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.
Showing posts with label relay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relay. Show all posts
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Pittsburgh Marathon Relay
Race: Pittsburgh Marathon Relay segment #3 (6.3 miles)
Date: May 1, 2016
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 55:26
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: X out of X
Results: http:
I felt good throughout. The big hill wasn't much of a challenge. In fact, I sped up during the ascent to catch up with someone wearing a SVC jacket. I wondered if I would know who it was. It ended up being some older guy I didn't know.
Date: May 1, 2016
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 55:26
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: X out of X
Results: http:
I felt good throughout. The big hill wasn't much of a challenge. In fact, I sped up during the ascent to catch up with someone wearing a SVC jacket. I wondered if I would know who it was. It ended up being some older guy I didn't know.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
AMYMSA Championship Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Championship Meet
Date: 5- 6 April 2014
Location: Indiana, Pa.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
I have now completed my 3rd year of swimming competitively for the AMYMSA organization. In my first two years I experienced a rapid improvement in race times as I learned to perfect my strokes. In this third year, my strokes still need some work, but I have been doing a lot more training sessions at race speeds to improve my endurance and my overall pace. I have continued to improve my times for most events this year, but only by fractions of second in most cases. My performance at this weekend’s championship meet is a reflection of this state of affairs; I set 2 personal bests (out of 7 events) and came very close to my top times in the remaining 5. Alas, I was hoping for even greater success. I am still pleased with how well I swam this weekend because I have been suffering from a fairly potent cold since Wednesday. Symptoms included sinus congestion, chest congestion, laryngitis, lethargy, and even a bout of diarrhea on Saturday morning. Sorry to be so graphic about that, but I am really proud of myself for even getting in the pool, and even more, swimming at or near my top speed for all events. I express my apologies to anyone who catches my cold in the coming days…
EVENT #2: 200 yard Medley Relay **personal best**
This event was swum by 4 male members of the Greensburg team in the order of backstroke, breast, fly, and freestyle. We agreed that I would do the backstroke segment. This was a wise choice; I swam it in 35.99 seconds, which is 0.55 seconds faster than I have ever swum 50 yards of backstroke. Unfortunately, medley segment split times are not counted when my season’s best times are posted on the organization website, so I won’t use it as a new benchmark for backstroke.
EVENT #3: 100 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 1:07.17, which is 1.23 seconds slower than my best time. In the water, I felt pretty good about this swim. But during the last 25 yards I noticed that my arm turnover rate was really fast and I didn’t seem to be gaining any extra speed from that. In fact, I swam the first 50 yards in 31.87 seconds and the second 50 yards in 35.3 seconds. These splits are not too bad, but Shannan noted that I wasn’t stretching my arms in front of me to grab enough water with each stroke, so I burned extra energy and gained nothing from the effort.
EVENT #7: 50 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 29.48 seconds, which is 0.50 seconds slower than my best time. Shannan complimented me on my dive; but again, I wasn’t throwing my arms forward enough to grab the water. I also found myself taking breaths when I didn’t even need them. I should plan my breaths ahead of time for the 50 free, just as I do for the 50 fly.
EVENT #10: 200 yard Individual Medley **personal best**
I swam this event in 2:52.30, beating my old personal best by 1.69 seconds. I felt my speed in the pool. My butterfly segment felt smooth and effortless; I was not especially winded when I started the backstroke. Backstroke went well until the wall where I had a sloppy transition to breaststroke. Breaststroke felt good and strong. I don’t remember much about my freestyle segment, but looking at my splits, this is where I faltered, relative to my age group competitors. I came in 4th out of 4 men in my age group. At the end of the butterfly I was ahead of Nick, the eventual 2nd place finisher. At the end of the backstroke, Nick had shot ahead, but I was on pace with Gary, the eventual 3rd place finisher. At the end of the breaststroke, I was still within 3 seconds of Gary. But my freestyle split was 42.83; Gary’s was 34.31 (Nick’s was 34.94 and Ben’s was 36.94). I slowed down at the end much more than my competitors. Despite this being a personal best for me, I can still make a lot of improvement next year.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
EVENT #13: 200 yard Freestyle Relay
Just as on Saturday, I swam in a relay with my teammates. All of us swam freestyle, though, and I was in the third position. My team never practices relays and the only time I ever do one is at champs. I am therefore a little wary of the dive, since I have to dive over the teammate who is finishing his segment as I am beginning mine. I can say that today’s dive may have been my best ever. I was in the air for a long time and traveled really far before hitting the water. Then I pressed the gas pedal. My turn was excellent and I my arm stroke was fully extended. My split time was 32.23 seconds, which is far from my fastest 50 free. Perhaps the dive wasn’t as awesome as I thought; or maybe it was my breathing. I again found myself turning my head for a breath even though I did not feel the need to breathe.
