Race:
Master's Swim Meet
Date: 9 March 2014
Location:
Edinboro, PA
It finally happened, and it's ok. I swam in a swim meet and set no new
personal bests. Here is how it happened:
6:30AM I woke up in my hotel room
in Youngstown, OH.
7:00AM I ate a pancake with a huge quantity of syrup,
followed by a bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal.
9:00AM I was watching Shannan's
daughter at a district swim meet and I felt the thrill of competition. "I will
feel this way in a few hours when I swim," I said to myself. Meanwhile, my
stomach was hurting from the pure sugar I consumed at breakfast.
9:45AM I
get in my car and drive toward Edinboro, PA.
10:50AM I feel a great fatigue
come over me. It may be the "crash" that inevitably follows a sugary meal, or it
may be a tiredness that comes from a busy weekend and shift to daylight saving
time (though my fit-bit tells me I slept for 7 hours and 6 minutes, which isn't
that bad). Either way, I am drowsy enough to consider pulling into a rest stop.
I reject the idea, and keep going.
11:20AM I start my warmup in the pool. I
feel sluggish and there is a kink in my neck, but no big deal.
12:00PM I
swim in Event #2, the 100-yard freestyle. My time is around a second slower than
my personal best. "That's ok, I can't always out-perform myself," I say to
myself. But there is darkness inside me. I don't feel optimistic about my next
swims. In fact, I leave the pool and get a Pepsi from a vending machine. I chug
it down as fast as I can and joke to myself that the bubbles of carbonation will
help me float. I do not ingest caffeine daily. But I really wanted to boost my
mood and my performance. I hoped it would affect me in time for my next swims.
12:30PM I swim in Event #5: 100 yard breaststroke and swim about 2 seconds
slower than my personal best. I had a good dive and pull out, but I could tell
when I got to the opposite wall that I was not covering a lot of distance with
each stroke. I saw the wall coming up long, long before I actually reached it.
Gees, where is my power?! After my swim I reason with myself again: "You rarely
practice your breaststroke, so of course you didn't do as well today." That
argument made sense. I need to practice my breastroke more.
12:40PM Event #6
was the 50 yard freestyle. I swim as fast as I can. I concentrated on taking
long arm strokes and kicking hard. My calf muscle complained and I let up on the
kicking a bit in order to avoid a cramp. I was actually pleased that my time was
29.5 seconds. That is still a second slower than my personal best, but coming in
under 30 seconds meant I was still in the game.
1:00PM. I swim in my premier
event, the 200 individual medley. By "premier" I mean this is the event that
meant the most to me. I had a specific goal to reach for this event on this day.
My goal was 2:52.50, which was already several seconds faster than my personal
best, 2:53.99, set in January. I started the swim really well. My dive took me
deep into the water and I stayed there a while as I dolphin-kicked. I finally
surfaced around the middle of the pool length. I felt no anxiety, no
breathlessness doing the 50 yard butterfly segment, and I was keeping up with
the others in my heat. I did a nice fly-to-backstroke turn and maintained my
momentum and position for the next 50 yards. I gently hit the wall (literally)
at the end of my backstroke, and I heard my friend Dan go "oh!" (thanks Dan),
but I headed right into my breastroke to show everyone I was fine. But it was
here that I started to fall apart. I just couldn't find any power in my stroke,
and I got slower and slower. My freestyle segment was fine and I floored it
during the last 25 to try to recoup what time I had lost. But alas, I finished
in 2:58, several seconds slower than my goal.
1:15PM It is time for me to
leave. As I head down the stairs to the locker room, I realize my quadriceps are
so weak that I have trouble keeping upright. This wasn't a great swim meet for
me, but I am not discouraged. I look forward to championships next month!
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Race:
Masters Swim Meet
Date: 23 February 2014
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa
Swim Meet at Cranberry YMCA
I swam 4 events and set 4 new personal bests. I feel very well accomplished and can’t wait to hit the pool tomorrow to build on this success.
Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
I lowered my personal best in this event by 0.93 seconds to 1:13.76. I started with a good dive and a strong butterfly. My butterfly-to-backstroke turn was especially good, as I did not surface for a while after the turn. Like usual, I was looking for the wall at the end of the backstroke segment and lost some momentum as I glided in. Breaststroke and freestyle segments seemed average. I was very pleased to have met and exceeded my goal for this race today, because I have been sick and skipped some training sessions this past week. In fact, my stomach felt a little weird going into this swim. Was this just a symptom of a body recovering from illness, or was it nervousness? Probably the latter because it went away after the swim. I cannot remember the last swim meet when I did NOT set a personal best, so having reached that benchmark so early in my day, I could relax a little.
Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I tried to stay relaxed for this event. In the past I have often sped through the first 50 yards, only to experience significant muscle fatigue during the second 50. So I purposely held back on the first 50. That’s a hard thing to do well, though, since if I go too slow…well, I would be going too slow. It seems like I did this perfectly today. My quadriceps were only slightly fatigued at the end of this swim, and I beat my previous personal best by 2.65 seconds to 1:19.92. Some of this improvement can also be attributed to a good (for me) start from the block with a streamlined glide and then a very good turn at the 25 yard mark (though Dan says I was still too close to the wall). I then overcompensated on the turn at the 75 yard mark, and nearly missed the wall completely. That’s a very awkward feeling; there is a moment when I am suspended under the water, bobbing upward but with hardly any forward motion.
Event #9: 200 Freestyle
Would my success hold up? Yes, it would. I swam this event in 2:33.10, cutting 5.01 seconds off my personal best. That’s more than a 5% improvement since December 1, 2013 when I last swam this event. I started with a too-deep dive but otherwise the swim felt strong and easy. I was paying close attention to my hand position under the water because Shannan had noticed something strange about that earlier in the meet. Whatever it was, it was less apparent during this swim, so in retrospect I am thankful she mentioned the potential problem. Several others at the meet said I swam well in this event (I had Lane 1, which was right in front of a row of spectators). I may have more ability to shave time off this swim in the near future; I was not tired enough after this swim, so I could have gone faster.
Event #10: 25 Breaststroke
I cut 0.12 seconds off my personal best, which isn’t all that much, but a win’s a win. I tried to make my dive shallower this time, since diving deep would cause me to waste some time trying to get to the surface. With breaststroke this is perhaps even more important because of the extended underwater glide. Anyway, I think my dive was good. I felt like I had good lower body propulsion but I may not have thrust my arms forward enough with each stroke. It is so tempting to increase the stroke rate while ignoring the value of increasing the distance traveled per stroke.
Date: 23 February 2014
Location: Cranberry Township, Pa
Swim Meet at Cranberry YMCA
I swam 4 events and set 4 new personal bests. I feel very well accomplished and can’t wait to hit the pool tomorrow to build on this success.
Event #2: 100 Individual Medley
I lowered my personal best in this event by 0.93 seconds to 1:13.76. I started with a good dive and a strong butterfly. My butterfly-to-backstroke turn was especially good, as I did not surface for a while after the turn. Like usual, I was looking for the wall at the end of the backstroke segment and lost some momentum as I glided in. Breaststroke and freestyle segments seemed average. I was very pleased to have met and exceeded my goal for this race today, because I have been sick and skipped some training sessions this past week. In fact, my stomach felt a little weird going into this swim. Was this just a symptom of a body recovering from illness, or was it nervousness? Probably the latter because it went away after the swim. I cannot remember the last swim meet when I did NOT set a personal best, so having reached that benchmark so early in my day, I could relax a little.
Event #5: 100 Backstroke
I tried to stay relaxed for this event. In the past I have often sped through the first 50 yards, only to experience significant muscle fatigue during the second 50. So I purposely held back on the first 50. That’s a hard thing to do well, though, since if I go too slow…well, I would be going too slow. It seems like I did this perfectly today. My quadriceps were only slightly fatigued at the end of this swim, and I beat my previous personal best by 2.65 seconds to 1:19.92. Some of this improvement can also be attributed to a good (for me) start from the block with a streamlined glide and then a very good turn at the 25 yard mark (though Dan says I was still too close to the wall). I then overcompensated on the turn at the 75 yard mark, and nearly missed the wall completely. That’s a very awkward feeling; there is a moment when I am suspended under the water, bobbing upward but with hardly any forward motion.
Event #9: 200 Freestyle
Would my success hold up? Yes, it would. I swam this event in 2:33.10, cutting 5.01 seconds off my personal best. That’s more than a 5% improvement since December 1, 2013 when I last swam this event. I started with a too-deep dive but otherwise the swim felt strong and easy. I was paying close attention to my hand position under the water because Shannan had noticed something strange about that earlier in the meet. Whatever it was, it was less apparent during this swim, so in retrospect I am thankful she mentioned the potential problem. Several others at the meet said I swam well in this event (I had Lane 1, which was right in front of a row of spectators). I may have more ability to shave time off this swim in the near future; I was not tired enough after this swim, so I could have gone faster.
Event #10: 25 Breaststroke
I cut 0.12 seconds off my personal best, which isn’t all that much, but a win’s a win. I tried to make my dive shallower this time, since diving deep would cause me to waste some time trying to get to the surface. With breaststroke this is perhaps even more important because of the extended underwater glide. Anyway, I think my dive was good. I felt like I had good lower body propulsion but I may not have thrust my arms forward enough with each stroke. It is so tempting to increase the stroke rate while ignoring the value of increasing the distance traveled per stroke.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
AMYMSA Swim Meet
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).
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, 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.
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