First meet in 6.5 years!

I had my first meet yesterday, the first time I've swum competitively in 6.5 years.  Going into it, I was rather handicapped by my work schedule--over the last month, I've only managed to get in about 5-6 practices, the majority of which came in this past week.  On a good note, my work schedule should be smooth over the next month or so, so I should be able to get a lot more practices in.

Anyways, it felt fantastic to be back at a swim meet!  That is, as a swimmer and not a coach (I coached a summer league team in Charleston for two years from 2008-2009).  Going into the meet, I was the most nervous I can remember ever being for a swim meet.

Here were my worries going into the meet:

• I haven't done a start off a block since 2005 (all strokes)
• I've had nagging issues with my left shoulder being much weaker than my right shoulder while swimming butterfly in practice
• We haven't done true sprints in practice, so I haven't swum race speed in quite a while
• My total lack of preparation for the meet--getting in a handful of practices the week before the meet is NOT sufficient
• My kick is not what it used to be--kick and turns were always my strongest parts in swimming
• Would I even still have the competitive instinct?
• My endurance has gone way down, due to the lack of practices issue

The meet, at the George Mason University pool, was a sprint meet, with the longest events being the 200 free and 200 IM.  I entered in the 100 IM, 100 back, 50 fly, 50 back, 50 free, and all four 25s (not a sanctioned race, just a fun thing they do at this meet).  I knew my endurance wasn't very good, so I stayed away from the other 100s and the 200s.  Here's how the events went (not necessarily in the order I swam them):

• 100 IM: Terrible start.  Good reaction time, but weird blocks and I went waaaaaay too deep.  Having only gotten in two block starts during warmup probably didn't help too much.  The fly felt great, back was so-so, I died on breast, and free was terrible.  The pool has a TON of lines on the bottom of the pool, so that totally screwed up my sense of pool position when swimming fly and free.  Overall, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be.
• 50 fly: Went too deep off the start, but besides that it felt very good.  My time was off from what I was hoping, but the race itself felt fantastic
• 100 back: Absolutely terrible--very slick pad on the wall, so I back flopped...and went really deep.  Messed up my stroke count on the 50-75 turn and on the finish, so I glided a bit longer than I should have on both.  Legs totally died at the 75.  Coming off the wall felt really good, though (with the exception of the aforementioned long turn).  However, my time was really bad.  I  mean, REALLY bad.  All things considered, that was a big surprise given how the race felt.
• 50 back: Another terrible start.  By this point in the meet I was starting to wear down and wasn't spinning my arms fast enough.  Slow race, although my turn felt good.
• 50 free:  Besides the start, I thought this was a pretty good race.  Besides the 50 fly, this was my strongest race.
• 25 fly: Finally got the start right (although it was a tad deeper than I'd have liked) and had a good race.
• 25 back: Another poor start, although I didn't do the back flop.  Glided a bit too long into the wall.
• 25 breast: Actually felt really good, and had a good start.
• 25 free: A little deep on the start but not too bad overall.

What I got out of the meet:

• What the hell happened to my backstroke?!  I used to be a backstroker first and foremost (and a butterflier second).  Even accounting for how much slower all my times were than they used to be, my backstroke times were WAY off the mark.  That's going to need to be my biggest area of focus over the next month or so before the next meet.
• Apparently shoulder problems in practice do not equate to shoulder problems at a meet, at least in regards to fly!  While my body rhythm wasn't 100% in sync (I'd occasionally have a stroke/kick that were a bit off), fly overall felt VERY good.  It is reminiscent of the year and a half I swam in highschool, when practically overnight I became a butterflier--prior to that I had been terrible at it, but one day at practice it just clicked and I started training for fly then.  Maybe I will become primarily a butterflier now?  Obviously I only swam a 50 of it, but I didn't have the endurance drain that I did while swimming backstroke.
• I have got to work on my starts.  Of the practices I've been to, we've never used the blocks, so I'll have to see if I can get some practice in on them.
• I need to practice, practice, practice, and for good measure, practice some more.  With my easier work schedule for the next month or so, I'm going to try and get in at least seven practices a week.
• Racing with longer hair than I used to have, not to mention facial hair, is odd.  Not sure if I like it.  I'll at least get more frequent haircuts, but the facial hair might disappear at the monthly meets.
• 59 is not too old to be a pretty darn good swimmer.  There was a guy there who would have beat me in every event he swam when I was back in my prime.  Oldest guy at the meet was 86, I think, and he was able to swim all four strokes with pretty good technique.
• It is a small, small world.  I got there pretty early to the meet before many people had gotten there (the bleachers were pretty empty).  A guy came in and sat down next to me about 15 minutes later and after we swam warmup, asked me about my Citadel tattoo.  Turns out he's the older brother of a fellow 2009 grad from The Citadel, a guy who was in Tango Company, across the battalion from my company, Oscar Company.  What are the chances of that ?

Overall, I am ecstatic to be back in the world of competitive swimming!  Ever since I started coaching in 2008, I've really missed it and am quite happy to be back where I belong.  Really looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, losing weight, and dropping time!