EVENT #14: 100 yard Individual Medley
I swam this event in 1:13.97, which is only 0.21 seconds off my personal best. I don’t have any specific recollections about this swim. I swam it as fast as I could, and my quadriceps were burning a little after I got out of the pool. In fact, I felt nauseated for the next few minutes. This is not a pleasant sensation, but it indicates I pushed myself beyond my aerobic limit. Anaerobic metabolism takes over at that point, and I ate a package of fruit snacks to recover from the energy deficit.
EVENT #16: 50 yard Butterfly
At this point I had already proven to myself that my butterfly stroke was back (in the previous week, I had worked with my coach to fine-tune my butterfly because it had become choppy). So with confidence, I swam this event in 32.52 seconds, which is 0.20 seconds off my best time. Oh so close! But I was sick, and had I been well I surely would have set a new record.
EVENT #17: 100 yard Backstroke
Now I was worried; I had only 6 minutes to rest between the 50 Fly and the 100 Back. It was just enough. I jumped in the water with Shannan right there rooting for me. I felt good. But then the buzzer went off a little sooner than I expected and I didn’t have a good start. I ignored the stumble and sliced through the water. I started to feel tired at the 75-yard mark, but something really strange happened then. I was looking at the ceiling and I saw a wire strung over my head and parallel with my lane. I completely focused on that wire and tuned everything else out. I pondered what the wire was for, and I pretended that it was where the TV camera would be if I were swimming in the Olympics. I did not want to let down this pretend TV audience so I swam harder. I felt my legs quicken and I lurched forward toward the touch pad. I felt tired, but in concentrating on the ceiling feature I was able to ignore it. In reality, my splits show I slowed down from 39.11 seconds during the first 50 yards to 41.04 seconds during the second 50 yards. But it felt like I was going 100 miles per hour at the very end. I finished the event in 1:20.15 seconds, 0.23 seconds slower than my best time.
EVENT #19: 100 yard Butterfly **personal best**
I had only 12 minutes rest between my 100 Back and my 100 Fly. This is really rushing things, but I felt relaxed during this whole swim meet. Maybe I need to get sick more often, just to dampen my normal nervousness. I swam this event in 1:21.00 seconds, beating my old time by 0.24 seconds. I did fine for the first 50 yards, started to tire at yard 75, and then I fell apart in the last 25. I was breathing on every stroke—or at least trying to. My arms would not pull themselves over my head. I had a moment when I thought about quitting but by that time the wall was just about within reach so I took another couple “strokes” and got there. Despite my poor health and my lack of endurance for butterfly, I swam this faster than ever before. It was great to end my 3rd year on swim team with some success.
Date: 5- 6 April 2014
Location: Indiana, Pa.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
I have now completed my 3rd year of swimming competitively for the AMYMSA organization. In my first two years I experienced a rapid improvement in race times as I learned to perfect my strokes. In this third year, my strokes still need some work, but I have been doing a lot more training sessions at race speeds to improve my endurance and my overall pace. I have continued to improve my times for most events this year, but only by fractions of second in most cases. My performance at this weekend’s championship meet is a reflection of this state of affairs; I set 2 personal bests (out of 7 events) and came very close to my top times in the remaining 5. Alas, I was hoping for even greater success. I am still pleased with how well I swam this weekend because I have been suffering from a fairly potent cold since Wednesday. Symptoms included sinus congestion, chest congestion, laryngitis, lethargy, and even a bout of diarrhea on Saturday morning. Sorry to be so graphic about that, but I am really proud of myself for even getting in the pool, and even more, swimming at or near my top speed for all events. I express my apologies to anyone who catches my cold in the coming days…
EVENT #2: 200 yard Medley Relay **personal best**
This event was swum by 4 male members of the Greensburg team in the order of backstroke, breast, fly, and freestyle. We agreed that I would do the backstroke segment. This was a wise choice; I swam it in 35.99 seconds, which is 0.55 seconds faster than I have ever swum 50 yards of backstroke. Unfortunately, medley segment split times are not counted when my season’s best times are posted on the organization website, so I won’t use it as a new benchmark for backstroke.
EVENT #3: 100 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 1:07.17, which is 1.23 seconds slower than my best time. In the water, I felt pretty good about this swim. But during the last 25 yards I noticed that my arm turnover rate was really fast and I didn’t seem to be gaining any extra speed from that. In fact, I swam the first 50 yards in 31.87 seconds and the second 50 yards in 35.3 seconds. These splits are not too bad, but Shannan noted that I wasn’t stretching my arms in front of me to grab enough water with each stroke, so I burned extra energy and gained nothing from the effort.
