Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date:
March 4, 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa.
I did four events: (1) 500-free in 7:27.50, which beat my old record set last
October by 22 seconds. Ha! This was the most fun I've had in a while, as I was
neck-to-neck with the guy in the adjacent lane for the whole race. And then I
gave it everything I had and beat him in the last 25 yards. He finished in 7:29. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(2) 50-free in 30.37 seconds, which beat my old record of 30.60 seconds. I
wanted to break the 30-second barrier but I'll take the incremental improvement
and break it next time. Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5.
(3) 100-breast in 1:29.40. I failed to break my old record
of 1:27.70. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.
(4) 25-back in 17.37 seconds. I had not done this event before so I
have no old time to compare. This was another race where my lane neighbor and I
were swimming at the same pace; in fact, we tied. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
Duquesne University's pool seems really old and in poor shape. I was mildly
disappointed to see this. I'm surprised a university would have a pool in worse
shape than most of the YMCAs where we typically compete. My next swim meet is
Chapionships at Clarion University at the end of March. Maybe they'll have a
better pool...
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 19, 2012
Location: Cranberry, PA
Had another great swim meet yesterday. I did 4 events.
(1) 100-yard IM in 1:19.30. This broke my old record by 2 seconds. I attempted to do the fly-back turn the way my coach taught me, but i think I failed in that endeavor. So it wasn't pretty but what I did still worked. I came in 5th out of 6 in my gender-age group. That's actually an improvement--this may be the first time I ever beat someone in my group!
(2) 50-yard butterfly in 34.84 seconds. This again broke my old record by 2 seconds. A third-place win (out of 3). My friend Dan said I looked good but held my head up. I'll work on that.
(3) 25-yard freestyle in 13.91 seconds. I did not beat my personal best this time. I was off by two tenths of a second. A third place win (out of 3). This was despite the fact that I had just cut my toe and the bleeding had stopped only a minute before I climbed to the starting block. I thought maybe I'd have to scratch, but no one around me seemed to care that I was swimming with a bloody toe.
(4) My best race was my last. I swam the 200-yard freestyle in 2:38.86 (3rd out of 3). This beat my old record from October 2011 by 14 seconds. I destroyed the other swimmers in my heat. I finished so much before them that I wondered if I had counted laps wrong. When I was done I realized I wasn't even breathing hard. I could have swum harder!
Date: February 19, 2012
Location: Cranberry, PA
Had another great swim meet yesterday. I did 4 events.
(1) 100-yard IM in 1:19.30. This broke my old record by 2 seconds. I attempted to do the fly-back turn the way my coach taught me, but i think I failed in that endeavor. So it wasn't pretty but what I did still worked. I came in 5th out of 6 in my gender-age group. That's actually an improvement--this may be the first time I ever beat someone in my group!
(2) 50-yard butterfly in 34.84 seconds. This again broke my old record by 2 seconds. A third-place win (out of 3). My friend Dan said I looked good but held my head up. I'll work on that.
(3) 25-yard freestyle in 13.91 seconds. I did not beat my personal best this time. I was off by two tenths of a second. A third place win (out of 3). This was despite the fact that I had just cut my toe and the bleeding had stopped only a minute before I climbed to the starting block. I thought maybe I'd have to scratch, but no one around me seemed to care that I was swimming with a bloody toe.
(4) My best race was my last. I swam the 200-yard freestyle in 2:38.86 (3rd out of 3). This beat my old record from October 2011 by 14 seconds. I destroyed the other swimmers in my heat. I finished so much before them that I wondered if I had counted laps wrong. When I was done I realized I wasn't even breathing hard. I could have swum harder!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: Clearfield, PA
My meet yesterday was at the Clearfield YMCA. It’s a brand new pool. I did 4 events and set personal bests in all of them:
1. 100 IM = 1:19.64 is about 2 seconds better than when I did the event in October. Somebody on my team told me I flutter-kicked between backstroke and breaststroke. I said “yes, that sounds like something I would do!” I’m within 6 seconds of my best friend, so I know I’ll beat him at some point. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
2. 50 Fly = 35.45 is about 2 seconds faster than my personal best. The swim went well, but my ending was terrible—I hit the wall at midstroke so that was a little awkward and probably added a second to my time. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
3. 25 Free = 13.72 is about 0.3 sec faster than my personal best. Of course there is a lot of measurement error with such a short event combined with human stop-watch operators. I remember breathing a few times, and this shouldn’t be necessary so I know that’s one way to improve. I got first place in my gender-age group for this event because no one else did it. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.
