AMYMSA Edinboro

Race:
Date: September 15, 2019
Location: Edinboro University

The start of swim season! I've been concentrating on my running, plus work has been busy, plus I had a cut on my finger (squirrel bite), so I haven't been swimming much. That's pretty much what everyone else at Masters said, so I fit right in. No pressure today.

100-yard freestyle: I didn't beat my seed time, but was close. My turns were not explosive at all; my legs are tired from a 12-mile run yesterday.

25-yard backstroke: It took almost the whole length to get my legs up and finally get into a good rhythm. I feel like I might be kicking too hard at first, causing some kind of drag on my legs.

50-yard freestyle: I beat my seed time by almost a second, coming in at 29.18 seconds. This is not bad at all for the start of the season. It felt good; I concentrated on NOT fishtailing the whole way and took limited breaths.

25-yard butterfly: Felt good, but not fast at all!

Overall, a good time. I have just recently signed up for Ironman Lake Placid (July 2020) so I'm going to take my swimming more seriously this year. And my biking. And my running. And my protein intake. And my lifting. And my blogging! It's going to be my last full-length triathlon so I want to get the most out of it. We'll talk soon.

Masters Swim Champs 2019

I’ve had trouble with motivation the last 6 months, so my running, biking, weight-training, and swim training have all been less than normal. I started the weekend knowing I was not in top condition, but I still had hope for some good swims because I started taking my swim training more seriously in the last month. I did a lot of sprints to get my body used to swimming fast. Based on my results, it seems that even if I did wait until the last minute (figuratively) to get into shape, it worked! I am lucky. Here’s the rundown:

 

SATURDAY

Event #4, 100-yard Individual Medley

I had not swum this event in competition since Oct 2017, and I can’t remember the last time I actually practiced it. I had no expectation for this swim, so I told myself it was just for fun. However, I didn’t want to be embarrassed, so I decided to practice it three times about 90 minutes before my start. It didn’t feel good. My arms felt tired. Anyway, during the actual race I think my dive was fine but I forgot to streamline underwater before starting the butterfly stroke. Then on backstroke, my legs sank for half the pool length. By the time I got to the freestyle segment I was finally hitting my stride, and I powered to the finish. My finish time was 1:15.23, which was 5% slower than my personal best. I was pleased with this, as I had predicted a slower swim.

 

Event #6, 50-yard Butterfly

I always try to visualize my performance on the starting block before the starting beep. I had planned to concentrate on three things in this swim: a good dive, limiting myself to just 2 breaths, and stretching out my arms with each stroke. Unfortunately, I was distracted on the starting bock by the fact that I grabbed the wrong pair of goggles. I had on my older pair, and while there is nothing wrong with them, the inadvertent change in plans caused me to lose concentration. I dove well, surfaced, and then skimmed across the water. I was thinking about when I should take my first breath and then suddenly I was at the wall. I just wasn’t thinking ahead and because my goggles were fogged up, I didn’t see the black warning markers at the bottom of the pool. In mid-stroke at the last possible moment, I saw the wall and made a very awkward turn. My finish time was 32.35 seconds, my season’s best time, but 8% slower than my historical best time. Besides the poor turn, I totally forgot to increase my arm reach with each stroke, so that’s how I can improve next time.

 

Event #11, 200-yard Freestyle

I was fairly optimistic about this swim. I had practiced it at the YMCA all month, working on my flip turns, contracting my abs to keep a better streamline, and pacing myself so as not to tire out before the end. I had Coach Josh give me some pointers on my start and turns, and I think that helped. My dive was great and I felt strong with my stroke. However, I had two turns that were pretty bad. I turned too soon and didn’t have enough foot contact with the wall to push off with much momentum. Even so, I saw that my nearest competitors were well behind me. At my finish, I looked around and saw I had won my heat, having swum more than 11 seconds faster than I expected. I set a new personal best at 2:26.30, which was 1.15 seconds faster than the record I set a year ago at Spire. I know I have an even faster time in me. I could probably have gone a second faster with better turns, and after looking at photos that Arianne took of me during this swim, I see that my head comes out of the water a little too much during my breaths.

 

 

 

Event #12, 25-yard Breaststroke

This was actually my best shot at setting a new personal best because I’ve never swam this event at Spire before. The pool at Spire is state-of-the-art and helps swimmers achieve their best times. Anyway, I had a mediocre swim, finishing in 17.46 seconds, 3% slower than my personal best. I used to have a strong kick, but it didn’t feel that way today.