EVENT #7: 50 yard Freestyle
I swam this event in 29.48 seconds, which is 0.50 seconds slower than my best time. Shannan complimented me on my dive; but again, I wasn’t throwing my arms forward enough to grab the water. I also found myself taking breaths when I didn’t even need them. I should plan my breaths ahead of time for the 50 free, just as I do for the 50 fly.
EVENT #10: 200 yard Individual Medley **personal best**
I swam this event in 2:52.30, beating my old personal best by 1.69 seconds. I felt my speed in the pool. My butterfly segment felt smooth and effortless; I was not especially winded when I started the backstroke. Backstroke went well until the wall where I had a sloppy transition to breaststroke. Breaststroke felt good and strong. I don’t remember much about my freestyle segment, but looking at my splits, this is where I faltered, relative to my age group competitors. I came in 4th out of 4 men in my age group. At the end of the butterfly I was ahead of Nick, the eventual 2nd place finisher. At the end of the backstroke, Nick had shot ahead, but I was on pace with Gary, the eventual 3rd place finisher. At the end of the breaststroke, I was still within 3 seconds of Gary. But my freestyle split was 42.83; Gary’s was 34.31 (Nick’s was 34.94 and Ben’s was 36.94). I slowed down at the end much more than my competitors. Despite this being a personal best for me, I can still make a lot of improvement next year.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
EVENT #13: 200 yard Freestyle Relay
Just as on Saturday, I swam in a relay with my teammates. All of us swam freestyle, though, and I was in the third position. My team never practices relays and the only time I ever do one is at champs. I am therefore a little wary of the dive, since I have to dive over the teammate who is finishing his segment as I am beginning mine. I can say that today’s dive may have been my best ever. I was in the air for a long time and traveled really far before hitting the water. Then I pressed the gas pedal. My turn was excellent and I my arm stroke was fully extended. My split time was 32.23 seconds, which is far from my fastest 50 free. Perhaps the dive wasn’t as awesome as I thought; or maybe it was my breathing. I again found myself turning my head for a breath even though I did not feel the need to breathe.
EVENT #14: 100 yard Individual Medley
I swam this event in 1:13.97, which is only 0.21 seconds off my personal best. I don’t have any specific recollections about this swim. I swam it as fast as I could, and my quadriceps were burning a little after I got out of the pool. In fact, I felt nauseated for the next few minutes. This is not a pleasant sensation, but it indicates I pushed myself beyond my aerobic limit. Anaerobic metabolism takes over at that point, and I ate a package of fruit snacks to recover from the energy deficit.
EVENT #16: 50 yard Butterfly
At this point I had already proven to myself that my butterfly stroke was back (in the previous week, I had worked with my coach to fine-tune my butterfly because it had become choppy). So with confidence, I swam this event in 32.52 seconds, which is 0.20 seconds off my best time. Oh so close! But I was sick, and had I been well I surely would have set a new record.
EVENT #17: 100 yard Backstroke
Now I was worried; I had only 6 minutes to rest between the 50 Fly and the 100 Back. It was just enough. I jumped in the water with Shannan right there rooting for me. I felt good. But then the buzzer went off a little sooner than I expected and I didn’t have a good start. I ignored the stumble and sliced through the water. I started to feel tired at the 75-yard mark, but something really strange happened then. I was looking at the ceiling and I saw a wire strung over my head and parallel with my lane. I completely focused on that wire and tuned everything else out. I pondered what the wire was for, and I pretended that it was where the TV camera would be if I were swimming in the Olympics. I did not want to let down this pretend TV audience so I swam harder. I felt my legs quicken and I lurched forward toward the touch pad. I felt tired, but in concentrating on the ceiling feature I was able to ignore it. In reality, my splits show I slowed down from 39.11 seconds during the first 50 yards to 41.04 seconds during the second 50 yards. But it felt like I was going 100 miles per hour at the very end. I finished the event in 1:20.15 seconds, 0.23 seconds slower than my best time.
EVENT #19: 100 yard Butterfly **personal best**
I had only 12 minutes rest between my 100 Back and my 100 Fly. This is really rushing things, but I felt relaxed during this whole swim meet. Maybe I need to get sick more often, just to dampen my normal nervousness. I swam this event in 1:21.00 seconds, beating my old time by 0.24 seconds. I did fine for the first 50 yards, started to tire at yard 75, and then I fell apart in the last 25. I was breathing on every stroke—or at least trying to. My arms would not pull themselves over my head. I had a moment when I thought about quitting but by that time the wall was just about within reach so I took another couple “strokes” and got there. Despite my poor health and my lack of endurance for butterfly, I swam this faster than ever before. It was great to end my 3rd year on swim team with some success.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
AMYMSA Championship Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet Championship
Date: 7-8 April 2013
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania
Results: http:
DAY#1
I had an excellent start to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 5 events I swam today.
