This is ironic because I had made plans about my butterfly (“use a smaller kick and faster stroke rate”), backstroke (“kick fast and keep my hips up”), and freestyle (“take fewer breaths”), but I didn’t have a strategy for my breaststroke. I thank Arianne Winkleblech for helping me improve my backstroke kick in practices last month.

Event #5: 50-yard Butterfly
I swam this in 30.06, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set in November 2014. I kicked this old record good, too, lowering my time by 1.52 seconds, a decrease of 4.8%. I have reinvented my butterfly stroke this winter, making my kick smaller and increasing my arm stroke rate. I could do this consistently during the first 25 yards in practice, but I had had limited success at the 50-yard distance. Today I did the new stroke the whole distance. I actually placed 2nd in my age group, beating out the reliable powerhouses of Daniel Pruzinsky and Ben Mayhew. Ben was gracious and supportive, while also expressing great surprise. Me too, Ben. Me too.

Event #8: 100-yard Butterfly
I swam this in 1:12.50, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set in January 2013. I thought this would be an easy record to beat because I had never swum in this event since I set that old record. Surely I have improved in 4 years! I lowered my time by a whopping 7.74 seconds, a drop of 9.6%. I have more I can improve upon; I noted a bad turn at the 50-yard mark, and I started taking too many breaths during the last length.

Event #10: 200-yard Freestyle
I swam this in 2:27.86, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set in February 2016. The improvement was 0.59 seconds or 0.4%. My dive felt great and I felt very powerful until I got to the 100 yard mark. Then, I nearly missed the wall. My toe barely brushed across the touchpad and I lost all momentum. Daniel Pruzinsky and I were in adjacent lanes and while at first he and I were neck-to-neck, this poor turn caused me to drop well back from him. Not only did a bad turn slow me down, but the next 25 yards of swimming were spent thinking about the mistake and wondering if I would get disqualified (the officials at this meet were actually giving out DQs), rather than what I could do to minimize its impacts. I thank Josh Gurekovich working with me this past week on my dives.

To sum up my first day of Champs, I set new personal bests in all four events. Three of these were substantial improvements resulting from changes I made to my butterfly stroke. I did some other things differently in the last few weeks of training that may have also made a difference. I will list these later in this post.

When I was a new swimmer in 2010, it was commonplace to set new personal bests, but it has been harder to set them now that my stroke techniques have matured and the small inefficiencies that developed early in my career have become ingrained and harder to squelch. Swimming is a highly technical sport, and tiny adjustments in body placement significantly impact speed. Somehow at this Championship meet, I made a few adjustments that made a difference. My great success from Saturday continued into Sunday.

Event #13: 500-yard Freestyle
I swam this in 6:50.24, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set last year at Spire in April 2016. I kicked this old record good, lowering my time by 14.12 seconds, a decrease of 3.3%. My goals were to keep my pace steady from lap to lap, concentrate on having streamlined turns, and to stay ahead of all my competitors in adjacent lanes, since all had similar seed times as me. During the race I saw that I was leading my heat from the start, and I tried to slow down just a little so I wouldn’t burn out. I didn’t need to do this. I had practiced this swim over and over during my practices in the preceding month so I would probably have been fine going a little faster. I felt strong throughout, and I was not breathing hard, which helped me stay under the water longer at each turn. I smiled underwater when I saw the official standing over my lane, ringing the bell. This was a signal to everyone that the fastest swimmer of the heat had one more lap. Guess who that was? It was me! And I promptly got distracted by my giddiness and screwed up my last turn, right under the official’s nose. I thank Shannan for counting my laps and cheering me on.

Event #19: 50-yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 27.00 seconds, which was a new personal best, breaking my old record set last year at Spire in April 2016. I lowered my time by 1.38 seconds or 4.9%. This magnitude of improvement rarely happens in a 50-yard race; there is simply too little distance over which small changes in technique can have a cumulative effect. I really couldn’t believe what I saw when I looked at the timing board and saw 27.00. How did I do it? I had a great dive, strong arm pull, and I took only two breaths.

Event #21: 50-yard Breaststroke
I swam this event in 37.56 seconds, which ended up being 0.20 seconds slower than my personal best, set in November 2015. It’s too bad I couldn’t go 7 for 7 in terms of setting records, but the way I am looking at it now is that I’m leaving an easy record for me to beat next time. I went into the race with some mixed emotions, so my failure to swim it fast was probably a result of psychological factors instead of physical factors. Coach Josh thinks my breaststroke is my best stroke out of the four (breast, back, free, and fly). However, others whom I trust saw an issue with my head movement that could be improved. I learned about this on the day of my race, so during warm-ups I practiced the breaststroke with less head movement, and a fellow swimmer walking by my lane actually complimented me on how “smooth” my stroke was. I had not sought out this feedback, so I thought I must have fixed the problem. I think I probably did, but it was not enough to set a personal best. I don’t care. With so many fallen records in this meet, I am content.

In sum, I set 6 personal bests out of 7 events. My average improvement was 3.6%. I cannot wait to compete again to see if I can keep lowering my times. To do so, I have to figure out what I did this year that could have resulted in such success. Here is a list of things I think could have made a difference:

1. I wrote up a list of things ahead of time to concentrate on during each event. This helped me focus. Many athletes forget how important it is to mentally prepare for a race.