4. 50 Back = 41.16 is considerably less than the seed time of 47.0 that I submitted, but that was simply a guess because I had never done this event before. I think my start was reasonably good for someone who hasn’t had much practice. I don’t know if my hands and head landed in the right spot, but it felt fine. I really flew on the first 25 and despite paying attention to the flags I flipped over far too late to do a flipturn at the wall so I did an open turn. On my way back, my friend said my hips/torso was undulating side-to-side too much. I sometimes (often?) do this in freestyle, too, and I’m not sure whether this is fatigue or just too much [wild] enthusiasm during a race. Speaking of wild enthusiasm, at the end of the 50 yards I somehow ended up in the corner of the lane and missed touching the pad, so I think I might have been a second or two faster than indicated. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.
I’ve now acquired 100 points over 6 meets this season. I’m still the slowest member of my gender-age group but I’m having a blast.
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: Clearfield, PA
My meet yesterday was at the Clearfield YMCA. It’s a brand new pool. I did 4 events and set personal bests in all of them:
1. 100 IM = 1:19.64 is about 2 seconds better than when I did the event in October. Somebody on my team told me I flutter-kicked between backstroke and breaststroke. I said “yes, that sounds like something I would do!” I’m within 6 seconds of my best friend, so I know I’ll beat him at some point. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
2. 50 Fly = 35.45 is about 2 seconds faster than my personal best. The swim went well, but my ending was terrible—I hit the wall at midstroke so that was a little awkward and probably added a second to my time. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
3. 25 Free = 13.72 is about 0.3 sec faster than my personal best. Of course there is a lot of measurement error with such a short event combined with human stop-watch operators. I remember breathing a few times, and this shouldn’t be necessary so I know that’s one way to improve. I got first place in my gender-age group for this event because no one else did it. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.
4. 50 Back = 41.16 is considerably less than the seed time of 47.0 that I submitted, but that was simply a guess because I had never done this event before. I think my start was reasonably good for someone who hasn’t had much practice. I don’t know if my hands and head landed in the right spot, but it felt fine. I really flew on the first 25 and despite paying attention to the flags I flipped over far too late to do a flipturn at the wall so I did an open turn. On my way back, my friend said my hips/torso was undulating side-to-side too much. I sometimes (often?) do this in freestyle, too, and I’m not sure whether this is fatigue or just too much [wild] enthusiasm during a race. Speaking of wild enthusiasm, at the end of the 50 yards I somehow ended up in the corner of the lane and missed touching the pad, so I think I might have been a second or two faster than indicated. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.
I’ve now acquired 100 points over 6 meets this season. I’m still the slowest member of my gender-age group but I’m having a blast.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: January 8, 2012
Location: Grove City, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.28
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #2: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.57 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #3: 50-yard breaststroke
Time: 40.50 seconds
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #4: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.55
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I did a 450-yard warm-up then waited for my first event: 100-yard freestyle. I kicked butt. My second event was 50-yard freestyle and I again beat my personal best. And you know what? I could have gone faster. My third event was 50-yard breaststroke and I messed up to the point that I should have been disqualified but apparently the official didn't notice or care. Upon diving, I got a bit of water in one of my goggle's eye sockets and this distracted me enough that my first stroke in the water was butterfly instead of breaststroke. It took me a while then to figure out how to start breaststroke from a butterfly position but I made it work. I did breaststroke for the rest of the race but I didn't push myself. I wasn't even winded at the end. My teammates were laughing really hard when I got out of the water. Glad to be the source of some humor!
My last event was 25-yard butterfly and I beat my seed time by 0.2 seconds. It's hard to improve by much with such a short distance. It's all in the dive. All in all, a great day of competition.