Event #2: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 1:52.59
Age Group Team Rank: 4 out of X
John swam the first leg, followed by Trevor, then me, then Matej. My dive seemed really high and arched as I tried to avoid hitting Trevor at the wall. Despite the shape of the dive I did not go too deep into the water and I trucked through my 50-yard segment. I did not feel sespecially fast, but it turns out I swam those 50 yards faster than ever before. My old record was 29.66; I swam this today in 29.26 seconds.
Event #3: 100-yard individual medley
Time: 1:15.91
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
My butterfly segment was strong but I forgot to dolphin-kick before surfacing. My fly/back turn was weird. Other than that, I went as fast as I could and set another new personal best at 1:15.91. My old record was probably 1:18.81. I say "probably" because there was a swim where a 1:16.00 was recorded for me, but if I remember correctly it was somebody else's time and not mine. Either way, I established a new benchmark.
Event #5: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 32.43
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is by far my favorite event in swimming. I did this with ease, which means I could have gone faster. Nevertheless, it broke my old personal best by 1.08 seconds, an improvement of 7.6%. This swim was recorded; I am in lane 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADQKgQF6lI&list=PLyL7N7XBHL4360OB4z7GVd7kJi8IGe3C6
Event #9: 50-yard backstroke
Time: 38.01
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
This is the only event in the entire weekend when I did not set a new personal best. I missed it by a fair amount: 1.45 seconds. My start was OK, but I was too far from the wall when I tried to turn and that caused me to lose momentum. I would probably have been disqualified if the officials were on that side of the pool.
Event #10: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:38.45
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
I still set a new personal best, but it was close. My old record was 2:38.86. I am still happy with setting a personal best, but it doesn't reflect the effort and planning I put into this. The strategy I worked out with my coach was to do the first 75 yards at about 80% effort. I would then build during the next 50 yards, and then do another 50 yards at 100% effort. The last 25 yards would be afterburners, hoping I'd have enough to get to the wall. This was my last race of the day and I wanted to give it everything I had. All of this sounds like a great plan but I failed miserably! The first 75 yards went so fast that I was halfway through the next 50 by the time I realized I should be increasing my speed. At that point I wasn't sure then how far I had swum. Was I on the first 50 or the second? I decided I was on the first 50. However, I was wrong. As I got to the wall at 200 yards, I thought I had another 50 yards to go. I was therefore surprised at my flipturn to see that two people to my right had already finished the race! At yard 205 I decided that it was impossible for me to be so far behind, and at yard 210 I decided that I must have mis-counted my yards and I was now the only one left swimming. I could have stopped at that point. Or I could have stopped at the opposite wall at yard 225, but I had already done half an extra lap and why not follow through with what I had begun? Believe it or not, I maintained my all-out pace through the end (but not the after-burners part of the plan), even though it didn't count. My 2:38.45 time therefore is a pretty big overestimate of my "real" time because (a) a flip turn at yard 200 would not be as fast as a streamlined finish, and (b) I hadn't even reached my full speed.
The paragraph written above is what happened in my mind. But now I see my splits. My first 50 yards took 35.14 seconds. My next 50 yards: 40.39. Then 41.05, then 41.87. I am puzzled that I slowed down by 5 seconds per lap during the period when I thought I was quickening my pace. Crazy race.
DAY#2
I had an excellent finish to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 4 events I swam today.
Event #14: 200-yard medley relay
Time: 2:14.88
Age Group Team Rank: 5 out of X
I started the first leg (backstroke), followed by Dan (breaststroke), then Matej (butterfly), then Trevor (freestyle). I threw on the throttle, concentarting on getting my arms out of the water as fast as I could (I have a strong stroke, but my cadence tends to be slow). My backstroke turn was not perfect but overall good. I was pretty sure I had a personal best but had to wait the entire meet before they posted the splits. Sure enough; my time was 34.XX seconds. My old record was 36.54. The great thing is that the one event yesterday where I didn't set a personal best was the 50-back, so this replaced that rough race. Our team actually won our heat. That felt good.
Event #15: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:06.48
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Another fantastic race. I remember having a perfect dive; I probably didn't surface until the 15-yard mark, the legal limit. I cremed my old personal best of 1:07.80. My legs started to burn.
Event #18: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:23.46
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
At this point I had had a string of great races and I wondered if I could keep up the pace. I did. I started with another good dive and some OK turns, and I didn't even swallow any water. I felt some fatigue as I got close to the end but I scolded myself not to slow down. "Streamline, streamline," I said to myself. My old personal best was 1:25.29.
