Under the Lights 5000m

Race: Under the Lights 5K
Date: June 17, 2015
Location: Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rick, PA
Time: 24:30
Overall Rank: 11 out of 13
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Results: http:

Shannan and I did a 5000m race on the track at Slippery Rock University at 9:30pm last night with 13 other runners. So it was us and about 10 university students who ran 5-6 min/mile paces. But we did beat one high school kid who quit early, and one other person our age who miscounted and didn't do the full number of laps. This wasn't my best time, but it was close enough to feel good about.

Pittsburgh Half Marathon

Race: 13.1 mile run
Date: May 3, 2015
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 1:53.13
Overall Rank: 2214 out of 14576
Age Group Rank: 163 out of 627
Results: http://results.xacte.com/?mid=79#

Miles 1-4 were easy but then I started to wonder if we were going at a sustainable pace. We were going at a 8:27 pace and that felt good but I knew there were many more miles to go. I was already starting to feel calorie-deprived or dehydrated (my breathing was good, my legs were fine, but I just didn't feel right). At mile 9, I got grouchy with Dan and told him I didn't care what our pace was...but then I asked what it was. At mile 11, I was lightheaded and groggy, so much so that I wondered what it would be like if I stumbled and fell to the ground. I decided I wouldn't do that, if possible. At mile 12, I knew I'd be ok, because we were almost done and the course was heading downhill. In fact, the last half mile was exhilarating as we picked up our pace and I seemed to float around on feet that no longer felt attached to my body. I set a personal best, lowering my time by 105 seconds under last year. It's not a big difference, but since my training was about the same as last year, it is reasonable to expect a pretty similar finish time.

AMYMSA Championship Meet

Race: Masters Swim Team Championship meet
Date: April 12, 2015
Location: Spire Institute, Geneva, NY

Another swim season has ended, and I am sad about this! I have now been a Masters swimmer for 5 years, and each year has been different. I remember last year I was concentrating so hard on swimming that I didn’t have a lot of fun at meets. This year I had a lot more fun but didn’t make the progress I wanted in the pool. 

Our Championship meet was at the Spire Institute near Geneva, Ohio. It has a huge indoor pool that is designed for national swim meets at all levels, including Olympic competitions. I expected to feel like an Olympian during my swims, but as the expression goes, “there is only so much lipstick you can apply to a pig.” Plus, there was no one in the stands watching the meet. The facility was so big, it swallowed our ~125 swimmers and their families. It was too quiet. I still had a blast, but next time I think we should kidnap about 500 people and bus them in to be spectators.

Swim Champs Day 1

I swam in 4 events on Saturday:

1.       200-yard Freestyle Relay: The Greensburg men’s team conveniently had 4 members, so we formed a relay. Our respective ages were 40, 58, 67, and 74. We were more likely to break a bone than any pool record! David, Allen, and Doug each swam their 50-yard segments and then I jumped in to finish. I had a dive that was too deep, but I had a pretty powerful swim. I didn’t give it 100% because there was little chance we would beat the other teams, and I needed to save myself for my later swims. My split time of 30.95 was reasonable, being 92% of my top speed.

2.      100-yard Individual Medley: I felt pretty good about this swim, but my turns were still rough (a continuing problem stemming from lack of concentration and practice). I surfaced too quickly after my butterfly-to-backstroke turn, and I started the backstroke-to-breaststroke turn too far from the wall. This latter problem cost me a second as I had to coast in to hit it. My time was 1:14.16, which was 0.40 seconds slower than my personal best (set in February 2014).

3.      50-yard Butterfly: I am in a rebuilding phase this year with my butterfly stroke. I have been working with my coach pretty hard to correct some bad habits and we aren’t quite done with modifications. I knew this going into this race, so maybe my confidence was low. I swam the race in 32.63, which is 1.05 seconds slower than my personal best (set in November 2014). Jim Thorton complimented me on my stroke as I got out of the water, and that made me feel better.

4.      50-yard Backstroke: Disappointed with my swims so far, I took a stroll around the Spire Institute to look at their other facilities. What was wrong with me today? The design of this pool makes it the fastest pool I have ever swum in. It’s the end of my season, and I feel like I am in top shape (though Shannan reminded me that I had to take a week off from training this past month when my college’s pool closed for Easter break). I concluded that I wasn’t concentrating enough. I needed to get my mind thinking about how to swim fast. I have surely been taught how to do it. Now I just needed to put those tools to use. Yes, I can do this! I am ready! So I walked back into the pool area and immediately I see Shannan running towards me. She was running fast. Like hungry-tiger-chasing-her fast. “What’s wrong?” I wonder. Then I glance at the pool and I see people swimming backstroke. I realize that I am about to miss my heat of the backstroke. Shannan is running to me with my goggles and deck card, yelling at me to take my jacket off. All of this is happening in slow motion now, as my brain is attempting to stop time. I strip to my swimsuit underneath my clothes, throw on my goggles, and jump in the water with no time to spare. In fact, the officials waited about 3 seconds for me to get in position, and then the starting signal went off. I completed the event in 38.17 seconds, which is 1.89 seconds slower than my personal best (set in January 2015). So much for the plan to concentrate more during my swim!!

