Race:
Masters Swim Meet
Date:
9 February 2014
Location:
Franklin, Pa
AMYMSA Swim Meet in Franklin, Pa.
I had a great meet. I got three
personal bests out of four swims. Most importantly, I am still on track for
meeting my end-of-season goals. Let me set the stage: Last fall I had been
swimming well enough at meets, but I was not improving to the degree that I was
used to, nor what I knew I could accomplish. So in early January I worked with
my coach to set some goals, with the realization that reaching those goals would
require a commitment to pushing myself harder during practices. Today’s meet was
my chance to test whether I was on track in the 50-yard butterfly event. My goal
today was to set a personal best of 32.43 seconds, which would position me well
to swim it in 31.5 seconds by the end of the season in April. Read on to see if
I met today’s goal….
Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
My time was 1:14.69, which lowered my
personal best by about half a second. My swim was not without flaws, since my
back-breast turn was sloppy. But otherwise, this swim felt effortless to the
point where I had to remind myself to swim faster. My backstroke felt
particularly fast today. My stroke rate is often slower than my competitors due
to my long arms, but I was easily keeping up with them. I elected to use the
strength of each stroke propel me rather than quicken my turnover rate (this is
a quality over quantity argument; I went with a stronger stroke rather than a
faster stroke). My back-breast turn was poor because I initiated the turn too
soon and found myself a bit on my stomach before reaching the wall. I would have
been disqualified for that if anyone cared. My breaststroke segment felt good
and I concentrated on a more rapid stroke rate in combination with good forward
thrust of the arms. I saw no one in front of me during the breaststroke so I
thought maybe all my competitors were behind me. I continued to think I was
leading my heat during the freestyle segment. But at the end of the race I saw
that fellow age-grouper Gary was on my left and had beat me by a second. I did
not see him because I breathe on my right. We had a good chat after the
race.
Event #4: 50 Butterfly
My time was 32.32, so yes, I beat my goal and set
a new personal best. I had a fairly shallow dive and came to the surface a
little sooner than I like. Also, I glided too much into the far wall; I should
have taken another stroke to keep my momentum. But I was at least a body length
ahead of everyone else in the pool and I can’t tell you how exciting that is. I
knew this was going to turn out to be a great swim. After I got out of the pool,
a particularly fast swimmer named Jim came over to me and gave me much
encouragement. He said I had a powerful arm pull that carried me through the
water (you will always be my friend if you compliment my upper body strength,
which personally, I think is lacking). He said I could easily bring my time
below 30 seconds with a couple changes to my swim. First, I should keep my head
down. This advice surprised me, since I never really thought about my head
position when I am not taking a breath (I only took 3 breaths in 50 yards).
Second, my shoulder blades should pinch in the back as I bring my arms out of
the water on the recovery. He didn’t say why this would be an improvement, but
now that I think about it, I think this is just another way for me to thrust my
chest forward, which is what my coach has been trying to get me to do.
Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I have this event on my list of things I like
but it is far from my best event. My time was 1:22.57, which lowered my personal
best by exactly 0.04 seconds. I did not expect to break this record because most
recently I swam the event in 1:27.25. But in the water I felt really good. The
roof rafters and flags were really passing me fast overhead. My turns were
really quite good, too, which is a big improvement from last fall. I kicked like
crazy to get me to the finish.
Event #8: 50 Backstroke
My personal best in this event is 36.54. I swam
it today in 36.84. It took me a long time to recover from the 100 Back. My heart
rate took a while to slow down and my quadriceps were hurting so bad that I
walked with a limp. But somehow, at just the right moment, everything settled
down and I jumped in the pool to start my 50 back. I still felt fast and my turn
at the wall was pretty good. However, I misjudged where the wall was at the
finish, so I turned on my side way too early…coasting, reaching, and eventually
finding the touchpad with the grace and speed of a manatee. Before I was out of
the water, John K. raised his voice and told me my finish sucked. Yep, that was
true. He and I have a great relationship, so while this might have sounded harsh
to people who don’t know us, I felt the love inside his rebuke. He wanted me to
do well and I didn’t. Or at least, I didn’t do as well as I could have…because
36.84 was only 0.30 seconds off my best, and I would have beaten my time by a
lot if I didn’t mess up the finish. Later, I was talking with Victor and he said
I should work on my streamlining at the start: “Let your dive carry you farther
before starting your stroke.” Then I watched an 80 year-old woman do exactly
that. If she did it, I should do it. I should definitely start watching old
ladies in the pool! (but seriously, thanks for the advice Victor).