Date: January 8, 2012
Location: Grove City, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.28
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #2: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.57 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #3: 50-yard breaststroke
Time: 40.50 seconds
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #4: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.55
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I did a 450-yard warm-up then waited for my first event: 100-yard freestyle. I kicked butt. My second event was 50-yard freestyle and I again beat my personal best. And you know what? I could have gone faster. My third event was 50-yard breaststroke and I messed up to the point that I should have been disqualified but apparently the official didn't notice or care. Upon diving, I got a bit of water in one of my goggle's eye sockets and this distracted me enough that my first stroke in the water was butterfly instead of breaststroke. It took me a while then to figure out how to start breaststroke from a butterfly position but I made it work. I did breaststroke for the rest of the race but I didn't push myself. I wasn't even winded at the end. My teammates were laughing really hard when I got out of the water. Glad to be the source of some humor!
My last event was 25-yard butterfly and I beat my seed time by 0.2 seconds. It's hard to improve by much with such a short distance. It's all in the dive. All in all, a great day of competition.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
AMYMSA Mile Swim
Race:
1,650-yard freestyle swim (scy)
Date: December 10, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA
Time: 27:42.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
This was my best time to date. Last year I did the 1650 in 29:30. This year I figured I'd be faster so I put down 28:30. Beat it! I'm excited because I was not swimming in top shape. I had not been in the pool for 10 days prior to this. In fact I have not been working out since a week ago when I tore a muscle/tendon in my neck. It went "pop" last Sunday and I've had pain, significant restriction in movement, and fatigue ever since. Of course I've gotten a little better each day, but this morning I still had these symptoms and I wasn't sure whether I could swim at all.
The competition was in three heats. I sat at the end of a lane and counted laps for my teammates during the first two heats. Between tasks I got a chance to test out my neck. I got in an unused lane and started swimming. "Hey, I thought, this is fine." But then I realized I hadn't taken a breath yet. So, I snuck one between strokes and I was able to move my neck to do so, and there was no pain. I finished swimming the lap and got out of the pool. At that point I knew I could start the 1650 but I wasn't sure how long the pain-free period would last.
I swam in the third heat. I started in the pool rather than diving in. I also avoided flip-turns. I felt so slow and I wasn't sure where the other swimmers were so I snuck a peak at the lane counters in the adjacent lanes and saw that my competitors were swimming at the same pace--for instance, we all were on length 21, and then later, we were all on length 36. I really couldn't believe that I was keeping pace. I wasn't doing flip turns, I hadn't done anything physically taxing in a week, and I was still slightly injured. Nevertheless, I ended up beating a couple other folks in my heat (my good friend in the lane next to me did beat me by 13 seconds), and I beat my seed time. I'm very happy.
I'll also plan to have a stiffer neck tomorrow, as I know I forced it to work harder than I probably should have. But nothing went 'pop' again, so at least I didn't re-injure it to any large degree.
The only damper on the night was at the party where I played two lousy games of pool (billards) and lost both times by a lot. This surprised me, as the last time I played pool I remembered I had been pretty good. But then it dawned on me that I had been playing against some folks who had consumed some alcohol, and being the most sober person there, I was probably going to win even if I wasn't that good.
Date: December 10, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA
Time: 27:42.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
This was my best time to date. Last year I did the 1650 in 29:30. This year I figured I'd be faster so I put down 28:30. Beat it! I'm excited because I was not swimming in top shape. I had not been in the pool for 10 days prior to this. In fact I have not been working out since a week ago when I tore a muscle/tendon in my neck. It went "pop" last Sunday and I've had pain, significant restriction in movement, and fatigue ever since. Of course I've gotten a little better each day, but this morning I still had these symptoms and I wasn't sure whether I could swim at all.
The competition was in three heats. I sat at the end of a lane and counted laps for my teammates during the first two heats. Between tasks I got a chance to test out my neck. I got in an unused lane and started swimming. "Hey, I thought, this is fine." But then I realized I hadn't taken a breath yet. So, I snuck one between strokes and I was able to move my neck to do so, and there was no pain. I finished swimming the lap and got out of the pool. At that point I knew I could start the 1650 but I wasn't sure how long the pain-free period would last.
I swam in the third heat. I started in the pool rather than diving in. I also avoided flip-turns. I felt so slow and I wasn't sure where the other swimmers were so I snuck a peak at the lane counters in the adjacent lanes and saw that my competitors were swimming at the same pace--for instance, we all were on length 21, and then later, we were all on length 36. I really couldn't believe that I was keeping pace. I wasn't doing flip turns, I hadn't done anything physically taxing in a week, and I was still slightly injured. Nevertheless, I ended up beating a couple other folks in my heat (my good friend in the lane next to me did beat me by 13 seconds), and I beat my seed time. I'm very happy.