Event #22: 200-yard individual medley
Time: 2:54.97
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
Once again, could I fight off the fatigue and do this race justice? Happily, my answer was yes. I broke my old record of 2:56.89. I'm actually surprised a bit that I did not break this record by a greater amount. I gave it everything I had...to the point where I felt nausous. I used to avoid that feeling, but now I look forward to it because I know I pushed myself to my limit, and that's why I race--to push myself to do more than I think I can do. The best part of this race was the fact that I was swimming neck-to-neck with the swimmer next to me (Gian P.) for the first 190 yards. Our butterfly segments were the same; our backstroke segments were the same; I pulled ahead in the breaststroke by maybe a body length; but then in the last length of freestyle he was fierce. I could see him thrashing his arms and splashing hard with his legs each time I took a breath on his side. He was frantically trying to beat me, and I pushed forward, too. Ultimately though, my effort was too late. He was already accelerating toward the wall before I was able to match his speed, and he beat me by 0.25 seconds. He and I had a friendly recounting of the event as we grabbed our towels to dry off.
Date: 7-8 April 2013
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania
Results: http:
DAY#1
I had an excellent start to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 5 events I swam today.
Event #2: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 1:52.59
Age Group Team Rank: 4 out of X
John swam the first leg, followed by Trevor, then me, then Matej. My dive seemed really high and arched as I tried to avoid hitting Trevor at the wall. Despite the shape of the dive I did not go too deep into the water and I trucked through my 50-yard segment. I did not feel sespecially fast, but it turns out I swam those 50 yards faster than ever before. My old record was 29.66; I swam this today in 29.26 seconds.
Event #3: 100-yard individual medley
Time: 1:15.91
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
My butterfly segment was strong but I forgot to dolphin-kick before surfacing. My fly/back turn was weird. Other than that, I went as fast as I could and set another new personal best at 1:15.91. My old record was probably 1:18.81. I say "probably" because there was a swim where a 1:16.00 was recorded for me, but if I remember correctly it was somebody else's time and not mine. Either way, I established a new benchmark.
Event #5: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 32.43
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
This is by far my favorite event in swimming. I did this with ease, which means I could have gone faster. Nevertheless, it broke my old personal best by 1.08 seconds, an improvement of 7.6%. This swim was recorded; I am in lane 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADQKgQF6lI&list=PLyL7N7XBHL4360OB4z7GVd7kJi8IGe3C6
Event #9: 50-yard backstroke
Time: 38.01
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
This is the only event in the entire weekend when I did not set a new personal best. I missed it by a fair amount: 1.45 seconds. My start was OK, but I was too far from the wall when I tried to turn and that caused me to lose momentum. I would probably have been disqualified if the officials were on that side of the pool.
Event #10: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:38.45
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
I still set a new personal best, but it was close. My old record was 2:38.86. I am still happy with setting a personal best, but it doesn't reflect the effort and planning I put into this. The strategy I worked out with my coach was to do the first 75 yards at about 80% effort. I would then build during the next 50 yards, and then do another 50 yards at 100% effort. The last 25 yards would be afterburners, hoping I'd have enough to get to the wall. This was my last race of the day and I wanted to give it everything I had. All of this sounds like a great plan but I failed miserably! The first 75 yards went so fast that I was halfway through the next 50 by the time I realized I should be increasing my speed. At that point I wasn't sure then how far I had swum. Was I on the first 50 or the second? I decided I was on the first 50. However, I was wrong. As I got to the wall at 200 yards, I thought I had another 50 yards to go. I was therefore surprised at my flipturn to see that two people to my right had already finished the race! At yard 205 I decided that it was impossible for me to be so far behind, and at yard 210 I decided that I must have mis-counted my yards and I was now the only one left swimming. I could have stopped at that point. Or I could have stopped at the opposite wall at yard 225, but I had already done half an extra lap and why not follow through with what I had begun? Believe it or not, I maintained my all-out pace through the end (but not the after-burners part of the plan), even though it didn't count. My 2:38.45 time therefore is a pretty big overestimate of my "real" time because (a) a flip turn at yard 200 would not be as fast as a streamlined finish, and (b) I hadn't even reached my full speed.
The paragraph written above is what happened in my mind. But now I see my splits. My first 50 yards took 35.14 seconds. My next 50 yards: 40.39. Then 41.05, then 41.87. I am puzzled that I slowed down by 5 seconds per lap during the period when I thought I was quickening my pace. Crazy race.
DAY#2
I had an excellent finish to the championship meet. I acheived a personal best in 4 of the 4 events I swam today.