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Master's swim meet
Date: 19 January 2014
Location: Allegheny Valley, Pa
Event #2: 100-yard freestyle. I set a new personal best in 1:05.94, which is about half a second faster than my old record set last spring. I now need to revise my season goal downward, since I have reached the speed that I wanted to acheive in April 2014. I felt great on this swim. I had a long underwater segment on my dive. I spent at least 50 yards doing shoulder-driven freestyle and took few breaths. My turns were timid but perhaps a little better timed relative to the wall compared to what I usually do. I was not feeling tired or out of breath when I finished the race.
Event #4: 25-yard backstroke. I set a new personal best in 16.50, which is 0.25 second faster than my old record. After a lackluster start, I trucked through the water and felt strong. I am happy to have finished well; I usually hit the wall awkwardly but today I knew where I was and reached for the finish.
Event #6: 50-yard freestyle. My arms were feeling tired by this time, but nothing too concerning. I had Shannan's advice in my mind all day: swim each event as if it is your only one--don't hold back. It was my intention to do this on my swim and I felt good about it. However, my time was 29.40 seconds, which did not beat the new personal record I set two weeks ago at 28.98. I was a little surprised, but in retrospect I think my arms started to rotate too quickly in the last half of the race and I was not pulling water all the way to my hips as I should have. I just read an article about muscle fatigue during swim races and I think my performance is exactly what the article was talking about. The arm muscles I use in pulling water toward the hips were fatigued and the brain tried to recruit other, weaker muscles to do work they were not designed to do. I've got more speed training to do to prevent this from happening again.
Event #9: 200-yard Individual Medley. I set a new personal best in 2:53.99, which is nearly a second faster than my old record set last spring. I have set two season goals for this event: first, to reach 2:52.5 by 3/9/2014 and drop another half second by Champs on 4/5/2014. I am now halfway to this goal, so I am right on track! That's exciting, since I didn't know how realistic my season goals were going to be. I had a moment of anxiety 50 yards into the race. At the butterfly-backstroke turn I almost started doing freestyle instead of backstroke. I was concerned that I was going to be disqualified, but I did not let this slow me down. At my backstroke-breaststroke turn I heard my friends cheering for me. The cheers, along with the fact that I was running neck-to-neck with the guy next to me, kept my spirits high as I started the breaststroke. But at 115 yards into the swim, I felt some doubt seep into my mind. I wanted to quit. I was slowing down and I was tired. Despite all these negative feelings, I am happy about my breastroke because I had some good underwater pullouts and I never swallowed any water, which is something I usually do as I get tired. For the future I will need to work especially on pacing, since in today's swim I started feeling exhausted soon after 100 yards. My split times were 36.18 (butterly) + 44.17 (back) + 51.14 (breast) + 41.96 (free). The last two splits are kind of embarrasing. They are way off the speeds I can usually do.
Date: 19 January 2014
Location: Allegheny Valley, Pa
Event #2: 100-yard freestyle. I set a new personal best in 1:05.94, which is about half a second faster than my old record set last spring. I now need to revise my season goal downward, since I have reached the speed that I wanted to acheive in April 2014. I felt great on this swim. I had a long underwater segment on my dive. I spent at least 50 yards doing shoulder-driven freestyle and took few breaths. My turns were timid but perhaps a little better timed relative to the wall compared to what I usually do. I was not feeling tired or out of breath when I finished the race.
Event #4: 25-yard backstroke. I set a new personal best in 16.50, which is 0.25 second faster than my old record. After a lackluster start, I trucked through the water and felt strong. I am happy to have finished well; I usually hit the wall awkwardly but today I knew where I was and reached for the finish.