I'll also plan to have a stiffer neck tomorrow, as I know I forced it to work harder than I probably should have. But nothing went 'pop' again, so at least I didn't re-injure it to any large degree.
The only damper on the night was at the party where I played two lousy games of pool (billards) and lost both times by a lot. This surprised me, as the last time I played pool I remembered I had been pretty good. But then it dawned on me that I had been playing against some folks who had consumed some alcohol, and being the most sober person there, I was probably going to win even if I wasn't that good.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: November 20, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.57
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #2: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:27.68
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #3: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.94 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #4: 500-yard freestyle
Time: 7:49.63
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
The meet was in Greensburg, not too far from me. I did a 400-yard warm-up. Then I competed in the following four events:
(1) 100-yard freestyle. I swam this in 1:09.57 which is just half a second off my personal best.
(2) 100-yard breaststroke. I swam this in 1:27.68, which is good I guess, but I have not swam in this event before, so I have nothing to compare it to. A swimmer I admire took me aside and said "Your stroke is awesome, but your turns are horrible." He showed me how to push off the wall and delay the first stroke until you are past the backstroke flags. I actually knew of this technique before but it seems awkward and I don't do it. But he's right; if I did the turn right, I could cut 5 seconds off my time.
(3) 25-yard butterfly. I did this in 15.94 seconds which was a big surprise in a bad way. I had a seemingly perfect dive and I felt strong and fast. But this time was off my personal best by 0.13 seconds. Now that is not a lot, so it isn't a big deal.
(4) 500-yard freestyle. I have never swam in this event before, but I exceeded my goal by a lot. I submitted a seed time of 8:30 but swam it in 7:49.63. People told me this was a fast time for someone who just learned to swim three years ago. I beamed in this praise. I don't do any of ths for the praise of others, but it feels good when you get it :)
Date: November 20, 2011
Location: Greensburg, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.57
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #2: 100-yard breaststroke
Time: 1:27.68
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
Event #3: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.94 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #4: 500-yard freestyle
Time: 7:49.63
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3
The meet was in Greensburg, not too far from me. I did a 400-yard warm-up. Then I competed in the following four events:
(1) 100-yard freestyle. I swam this in 1:09.57 which is just half a second off my personal best.
(2) 100-yard breaststroke. I swam this in 1:27.68, which is good I guess, but I have not swam in this event before, so I have nothing to compare it to. A swimmer I admire took me aside and said "Your stroke is awesome, but your turns are horrible." He showed me how to push off the wall and delay the first stroke until you are past the backstroke flags. I actually knew of this technique before but it seems awkward and I don't do it. But he's right; if I did the turn right, I could cut 5 seconds off my time.
(3) 25-yard butterfly. I did this in 15.94 seconds which was a big surprise in a bad way. I had a seemingly perfect dive and I felt strong and fast. But this time was off my personal best by 0.13 seconds. Now that is not a lot, so it isn't a big deal.
(4) 500-yard freestyle. I have never swam in this event before, but I exceeded my goal by a lot. I submitted a seed time of 8:30 but swam it in 7:49.63. People told me this was a fast time for someone who just learned to swim three years ago. I beamed in this praise. I don't do any of ths for the praise of others, but it feels good when you get it :)
Sunday, November 6, 2011
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: November 6, 2011
Location: Erie, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.00
Age Group Rank: 6 out of 6
Event #2: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.85 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #3: 50-yard breaststroke
Time: 39.41
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
Event #4: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.80 seconds
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Third swim meet of the season went well. I did a 450 warm up and then competed in the 100-free, 50-free, 50-breast, and 25-fly. I beat my seed time in 3/4 events. Great day. Now to bed!
Date: November 6, 2011
Location: Erie, PA
Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.00
Age Group Rank: 6 out of 6
Event #2: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.85 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4
Event #3: 50-yard breaststroke
Time: 39.41
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
Event #4: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.80 seconds
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Third swim meet of the season went well. I did a 450 warm up and then competed in the 100-free, 50-free, 50-breast, and 25-fly. I beat my seed time in 3/4 events. Great day. Now to bed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)