Swim Champs Day 2

I swam in 5 events on Sunday:

1.       200-yard Medley Relay: David started with the backstroke, I followed with the breaststroke, Doug did the butterfly, and Allen finished with freestyle. My split time for breaststroke was 43.86, which is only 85% of my top speed. I am surprised to see how slow I was. Maybe the time was slow because of my start and finish. I had a bad dive because David is fairly tall and I was concerned about jumping into him as he finished his backstroke segment. David was also in the way at my finish. I didn’t expect him to still be in the lane, so it was a distraction. He can’t climb out of the pool without using the stairs, so he had to wait for everyone to be done before leaving the water. I can’t blame David for all of my slowness, though. It was only a relay and I didn’t care much about it.

2.      100-yard Freestyle: If there was any event this weekend in which I had a chance to set a personal best, it was this one. My coach has been having me do timed sets of 100s over and over this year. I’ve been approaching my 1:05.59 record during these practice sessions, even without a diving start. This was it! I was going to kill it! At the start signal, I had a grand dive, my arms felt strong, my first turn was good, and I was not wanting for breath even after 75 yards. I contracted my core muscles to keep my feet high in the water; I was using my triceps to pull as much water as I could with each stroke. I kept my head down. Things were going great, except oops! At my second turn I almost missed the wall during my flip turn. This took away some momentum but I was still doing fine. At my third turn I repeated the mistake, only this time I missed the wall completely. I stopped dead in the water. I turned around, touched the wall, and headed into the finish knowing my awesome swim was ruined. I finished in 1:10.91. My first split was 31.13, and based on past performance, I could have done my second split in 33.83, which sums to 1:04.96. It would have been a personal best by a significant amount.  I was sad. Not angry. Just sad. My friends comforted me, and I felt their love. They reminded me that everyone was having trouble with that far wall, because it really wasn’t a wall at all. It was a movable bulkhead only extending 4 feet below the surface of the water, and with no attachments to the 14-foot deep pool bottom, it was hard to judge where it was. My sadness waned after just a few minutes because Jamie, who swam in my lane immediately after me, did the exact same thing. She missed the wall, too. Thanks for making me feel better! She showed me that anyone could have made the mistake I did.

3.       100-yard Breaststroke. Dan was in the adjacent lane. He got ahead of me right away, but this didn’t diminish my concentration. I was determined to swim this event well. I concentrated on streamlined glides and a spring-like stroke execution.  I didn’t worry about Dan until the very end when I pushed hard to surprise him at the finish. I didn’t catch up, though. I set a new personal best at 1:20.78. My old record was 1:22.54 (set in February 2015), so this was a big improvement. When I got out of the pool, Shannan hugged me with a broad smile. Dan gave me a high-five. It was a happy moment.

4.       50-yard Freestyle. Dan asked me what my goal was for this swim. I said “under 29 seconds, I guess.” I sounded non-committal and unconfident, and Dan pointed that out. I tried to readjust my attitude, and mentally prepared a strategy: do a tight flip-turn, take 3 breaths at the most, do rapid turnover of the arms, kick hard. The starting signal sounded and I was in and out of the water in 28.72 seconds. This broke my old record by 0.26 seconds. It was set in January 2014. I got out of the water and Dan said “See, I told you!” Yes, you did, Dan. Thanks.

5.       200-yard Individual Medley. Shannan had a similar conversation with me about this event. She detected some tiredness in me and tried to get me to step up to this last race of the season. My butterfly segment went well, I felt fast on my backstroke, and nearly finished breaststroke before feeling tired. I tried to ignore that, but by the freestyle segment I had lost concentration and slowed down. I finished in 2:51.76, which was 0.81 seconds slower than my personal best.

I had a lot of fun this weekend. My performances were not what I was hoping for, but that did not diminish the fun in any way. I am so appreciative of Shannan and my friends for their support and love. As for swimming, sometimes I have my head in the game. Sometimes I have prepared enough during my solo practices. Sometimes I can dig deep and push myself beyond perceived limits. I don’t think I had these things with me this weekend, but with swimming, there is always next year.

A Rabbit Runs Through It 5K

Race: 5K run
Date: April 5, 2015
Location: Latrobe, PA
Time: 24:00
Overall Rank: 23 out of 146
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 13
Results: http://www.runhigh.com/2015RESULTS/R040415CB.html

This is my fastest 5K to date. I won 3rd in my age group (out of 13 runners).

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 25, 2015
Location: West Virginia University, Morgantown WV

We dodged a bullet today. Rain was just mixing with snow as I pulled into my garage at home following the meet. If the precipitation started earlier, or it was colder, we could have been stranded at the West Virginia University natatorium. It is a great place to have a swim meet, but I was cold the whole time. I wouldn’t want to stay there longer than necessary. Anyway, I had a great day! I set two new personal bests.