Event #6: 50-yard freestyle. My arms were feeling tired by this time, but nothing too concerning. I had Shannan's advice in my mind all day: swim each event as if it is your only one--don't hold back. It was my intention to do this on my swim and I felt good about it. However, my time was 29.40 seconds, which did not beat the new personal record I set two weeks ago at 28.98. I was a little surprised, but in retrospect I think my arms started to rotate too quickly in the last half of the race and I was not pulling water all the way to my hips as I should have. I just read an article about muscle fatigue during swim races and I think my performance is exactly what the article was talking about. The arm muscles I use in pulling water toward the hips were fatigued and the brain tried to recruit other, weaker muscles to do work they were not designed to do. I've got more speed training to do to prevent this from happening again.
Event #9: 200-yard Individual Medley. I set a new personal best in 2:53.99, which is nearly a second faster than my old record set last spring. I have set two season goals for this event: first, to reach 2:52.5 by 3/9/2014 and drop another half second by Champs on 4/5/2014. I am now halfway to this goal, so I am right on track! That's exciting, since I didn't know how realistic my season goals were going to be. I had a moment of anxiety 50 yards into the race. At the butterfly-backstroke turn I almost started doing freestyle instead of backstroke. I was concerned that I was going to be disqualified, but I did not let this slow me down. At my backstroke-breaststroke turn I heard my friends cheering for me. The cheers, along with the fact that I was running neck-to-neck with the guy next to me, kept my spirits high as I started the breaststroke. But at 115 yards into the swim, I felt some doubt seep into my mind. I wanted to quit. I was slowing down and I was tired. Despite all these negative feelings, I am happy about my breastroke because I had some good underwater pullouts and I never swallowed any water, which is something I usually do as I get tired. For the future I will need to work especially on pacing, since in today's swim I started feeling exhausted soon after 100 yards. My split times were 36.18 (butterly) + 44.17 (back) + 51.14 (breast) + 41.96 (free). The last two splits are kind of embarrasing. They are way off the speeds I can usually do.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
AMYMSA swim meet
Date: 05 January 2014
Location: Grove City, Pa.
I had a very satisfying swim meet. It was not only fun but also featured some successful swims.
My first event was the 100-yard freestyle. I swam it in 1:06.60, which narrowly missed my lifetime best of 1:06.48. I loved this swim. I swam the first 40 yards without taking a breath and used the shoulder-driven style to keep up my speed. I gradually converted to a hip-driven style by the last 25 yards, and by this time my arms were fatigued so I just kicked hard and did the best I could with arms that could no longer pull water.
My second event was the 50-yard freestyle. I swam it in 28.98 seconds, beating my previous best of 29.30 seconds. I know I can swim this faster, too, since I paused a moment in the water just before my turn. I am really happy to have broken 29 seconds, and today's swim result means I have to reassess my mid-season goal for this event; previously, I had set a goal of 29.20 seconds on 1/19/2014. I have now beat that, two weeks ahead of schedule.
My third event was 50-yard breaststroke. I swam it in 38.51. This was more than a second slower than my personal best and I'm not sure why. I had long pull-outs underwater at my dive and at the wall, and I felt my stroke was well coordinated. Maybe my head was too vertical, though. Shannan thought I slowed down toward the end, and I think I remember that being true for a few strokes, but as I saw people in the adjacent lanes move ahead of me, I consciously pushed faster to try to beat them. So whatever happened was not due to lack of will. I think maybe I was just enjoying the swim too much. I expected a near-record time, so I lost my panic.
My fourth event was the 25-yard butterfly. My time was 14.13 seconds, which is well off my personal best of 13.29 seconds. Despite being quite slow today, I love this event because it is really easy for me. I don't tire out, and in fact, I don't even breathe during the swim. However, given the short distance, the dive is important and I feel that I was late. Shannan thought I stumbled on my first stroke, too.
Date: 05 January 2014
Location: Grove City, Pa.
I had a very satisfying swim meet. It was not only fun but also featured some successful swims.