Event #14: 200-yard medley relay
Time: 2:14.88
Age Group Team Rank: 5 out of X
I started the first leg (backstroke), followed by Dan (breaststroke), then Matej (butterfly), then Trevor (freestyle). I threw on the throttle, concentarting on getting my arms out of the water as fast as I could (I have a strong stroke, but my cadence tends to be slow). My backstroke turn was not perfect but overall good. I was pretty sure I had a personal best but had to wait the entire meet before they posted the splits. Sure enough; my time was 34.XX seconds. My old record was 36.54. The great thing is that the one event yesterday where I didn't set a personal best was the 50-back, so this replaced that rough race. Our team actually won our heat. That felt good.
Event #15: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:06.48
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Another fantastic race. I remember having a perfect dive; I probably didn't surface until the 15-yard mark, the legal limit. I cremed my old personal best of 1:07.80. My legs started to burn.
Event #18: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:23.46
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
At this point I had had a string of great races and I wondered if I could keep up the pace. I did. I started with another good dive and some OK turns, and I didn't even swallow any water. I felt some fatigue as I got close to the end but I scolded myself not to slow down. "Streamline, streamline," I said to myself. My old personal best was 1:25.29.
Event #22: 200-yard individual medley
Time: 2:54.97
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
Once again, could I fight off the fatigue and do this race justice? Happily, my answer was yes. I broke my old record of 2:56.89. I'm actually surprised a bit that I did not break this record by a greater amount. I gave it everything I had...to the point where I felt nausous. I used to avoid that feeling, but now I look forward to it because I know I pushed myself to my limit, and that's why I race--to push myself to do more than I think I can do. The best part of this race was the fact that I was swimming neck-to-neck with the swimmer next to me (Gian P.) for the first 190 yards. Our butterfly segments were the same; our backstroke segments were the same; I pulled ahead in the breaststroke by maybe a body length; but then in the last length of freestyle he was fierce. I could see him thrashing his arms and splashing hard with his legs each time I took a breath on his side. He was frantically trying to beat me, and I pushed forward, too. Ultimately though, my effort was too late. He was already accelerating toward the wall before I was able to match his speed, and he beat me by 0.25 seconds. He and I had a friendly recounting of the event as we grabbed our towels to dry off.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters swim meet (scy)
Date: September 16, 2012
Location: Sewickley, Pa.
First swim meet of the season at Baierl Family YMCA:
Event #1: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 2:12.23
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Great to have a new team member who appears to be one of the top 3 fastest people at the whole meet. I am not as fast as him, but my dive was awesome.
Event #2: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 33.53
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 7
I beat my personal best by >1 second, had a great dive and a great turn, and I only swallowed one mouthful of water (oops).
Event #3: 100-yard butterfly
Time: 1:21.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I beat my personal best by almost 2 seconds despite having to pause at the midway point. I pulled myself together though, and finished the last 4 strokes without breathing.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:41.57
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
Arms still burning from the butterfly, I had a great dive and kept neck-to-neck with everyone in my heat for 125 yards. Then the guy next to me took off. This depressed me for 50 yards or so and then I went all-out at the end. I did not beat my personal best but it was a good swim and I'm happy.
Event #5: 25-yard breaststroke
Time: 17.16
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 3
No great expectations here since I knew I'd be tired. But I covered the distance in 17.16 seconds, beating my old time of 18.5.
Date: September 16, 2012
Location: Sewickley, Pa.
First swim meet of the season at Baierl Family YMCA:
Event #1: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 2:12.23
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Great to have a new team member who appears to be one of the top 3 fastest people at the whole meet. I am not as fast as him, but my dive was awesome.
Event #2: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 33.53
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 7
I beat my personal best by >1 second, had a great dive and a great turn, and I only swallowed one mouthful of water (oops).
Event #3: 100-yard butterfly
Time: 1:21.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I beat my personal best by almost 2 seconds despite having to pause at the midway point. I pulled myself together though, and finished the last 4 strokes without breathing.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:41.57
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
Arms still burning from the butterfly, I had a great dive and kept neck-to-neck with everyone in my heat for 125 yards. Then the guy next to me took off. This depressed me for 50 yards or so and then I went all-out at the end. I did not beat my personal best but it was a good swim and I'm happy.
Event #5: 25-yard breaststroke
Time: 17.16
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 3
No great expectations here since I knew I'd be tired. But I covered the distance in 17.16 seconds, beating my old time of 18.5.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
AMYMSA Championship
Race:
Masters Swim Championship (scy)
Date: March 31, 2012 - April 1, 2012
Location: Clarion, Pa.
DAY 1: I raced in one relay and four individual events.
(1) 200-yard Medley Relay--I started off my team by doing 50 yards of backstroke. I've been practicing backstroke recently and this paid off. I finished in 39.25 seconds, which is a personal best. Unfortunately I hurt myself on the start. I pushed off with such great energy that I pulled a muscle in my right calf. It's a chronic problem for me. I'll be OK, but it sure soured the rest of the day, since I knew I wouldn't be performing at 100% for the rest of the day. My team came in 4 out of 4 in our gender age group.
