The long and tortuous road to Nationals

First off, let me clarify the Nationals I'm talking about--these are Masters (USMS) Nationals, not USA Swimming Nationals.  Muuuuuch different qualification standards.  Off the top of my head, I'd say the Nationals cuts are roughly equivalent to A or B State cuts for USA Swimming.  I'd have to check the other cuts to make sure, but they sound about right...at least for how those cuts were back in 2005.

Anyways, my goal is to make several Nats cuts this season.  The eligibility period goes through mid April, and Nationals is April 26-29th.

That gives me seven more meets to try and get cuts between now and then.  I've got two meets a month I can go to January-March, and then one meet in April before Nats.  Should be plenty of time to get a few cuts.

Based on my swimming performance at the two meets I've swum at so far, butterfly seems to be my best shot.  I age up into the next age group (25-29) a few weeks before Nats, so I gotta try and get those cuts rather than the ones in my current 19-24 age group, which are slower.  Anyways, here are the cuts for the two age groups for the events I have even a passing interest in, and my current times.  I've highlighted the cuts I think I have a decent chance of making by April:

Event	19-24 Cut	25-29 Cut	Current Times
50 Free	24.79	24.33	Low 26
100 Free	54.90	53.83	NT
200 Free	1:58.58	1:56.06	NT
50 Back	29.03	28.22	31.62
100 Back	1:03.12	1:01.53	1:07.14
200 Back	2:15.87	2:11.39	NT
50 Breast	32.23	31.04	NT
100 Breast	1:11.09	1:07.53	NT
200 Breast	2:36.42	2:26.59	NT
50 Fly	27.02	26.78	28.03
100 Fly	1:00.28	59.09	1:08.69
200 Fly	2:21.06	2:12.19	NT
100 IM	1:02.89	1:00.77	1:10.21
200 IM	2:15.88	2:11.51	NT
400 IM	5:08.98	4:51.49	NT

Here's my breakdown of each of the highlighted events:

• 50 free: Freestyle is decidedly not my stroke, but this is about a third of a second slower than my old time, so it is conceivably achievable.  Didn't have a very good race at the one meet I've swum the 50 at, so I don't know how realistic that goal is at this point.
• 100 free: This one is a pretty lofty goal--my best time in the 100 free was a 52.80, and I think that was a fluke, as I never went below a mid 53 besides that time, with the majority of my times being low 54s.  One of the coaches is working with me on my free technique, so who knows where that will take me.  It's already a good bit different than it was in highschool.
• 50 back: I'm a bit put off by my back.  The technique feels decent, although I don't have quite the leg endurance that I used to, but my times just aren't there so far (and neither 50 back I've swum so far was a very good swim).  If I can get back to my old speed by April, this should be a piece of cake.
• 100 back: Same as the 50.  Not sure what's going on with my back, and I haven't had great races the two times I've swum it, issues with the turns and start.
• 200 back: Kick endurance is a bigger deal for this.  At this point, since I haven't swum it in a meet yet, I have no idea where I stand with it.  I'd say this is probably a lofty goal to achieve by April, at least with how everything stands now.
• 50 fly: So far, fly has been the most impressive success for me.  It was the stroke I was improving the most in when I stopped swimming in 2005, and it appears that I still have the technique and form.  I dropped 1.3 seconds in the 50 at this past meet from the one the month before, so this should be a cakewalk to get the cut by April.
• 100 fly: Only swum it once so far and had a terrible race strategy that time, in addition to not being smart about warming up beforehand.  This should be pretty easy to get by April.
• 200 fly: Haven't swum it yet.  My big concern is that we rarely do more than a 100 or so of stroke at a time in practice, so I'm going to really have to work to get my fly endurance up.  At this point, it's a lofty goal.
• 400 IM: IF I can get my stroke endurances up, this should be achievable.  My old time was somewhere around 15-20 seconds faster than this, so if I can get my fly and back times down to around there, I should be good for this one.

Of these cuts, I think the 50 fly is a sure thing.  100 fly should be fairly achievable, if I can get my race strategy down pat.  Back is the biggest question right now, as my speed just isn't there.  Not too concerned about free or the IM, as neither is my focus.

To get these cuts, I've got three big areas of focus/concern. 

1) My starts need some work.  We've only done starts once in practice (at least of the practices I've been to), so I really only get to try them in warmup at meets.  Given how long it's been since I was competing and swimming at a high level, about six and a half years, my starts aren't very good.  My reaction time is slow, and my form on dives isn't very good.  My backstroke start is just bleh.
2) Stroke endurance.  As I mentioned above, we generally don't do more than a 100 stroke at a time in practice.  Well, we might do some choice work during warmup or something, but we normally don't do much distance stroke speed work.  I've gotta figure out a way to increase my stroke content in practice, otherwise I'm afraid I'll never build up the endurance I need for the 200 fly and 200 back.
3) Practice intensity.  Lately I've been swimming in the fast lane at practice.  Most of the time I swim last in the lane, or second to last or something, but it's been great for getting me to push myself.  I've seen a big improvements in the intervals I can hold in practice from doing so, at least in freestyle.  If I can continue to stay in those lanes, push myself, and keep up the high number of practices, I should continue to notch big improvements in my times from meet to meet.

I've got five weeks till the next meet (and then two more weeks till the meet after that), so time to get cracking!