 

 

SUNDAY

Event #17, 100-yard Freestyle

Based on my swim season this year, I thought maybe I could set a personal best time today because my season’s best (1:06.23) was only 4% slower than my personal best time (1:03.57). At a pool like Spire, improving by 4% or more is certainly possible. My plan was to start with a great dive by pulling my hips up high on the block and taking full advantage of the angled wedge of the block; not to breathe until after the first turn; and kick rapidly during the last 50 yards. I carried this plan out to the letter. I finished in 1:01.59, setting a new personal best and coming in 7% faster than I had all season long. I was elated. Before today I would never have thought the 1:00 threshold could be broken (by me). But now I’m really close. Maybe I’ll do it next year!

 

Event #21, 50-yard Freestyle

Going into today, my season’s best time was 28.73 seconds, more than 6% slower than my personal best set at Spire in 2017 (27.00). Before this meet, I really did expect something around 28.00 seconds, but I thought 27.00 was out of reach. This expectation was reinforced just before my race when Shannan told me that during my 100-yard freestyle, my first split had been 28-point-something. “Yeah, that seems about right,” I thought. So on the block I thought about all the things I would have to do perfectly in order to beat 27.00 seconds, and the list just seemed too long. A short-distance race like this one is unforgiving if one makes an error like a dive that’s too deep, a bad turn, an extra breath, or a lazy punch of the pad at the end. At the beep, I plunged in and went as fast as I could. Everything seemed to go well. At the end, I knew I had done my best. I looked timidly at the timing board to see my result. It read 27.08 seconds. I smiled. I was happy with that. I didn’t deserve anything faster. But next year, maybe I will with more regular training.

 

Event #23, 50-yard Breaststroke

The last swim of a meet is rarely my best, and the relatively poor showing in my 25-yard Breaststroke the day before didn’t help my mood. Nevertheless, I feel good about my start and turns during this swim. It’s just the strokes in between that didn’t seem to have a lot of power and glide. Midway through, I attempted to improve my arm pull because it seemed my arms weren’t grabbing the water as much as they could. But the good kick I sometimes have just didn’t materialize. I finished in 38.86 seconds, an improvement of 1.47 seconds from my season’s best time, but still more than 4.5% slower than my all-time personal best of 37.15 swum at Spire last year.

 

It took 2.5 hours to drive home today, and that’s plenty of time to think about things. I set more personal bests this year than I thought, and it has inspired me to improve some more. That’s why I do these athletic events. I see what’s possible and then try to beat it. If I can do that at age 44 (and I am!), that’s something to really celebrate. I’ve got a marathon coming up in September. I think I’m going to beat my old time, and if I don’t, it will be fun trying.

Goals for 2019

It's early for New Year's resolutions, but I figure I'm giving you all some time to think about them. Who wants to join me for the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) on May 5th? Who wants to join me for a 150-mile bike ride with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society on June 8-9 (starts in Portersville, PA)? Who wants to join me for the Air Force Marathon (26.2 miles) on Sept 21st (Dayton, OH)? Who wants to join our Masters Swim Team in 2019 and compete in meets at YMCAs across western PA? Ok, go! Get in on the fun! Get active with me!

 

(I've been a sloth since my Ironman in September, so this post is just as much for me as it is you)

My first false start as a swimmer

I did something I've never done before in my 8-year career as a swimmer: I had a false start! (that means I left the diving block early, which is a bad thing!). I blame it on the fact that I turned a year older today. I'm just not as sprightly as I used to be, eh? No big deal. In a later race, the 200-yard freestyle, I set a season's best time.

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 19, 2017
Location: Greensburg, Pa

I always skimp on a warmup at the Greensburg meet. First, we go to church so we arrive late and there is less time to fit in a warmup. Second, I sing the national anthem and my singing voice is negatively affected by all the chlorine I inhale during a warmup. So, I did two 25-yard sprints off the block and counted that as my warmup. Then I spent 10 minutes in the hot tub to warm my body in a different way. Ha!