(2) 100-yard Freestyle--I was still worried about my leg, so it's not surprsing that I finished this event in 1:12.32, which was about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. I was disappointed. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 25-yard Backstroke--I had to do another backstoke start here with my injured leg. I finished in 17.41 seconds, which is almost a second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(4) 50-yard Freestyle--Oh dear, at this point I was psyched out. I had hurt myself and was under-performing. That's unfortunate because the 50-yard freestyle was supposed to be my BIG event. I have been slowly but steadily improving in this event all season long, and breaking the 30-second threshold was within my grasp. My personal best was 30.37 seconds, I wanted to break this record and finish under 30 seconds. Alas, I was unable to meet this goal. I swam it in 30.91 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
(5) 50-yard Breaststroke--I don't remember much about this event. I was sulking about my poor performance and didn't care so much about my last race of the day. It is ironic that I actually did very well in this event: I came within a tenth of a second of my personal best, finishing in 39.49 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 5.
DAY 2: I raced in one relay and three individual events.
(1) 200-yard Freestyle Relay--Once again, I started off for my team. This is not by accident, as I had mistakenly shared with my teammates my fear of diving into one of them during the relay (I had never done relays before). So they put me in front so that I'd be diving into an empty lane and no one would have to worry about me diving into them. I wonder now whether they will ever let me compete in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th position. So anyway, I finished my 50-yard segment in 30.67 seconds. As I mentioned in my report on Day 1, I was hoping to break 30 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle race, and I viewed this event as my second chance. I donned a swim cap for the very first time, thinking it might help me psychologically if not hydrodynamically. I got closer to my goal, but I didn't break 30 seconds, nor was my time lower than my 30.37 personal best. I felt good, though, and I was looking forward to the rest of the day's events. My team came in 5 out of 5 in our age group gender category.
(2) 100-yard Individual Medley--This event held promise. I'm pretty good at it. But bad luck was still following me. For the first time in a year my goggles fell off during my dive. I was able to slide them back into position during the butterfly segment and I thought I'd be OK, but then as I was doing backstroke I realized I couldn't see the flags or the wall. One cannot speed through the water and then not know where the wall is. So I slowed down, felt around for the wall, and with my other hand threw off my swim cap and goggles. I plunged back into the water for my breastroke and freestyle segments and I swam as fast as I could. I was determined to make the best of this bad situation and I nearly beat one of the other swimmers in the pool. But I didn't, and my time of 1:24.89 was obviously nowhere near my personal best of 1:19.30. It certainly didn't take me 5 seconds to discard my swim cap and goggles, but swimming with distractions is not going to break any records. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 50-yard Butterfly--What the heck! Nothing more can go wrong this weekend, so I was no longer worried about doing well. I concentrated on having fun. I really like the butterfly stroke, so let's go! I finished in 35.23 seconds, about 0.4 second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4.
(4) 100-yard Butterfly--This was my last event of champs, and I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. I had never competed in the event before, so I had no personal best to beat. I was also the only person in my gender-age group, so I was guaranteed a first-place finish. I had no pressure to do anything but finish. Should I do my best anyway? Given it was the very end of the meet, should I expend every ounce of energy to do well? Yes, that's what I would do. I would give it everything I had left. Butterfly is fun, and I wasn't feeling good about my earlier swims. So what was there to lose? I dove in and swam. I passed the 50-yard mark and didn't feel too bad. I got to the 75-yard mark and wasn't too winded. Oh, but the arms and shoulders started to fatigue. It became hard to convince those arms to come out of the water with each stroke. My undulations became exaggerated as my arms got weaker, and my kick started to disconnect from my arms (because the arms weren't doing their part). At 90 yards or so, I was a mess. But I made it, and my friends cheered. I finished in 1:23.58, which was 4.5 seconds faster than the seed time I submitted. I finally felt like I had won something. And then I went home. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.
Date: March 31, 2012 - April 1, 2012
Location: Clarion, Pa.
DAY 1: I raced in one relay and four individual events.
(1) 200-yard Medley Relay--I started off my team by doing 50 yards of backstroke. I've been practicing backstroke recently and this paid off. I finished in 39.25 seconds, which is a personal best. Unfortunately I hurt myself on the start. I pushed off with such great energy that I pulled a muscle in my right calf. It's a chronic problem for me. I'll be OK, but it sure soured the rest of the day, since I knew I wouldn't be performing at 100% for the rest of the day. My team came in 4 out of 4 in our gender age group.