My first event was the 100-yard freestyle. I swam it in 1:06.60, which narrowly missed my lifetime best of 1:06.48. I loved this swim. I swam the first 40 yards without taking a breath and used the shoulder-driven style to keep up my speed. I gradually converted to a hip-driven style by the last 25 yards, and by this time my arms were fatigued so I just kicked hard and did the best I could with arms that could no longer pull water.
My second event was the 50-yard freestyle. I swam it in 28.98 seconds, beating my previous best of 29.30 seconds. I know I can swim this faster, too, since I paused a moment in the water just before my turn. I am really happy to have broken 29 seconds, and today's swim result means I have to reassess my mid-season goal for this event; previously, I had set a goal of 29.20 seconds on 1/19/2014. I have now beat that, two weeks ahead of schedule.
My third event was 50-yard breaststroke. I swam it in 38.51. This was more than a second slower than my personal best and I'm not sure why. I had long pull-outs underwater at my dive and at the wall, and I felt my stroke was well coordinated. Maybe my head was too vertical, though. Shannan thought I slowed down toward the end, and I think I remember that being true for a few strokes, but as I saw people in the adjacent lanes move ahead of me, I consciously pushed faster to try to beat them. So whatever happened was not due to lack of will. I think maybe I was just enjoying the swim too much. I expected a near-record time, so I lost my panic.
My fourth event was the 25-yard butterfly. My time was 14.13 seconds, which is well off my personal best of 13.29 seconds. Despite being quite slow today, I love this event because it is really easy for me. I don't tire out, and in fact, I don't even breathe during the swim. However, given the short distance, the dive is important and I feel that I was late. Shannan thought I stumbled on my first stroke, too.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
AMYMSA Postal 1650 swim
Race:
AMYMSA 1650 swim
Date: 07 December 2013
Location: Greensburg, Pa.
Time: 24:53.87
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4
Annual 1650-yard meet. I beat my time from last year by 13 seconds. That is an improvement of 0.9%. Wish I went even faster, but small improvements sum up to large successes. I will keep swimming!
Date: 07 December 2013
Location: Greensburg, Pa.
Time: 24:53.87
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4
Annual 1650-yard meet. I beat my time from last year by 13 seconds. That is an improvement of 0.9%. Wish I went even faster, but small improvements sum up to large successes. I will keep swimming!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
AMYMSA swim meet
Date: 01 December 2013
Location: Sewickley, Pa.
A good solid swim meet for me. Qick recap:
Event #1 was the 100-yard Individual Medley. My old personal best was 1:15.24, set a month ago. Today I swam it in 1:15.09. I think my turns were good. I was well ahead of my heat until my breastroke-freestyle turn. Nevertheless, I remember concentrating more on my breaststroke and freestyle segments more this race than a month ago. I maintained good streamlining during breaststroke and refused to get tired like I usually do. Then during the last half of the freestyle I found some extra energy for a sprint and made a good finish. I felt sick afterwards, which suggests I gave it my all.
Event #2: 50-yard Butterfly. I swam this in 33.60 seconds, about a second off my best time. I did not push it, and was not out of breath at the end.
Event #3: 100-yard Backstroke. I swam this in 1:27.25, well above my personal best of 1:22.61. I was still tired from the earlier swims. Indeed, I need to work on my endurance in this event, since I get tired after 50 yards (true for all my strokes except freestyle). My friends tell me I still need a lot of work on my turns, as I initiate them much too late. Also, my finish was terrible. I didn't quite run into the wall, but my arm hit the top of the touch pad and it was a second or so before I realized I needed to touch it on its face to stop the clock. Once agian, my legs were burning and I felt sick. In fact, very sick. I got lightheaded and nauseated. I thought about scratching my next event but eventually felt rested enough to go for it.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle. I swam this in 2:42.89, well above my personal best of 2:38.11. I am surprised how slow I went. When I was in the water I felt like my strokes were strong and effortless. I was grabbing water and pushing it behind me. It's always nice to end with a good swim.