2. I shaved my chest and wore a swim cap. There isn’t a lot of data out there on whether or not this produces a measureable effect; it may reduce drag in the water, or it may be the placebo effect. In any case, the effect is estimated to be 1-2%, so this could account for only part of my success.

3. I asked my coach to work with me on my dives the week before my swim meet. This likely helped a lot on my 50- and 100-yard events, where the dive accounts for a significant part of the swim.

4. I sought out advice on my backstroke and freestyle kicks from Arianne a couple weeks before my swim meet. This helped my 100-yard IM.

5. I did extra weight lifting for more than a month in advance of champs. I think this accounts for a lot of success, especially in my butterfly stroke.

6. I practiced the actual events I would swim over and over during my practice sessions, even if they were not at race pace. I’m not sure I have done this in past years. My practices are usually more geared to freestyle. I know I did not change my practice volume (I did about 10 miles per month in the three months preceding champs).

7. My body weight is about the same as it was last year at this time, but I have more fat now (12% instead of 7%) and less muscle mass (42% instead of 44%). I was training for my Ironman last year; the numbers don’t lie!

8. I did longer warm-ups on Saturday before the afternoon session (500 yards); I also swam 300 yards to warm-up on Sunday morning, and another 300 yards before the afternoon session. I timed these much more carefully than usual to be within 30 minutes of my actual races.

9. I have been running long distances (5-7 miles) once a week since February. My overall mileage is no different from last year, so I can’t think of why that would make a difference in my swimming performance. Still, it’s a change of pace that is worth noting.

Split times of the 500 free at AMYMSA Franklin

I had a master's swim meet yesterday and had a great time. In my first event, the 100-yard freestyle, I broke my old personal best by 2.02 seconds, lowering it to 1:03.57. That was an awesome feeling! My other events went well, too, including the 500-yard freestyle, which I finished just 2.4 seconds shy of my personal best. However, I wasn't necessarily wanting to set a record in that event. Instead, I have been working on my pacing. I tend to go too fast in the beginning and then tire out at the end. This is apparent in the graph below, with a steep increase in the time it takes each successive 50-yard lap in the pool (10x50=500 yards). I have plotted three of my swims from the 2016-17 season. In each swim I have slightly improved my pacing so that the line is not as steep. My faster and more experienced friend Daniel Pruzinsky has better pacing, as evidenced by the fourth, flatter line in the middle. I want to be like him, so there is more work for me to do.

AMYMSA Franklin

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA Sewickly

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA Edinboro

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA Champs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA meet

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA Masters Swim Meet
Date: 3 November 2013
Location: Clearfield, Pa.

I had a great time, and I am so happy that this is true of almost all my meets. I swam the 500-yard Freestyle in 7:09.82, which broke my old record of 7:28.09. Interesting pattern in the numbers there, you see it? I also set a personal best in the 25-yard Butterfly, which I swam in 14.58 seconds (an improvement of 1.2%). Then I swam the 200-yard Backstroke in 3:08.00, which was just 0.09 seconds off my personal best. Lastly, I swam the 100-yard Freestyle in 1:09.13, which was about 2.5 seconds slower than my best time. I don't know what went "wrong" with this last swim, but it doesn't matter. I am satisfied with something under 1:10, especially given a well below-average amount of swim training the past month.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 17, 2012
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa.

Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:07.87
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is 0.07 seconds slower than my best time, so this is great. At the 50-yard mark I decided to pull back the accelerator a bit so that I would have enough fuel to get through the next three events. This seems unneccessary to me now.

Event #2: 25-backstroke
Time: 16.95 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This beat my personal best by about 0.4 seconds. My friends tell me I started late, and I know I didn't do much of a dive. A sore trapezius muscle has restricted my neck movement and I had to be cautious at the start. So an even faster time is in my future.

Event #3: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 29.86 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This was two tenths of a second off my personal best. I am absolutely tickled to have broken the 30-sec threshold for a second time. I took only five breaths during the whole swim. I wonder what else I can do to get faster. Improving my start and turn will shave off another 2 seconds, but what then? I'll worry about that after I improve my start and turn!

Event #4: 200-yard Individual Medley
Time: 2:56.89
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
I did great, considering I have never competed in this event before. The butterfly segment felt easy but I had a lousy transition to backstroke. I started to feel just a little fatigue creep in during the backstroke, but it did not concern me. I was starting to breathe hard by the end of the backstroke and I was worried that during the breaststroke phase I would start to inhale water (I tend to do that), but I only did that once and maybe because I was so worried about it, I was ready for it and didn't let it bother me. At this point I think I was well ahead of everyone in my heat except Carol, and we were neck-and-neck. She pulled ahead by half a length at the start of the freestyle segment and I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. I almost did! That bit of competition was good because it kept my mind off the fact that I was running out of energy. I didn't notice I was spent until I was out of the water and had to sit down for a minute to catch my breath and make sure I wouldn't faint.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA Swim Meet

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

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

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

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

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

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