Event #2: 100-yard Individual Medley
I had high expectations for this race because I did a lot of IMs in practice this past week. I did fine today, but finished in 1:14.72, which was 0.96 seconds slower than my best time. I have not lowered my time in this event in a while. Today I blame my butterfly segment. I was unable to find a good rhythm as I pulled out of the dive. I want to blame the fact that the water was only 4 feet deep and I was distracted by the giant plain of white cement just below my face. Examined at close range, the cement forming the pool bottom reminded me of an English muffin, with all those nooks and crannies. Or maybe a lunar landscape. To be honest though, I am not sure my proximity to this alien underwater world was the problem with my butterfly. I just went slow. My turns could also be improved, especially the back-breast turn where I never know where to find the wall.

Event #3: 200-yard Breast Stroke
I set a new personal best in this race, finishing in 3:03.56, which was 4.73 seconds faster than my old time from 4.5 months ago. I do not swim this event regularly, so it makes sense that I would see big improvements here as my experience and general conditioning improves. With 4 years of competitive swimming experience, I am still a novice swimmer. Today’s strategy was based on my previous performance in September. My arms fatigued too soon, and I was burned out by the end of the race. To prevent this from happening again, I concentrated on doing a lot of glide between arm strokes. It felt good and I felt fast, so I assumed I was staying ahead of my competitors. However, by the 100-yard mark I realized my competitors were mostly ahead of me and my arms were not tired, so I changed my stroke to emphasize a stronger arm pull and faster stroke rate. This was not sufficient to win my heat (I was last), but it was still a winning strategy for beating my old time and not tiring out too soon.

Event #8: 50-yard Backstroke
I don’t remember my finish time, but it was a second or two slower than my 36.28 second personal best. I felt good during the race, employing a fast kick and rapid arm turnover. My turn was not very good, though. I was too close to the wall and Shannan said my streamline was not tight. That stupid wall. I think I’ve had one good backstroke turn in my entire life. I guess I need to practice that! I need to practice my start, too. Shannan told me a way to stagger my feet to prevent them from slipping.

Event #9: 200-yard Freestyle
This felt GOOD. I was pretty sure during the race that I was on par with my fastest time, and I was correct. I finished in 2:30.98, which was 2.12 seconds faster than ever before. I’ve been doing a lot of practice with my turns—especially streamlining off the wall—and this paid off. Most of my turns were good, though I got a bit tired or lazy in the middle and didn’t assume the best position. Today I also concentrated on keeping my head low when I took a breath; this preserved forward momentum. I will be interested to look at my splits because I think I maintained a pretty steady pace throughout.

AMYMSA meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: January 11, 2015
Location: Grove City, PA

We had our AMYMSA Masters Swim meet today at Grove City YMCA.

I swam the 50-yard Butterfly in 32.54, which was 0.22 seconds slower than my personal best. My dive was good but my dolphin kicks getting me to the surface were weak. I am also still pausing with my arms ahead of me during each stroke, which makes it hard to maintain the proper rhythm. I took only 3 breaths during the event and did not feel at all tired at the end (does that mean I should have worked harder?). Overall, I can’t complain because my speed was still good relative to past performance, and it is fun to think about how much faster I will be when I can work out these glitches.

I swam the 25-yard Freestyle in 12.99 seconds, shaving 0.3 seconds off my previous personal best. It took me a few seconds to invent my strategy (I should do this before the race!) of kicking hard and reaching far out ahead of me to grab as much water as possible with each arm stroke.

I swam the 50-yard Backstroke in 36.32 seconds, breaking my old record by 0.22 seconds. I feel great about this race. I think my arms, legs, head, and torso were all doing what they were supposed to be doing. My only failure was at the end when I started my glide into the wall much too early and I spent (what seemed like) a full second forcing myself to the touchpad. I am confident that my swim would have been well under 36 seconds without that mistake.

The 200-yard Freestyle was the very next event. I was not tired or sore yet, but I was still winded from the 50 Back. My strategy was to conserve energy and not go too fast during the first half of the race. I usually swim my fastest at the start and then get fatigued prematurely. I found that Dan Nadler was in the lane next to me and it seemed like he was maintaining a pace about right for me. It was helpful to pretend that we were driving cars in adjacent lanes of a divided highway, and we had set our respective cruise controls to the same speed. I was content to just swim next to him until the last 50 when I planned to step on the gas pedal and beat him. It didn’t quite work that way because I think he still beat me, but that last 50 was fun because of this competition, and I had something to distract my thoughts away from physical discomfort. I paid a heavy toll when I was done. I got out of the water and immediately felt wobbly and lightheaded as I walked to my chair. I plopped down without grace and sat there for 10 minutes as I caught my breath, massaged my very heavy-feeling and painful arms, and stared into space. I had reached my physical limit. I am proud of that. I didn’t beat my personal best (I was about 2 seconds slower today), but I am content knowing I gave it everything I had.

AMYMSA swim meet

Race: AMYMSA masters swim meet
Date: December 7, 2014
Location: Sewickley, PA
Results: http:

Two personal bests in 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. I came very close to setting two more personal bests in 50 freestyle (-0.16 seconds) and 200 IM (-0.56 seconds). This was the most fun I've had at a meet in a long time. I was relaxed...AND I swam well. I haven't been able to find that balance until now.