I truly did my best this meet and have no regrets. I am still very happy I lowered one of my personal bests in the 100-IM. In the spring I will train harder and do even better.
Date: 01 December 2013
Location: Sewickley, Pa.
A good solid swim meet for me. Qick recap:
Event #1 was the 100-yard Individual Medley. My old personal best was 1:15.24, set a month ago. Today I swam it in 1:15.09. I think my turns were good. I was well ahead of my heat until my breastroke-freestyle turn. Nevertheless, I remember concentrating more on my breaststroke and freestyle segments more this race than a month ago. I maintained good streamlining during breaststroke and refused to get tired like I usually do. Then during the last half of the freestyle I found some extra energy for a sprint and made a good finish. I felt sick afterwards, which suggests I gave it my all.
Event #2: 50-yard Butterfly. I swam this in 33.60 seconds, about a second off my best time. I did not push it, and was not out of breath at the end.
Event #3: 100-yard Backstroke. I swam this in 1:27.25, well above my personal best of 1:22.61. I was still tired from the earlier swims. Indeed, I need to work on my endurance in this event, since I get tired after 50 yards (true for all my strokes except freestyle). My friends tell me I still need a lot of work on my turns, as I initiate them much too late. Also, my finish was terrible. I didn't quite run into the wall, but my arm hit the top of the touch pad and it was a second or so before I realized I needed to touch it on its face to stop the clock. Once agian, my legs were burning and I felt sick. In fact, very sick. I got lightheaded and nauseated. I thought about scratching my next event but eventually felt rested enough to go for it.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle. I swam this in 2:42.89, well above my personal best of 2:38.11. I am surprised how slow I went. When I was in the water I felt like my strokes were strong and effortless. I was grabbing water and pushing it behind me. It's always nice to end with a good swim.
I truly did my best this meet and have no regrets. I am still very happy I lowered one of my personal bests in the 100-IM. In the spring I will train harder and do even better.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Master's swim meet
Date: 17 November 2013
Location: Greensburg, PA
I had a great time at this swim meet. I swam four events and set a new personal best in one of them. But even if that were not true, I would still feel good. I gave my swims 100% effort. I made some mistakes, but my intentions were true.
Event #2: 100 yard freestyle
I swam this in 1:07.30, which was less than a second off my personal best. My dive was deep and I didn't surface for a while. Then I started swimming with big, long strokes with a lot of power and rapid kicking. When the race results come out, I will look to see if this first 50 yards was under 29 seconds because it sure felt like my fastest 50 ever [actually, it was far from my best time: 31.89]. The problem with this is that I still had another 50 yards to go and I started to feel burning in my legs. Later, after my swim, I felt sick from the lactic acid and was worried I would not recover in time for my next event. But after 15 min I was ready to go. Eventually I will gain the necessary experience I need to pace myself, but definitely not today!
Event #6: 50-yard freestyle
This was my new personal best. I swam it in 29.30 seconds, besting my old time by 0.23 seconds. I breathed once toward the end of the first pool length (mostly out of habit), and took about 4 breaths during the last 25 yards. John K. said my finish looked good, and I have a bit of a jammed middle finger to prove it. I hit the touch pad with a lot of velocity. Unlike my first event, I was not out of breath or overly exhausted after this swim, which is good, because I had to swim in the next event!
Event #7: 200-yard backstroke
I was disappointed in my 200 backstroke at the last meet, so I thought I'd try it out again. The problem is that in the intervening 2 weeks, I think I only practiced my backstroke once. So this was just a repeat of an over-par swim. I finished in about 3:11, which was 3 seconds off my best time. I did better today than two weeks ago, but I still made the same error: initiating my turns too close to the wall, and swallowing water at pretty much every turn. At least I counted my laps correctly this time! Oh boy, my legs and arms were both burning at the end of this swim. And my next event was...less than 10 minutes away.
Event #8: 50 breaststroke
I finished in 39.91, about 2.5 seconds off my best time. I remember staying even with at least two swimmers during the first 25 yards. I was watching them out of the corner of my eye, and I saw that their stroke rate was faster than mine, yet they were no faster in the water. Then I turned at the wall and as I began to swim the last 25 yards I saw my competitors gain a widening lead. I did what I could to keep up, but my arms were feeling really heavy.