(2) 100-yard Freestyle--I was still worried about my leg, so it's not surprsing that I finished this event in 1:12.32, which was about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. I was disappointed. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 25-yard Backstroke--I had to do another backstoke start here with my injured leg. I finished in 17.41 seconds, which is almost a second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(4) 50-yard Freestyle--Oh dear, at this point I was psyched out. I had hurt myself and was under-performing. That's unfortunate because the 50-yard freestyle was supposed to be my BIG event. I have been slowly but steadily improving in this event all season long, and breaking the 30-second threshold was within my grasp. My personal best was 30.37 seconds, I wanted to break this record and finish under 30 seconds. Alas, I was unable to meet this goal. I swam it in 30.91 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
(5) 50-yard Breaststroke--I don't remember much about this event. I was sulking about my poor performance and didn't care so much about my last race of the day. It is ironic that I actually did very well in this event: I came within a tenth of a second of my personal best, finishing in 39.49 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 5.
DAY 2: I raced in one relay and three individual events.
(1) 200-yard Freestyle Relay--Once again, I started off for my team. This is not by accident, as I had mistakenly shared with my teammates my fear of diving into one of them during the relay (I had never done relays before). So they put me in front so that I'd be diving into an empty lane and no one would have to worry about me diving into them. I wonder now whether they will ever let me compete in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th position. So anyway, I finished my 50-yard segment in 30.67 seconds. As I mentioned in my report on Day 1, I was hoping to break 30 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle race, and I viewed this event as my second chance. I donned a swim cap for the very first time, thinking it might help me psychologically if not hydrodynamically. I got closer to my goal, but I didn't break 30 seconds, nor was my time lower than my 30.37 personal best. I felt good, though, and I was looking forward to the rest of the day's events. My team came in 5 out of 5 in our age group gender category.
(2) 100-yard Individual Medley--This event held promise. I'm pretty good at it. But bad luck was still following me. For the first time in a year my goggles fell off during my dive. I was able to slide them back into position during the butterfly segment and I thought I'd be OK, but then as I was doing backstroke I realized I couldn't see the flags or the wall. One cannot speed through the water and then not know where the wall is. So I slowed down, felt around for the wall, and with my other hand threw off my swim cap and goggles. I plunged back into the water for my breastroke and freestyle segments and I swam as fast as I could. I was determined to make the best of this bad situation and I nearly beat one of the other swimmers in the pool. But I didn't, and my time of 1:24.89 was obviously nowhere near my personal best of 1:19.30. It certainly didn't take me 5 seconds to discard my swim cap and goggles, but swimming with distractions is not going to break any records. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 50-yard Butterfly--What the heck! Nothing more can go wrong this weekend, so I was no longer worried about doing well. I concentrated on having fun. I really like the butterfly stroke, so let's go! I finished in 35.23 seconds, about 0.4 second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4.
(4) 100-yard Butterfly--This was my last event of champs, and I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. I had never competed in the event before, so I had no personal best to beat. I was also the only person in my gender-age group, so I was guaranteed a first-place finish. I had no pressure to do anything but finish. Should I do my best anyway? Given it was the very end of the meet, should I expend every ounce of energy to do well? Yes, that's what I would do. I would give it everything I had left. Butterfly is fun, and I wasn't feeling good about my earlier swims. So what was there to lose? I dove in and swam. I passed the 50-yard mark and didn't feel too bad. I got to the 75-yard mark and wasn't too winded. Oh, but the arms and shoulders started to fatigue. It became hard to convince those arms to come out of the water with each stroke. My undulations became exaggerated as my arms got weaker, and my kick started to disconnect from my arms (because the arms weren't doing their part). At 90 yards or so, I was a mess. But I made it, and my friends cheered. I finished in 1:23.58, which was 4.5 seconds faster than the seed time I submitted. I finally felt like I had won something. And then I went home. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Janney and the Y North Park Triathlon
Race: Sprint Triathlon at North Park.
Relay Team: Team Jim Kellam (male team)
Date: August 7, 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Distance: Bike 12 miles
Time: 39:59
Team Rank: 5 out of 16 teams
Bike Segment Rank: 123 out of 370
Results: http://www.runhigh.com/2011RESULTS/R080711AD..HTML
Bike portion of a USAT sprint triathlon; I was on a team. I completed the segment 5 minutes faster than expected. I've never had a faster pace (17.1 mph). Yay!!!
Relay Team: Team Jim Kellam (male team)
Date: August 7, 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Distance: Bike 12 miles
Time: 39:59
Team Rank: 5 out of 16 teams
Bike Segment Rank: 123 out of 370
Results: http://www.runhigh.com/2011RESULTS/R080711AD..HTML
Bike portion of a USAT sprint triathlon; I was on a team. I completed the segment 5 minutes faster than expected. I've never had a faster pace (17.1 mph). Yay!!!
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| Our swimmer, our cyclist, and our runner. North Park Triathlon Team. 2011. |
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