Boston Trail 5K

Race: Boston Trail 5K
Date: 19 April 2014
Location: Boston, Pa.
Time: 24:44
Overall Rank: 40 out of 295
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 10
Results: http://www.runhigh.com/2014RESULTS/R041914BC.html

This was my fastest 5K ever. There are two reasons for this. (1) it was a flat course, (2) I follwed Geoff for 1.5 miles and this pushed me to go a little faster than normal. I was in a great mood and felt like pushing. During the last half I was breathing quite hard and my heart rate was in the 175-180 range. I sustained that level of effort for a long time but eventually slowed down after my hands started to get tingly. Shannan had said "look for the bridge and then you will know to sprint to the finish." Well, the first time I saw the bridge it was way in the distance so I knew that wasn't the sprinting point. But then much later the whole bridge came into view off to the right, and that is when I knew to speed up. And I did. I also saw a sign that said "photograph point," and so I smiled. It was easy to smile because I knew I had done well. I am also so happy to have run this race with my nephew. This was Ryan's first-ever 5k race. He so enjoyed it that he plans to do another soon. I was so happy to run with Shannan and Kendra, too.

Running a 5k: family affair.

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.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

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!

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.

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).

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.

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.