Date: 17 November 2013
Location: Greensburg, PA
I had a great time at this swim meet. I swam four events and set a new personal best in one of them. But even if that were not true, I would still feel good. I gave my swims 100% effort. I made some mistakes, but my intentions were true.
Event #2: 100 yard freestyle
I swam this in 1:07.30, which was less than a second off my personal best. My dive was deep and I didn't surface for a while. Then I started swimming with big, long strokes with a lot of power and rapid kicking. When the race results come out, I will look to see if this first 50 yards was under 29 seconds because it sure felt like my fastest 50 ever [actually, it was far from my best time: 31.89]. The problem with this is that I still had another 50 yards to go and I started to feel burning in my legs. Later, after my swim, I felt sick from the lactic acid and was worried I would not recover in time for my next event. But after 15 min I was ready to go. Eventually I will gain the necessary experience I need to pace myself, but definitely not today!
Event #6: 50-yard freestyle
This was my new personal best. I swam it in 29.30 seconds, besting my old time by 0.23 seconds. I breathed once toward the end of the first pool length (mostly out of habit), and took about 4 breaths during the last 25 yards. John K. said my finish looked good, and I have a bit of a jammed middle finger to prove it. I hit the touch pad with a lot of velocity. Unlike my first event, I was not out of breath or overly exhausted after this swim, which is good, because I had to swim in the next event!
Event #7: 200-yard backstroke
I was disappointed in my 200 backstroke at the last meet, so I thought I'd try it out again. The problem is that in the intervening 2 weeks, I think I only practiced my backstroke once. So this was just a repeat of an over-par swim. I finished in about 3:11, which was 3 seconds off my best time. I did better today than two weeks ago, but I still made the same error: initiating my turns too close to the wall, and swallowing water at pretty much every turn. At least I counted my laps correctly this time! Oh boy, my legs and arms were both burning at the end of this swim. And my next event was...less than 10 minutes away.
Event #8: 50 breaststroke
I finished in 39.91, about 2.5 seconds off my best time. I remember staying even with at least two swimmers during the first 25 yards. I was watching them out of the corner of my eye, and I saw that their stroke rate was faster than mine, yet they were no faster in the water. Then I turned at the wall and as I began to swim the last 25 yards I saw my competitors gain a widening lead. I did what I could to keep up, but my arms were feeling really heavy.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
AMYMSA Masters Swim Meet
Date: 3 November 2013
Location: Clearfield, Pa.
I had a great time, and I am so happy that this is true of almost all my meets. I swam the 500-yard Freestyle in 7:09.82, which broke my old record of 7:28.09. Interesting pattern in the numbers there, you see it? I also set a personal best in the 25-yard Butterfly, which I swam in 14.58 seconds (an improvement of 1.2%). Then I swam the 200-yard Backstroke in 3:08.00, which was just 0.09 seconds off my personal best. Lastly, I swam the 100-yard Freestyle in 1:09.13, which was about 2.5 seconds slower than my best time. I don't know what went "wrong" with this last swim, but it doesn't matter. I am satisfied with something under 1:10, especially given a well below-average amount of swim training the past month.
Date: 3 November 2013
Location: Clearfield, Pa.
I had a great time, and I am so happy that this is true of almost all my meets. I swam the 500-yard Freestyle in 7:09.82, which broke my old record of 7:28.09. Interesting pattern in the numbers there, you see it? I also set a personal best in the 25-yard Butterfly, which I swam in 14.58 seconds (an improvement of 1.2%). Then I swam the 200-yard Backstroke in 3:08.00, which was just 0.09 seconds off my personal best. Lastly, I swam the 100-yard Freestyle in 1:09.13, which was about 2.5 seconds slower than my best time. I don't know what went "wrong" with this last swim, but it doesn't matter. I am satisfied with something under 1:10, especially given a well below-average amount of swim training the past month.
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