I sang the national anthem with Shannan and Arianne and I think we sounded great. Then I swam in heat 2 of the first event so I had to get ready right away. The first event was the 100 Freestyle. I had a good race, finishing in 1:04.52, less than a second slower than my personal best of 1:03.57. Ben approached me later and scolded me for having lousy turns. "Be sure to tuck your head," he said, because it slows you down. "You were ahead of Dan most of the race but he beat you to the wall because you has a bad turn." Dan was three lanes away, so I had no idea where he was in the race. I just know that I was feeling pretty strong, I limited my breathing, and I kicked pretty hard. I was giving it everything I had, and I was surprised because I didn't think today would be a good meet. I swam only once in the last 7 days. My work life has been so busy.

My 100-yard breaststroke was pretty lousy. I was 5 seconds slower than my personal best. My kick didn't seem to be very strong, and I was still kind of out of breath from the 100 free, even though it was more than 15 minutes earlier. Maybe the air quality was poor?

The 50-freestyle was the very next event, so I had no time for rest. I felt pretty good while swimming, so I was surprised to see that I was 2.45 seconds off my fastest time! Part of this was a dive that was too deep. My underwater swimming isn't very fast.

I had mixed feelings about my 200IM at the start. I didn't feel like doing it, but another part of me wanted to work hard. I started with the butterfly and this went well enough. I didn't tire out or get out of breath..until near the end of the stroke where waves of water poured into my mouth on a couple of the strokes. I had good rhythm and I am happy that my knee didn't hurt, as that kept me from practicing the stroke for more than a week. I had a bad turn starting the backstroke (I was out of breath there, having swallowed water), but I am happy that I was able to keep my hips up. I liked my backstroke turn at the opposite wall, but my back-to-breast turn was nasty. My breaststroke was very sluggish. I didn't seem to have a lot of arm strength at this point, and my legs were not much better. I also swallowed more water. By the freestyle section I was just happy to be finishing up and I knew it was going to be a slow swim for me. I was more than 13 seconds slower than my fastest time. Ha! I had quite the leisurely time in the pool. I remained in a good mood, though. Swimming makes me feel young--an important feeling on a birthday weekend!

AMYMSA Allegheny Valley

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

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA at Baierl

Race: masters swim meet
Date: September 10, 2017
Location:
I started with 100 freestyle, finishing about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. That will be pretty easy to lower as my season progresses.

My second event was the 50 freestyle. I swam it in 28.50, exactly 1.5 seconds slower than my personal best. Again, I am happy with that. Dan and I were in adjacent lanes and while he beat me quite solidly, I think that happened at the turn where he got ahead. Otherwise, my strategy to do the swim without breathing really helped me keep up.

My third event was the 50-breast. Dan and I again were in the same heat but in opposite sides of the pool. My stroke felt really strong, so I employed more glide with a slower stroke rate. This led me to finish 0.63 seconds slower than my personal best. This has to be taken with a grain of salt because this meet was relying on stopwatch timers and not electronic touch pads. But if my time was accurate, that's a big deal. I can easily improve over the next few months and finally break a personal record set in 2013.

The 200 IM was the next event so I didn't have much time to rest. I didn't care. I knew I had not practiced this event in months, so I had low expectations. I decided to swim it for fun. My time was 3:03.16, much worse than my 2:48.62 personal best. I was considerably out of breath when I finished, so I know i didn't totally slack on that race, but my muscles didn't feel tired or sore, so I also know I didn't work very hard. One good thing about this swim was my legs didn't sink during the backstroke, which has been a recent challenge.

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.

AMYMSA Oil City

Race: Masters swim meet
Date: March 5, 2017
Location: Oil City, Pa

After a 400 yard warm up, I did four events: (1) 100 IM, (2) 50 Fly, (3) 100 Back, and (4) 200 free. The 100IM was probably my best swim of the meet, since I came within a third of a second of my personal best and unexpectedly beat Ben. There is a pattern when I do these IMs that the backstroke segment leads to my legs sinking and I've tried to correct it to no avail. However, today I got the idea to just kick harder, and surprise, it worked! (why didn't I think of this earlier?). My 50-fly was fine, though I still want to clean up the pause I make between arm strokes. My 100-backstroke was a disappointment. I haven't swam that event in a couple years so I was expecting a large improvement. However, I did not pace myself appropriately. I went way too slow on the first 50. My 200-free was also a bit of a disappointment because I had some bad turns, and I think that prevented me from attaining a personal best time. I am really looking forward to Spire next month. I plan to do a lot of practices between now and then, and get into great shape.

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 Duquesne

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

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

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

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

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

AMYMSA 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 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 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 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.