- 200 IM - 2:22 something
- 200 back - 2:24 something
- 400 IM - scratch
- 50 fly - 27.29
- 100 IM - 1:04.52
- 100 back - 1:06.03
- 100 fly - 1:04.86
- 50 back - 31.17
- 200 IM: Ugh. This was my first time swimming it as a Masters swimmer. My energy level wasn't there, and I tweaked my left elbow. I'd say the energy level issue was due to having done a spin class the night before and having gone to practice that morning before driving to Richmond. To be fair, going to practice before the meet wasn't *exactly* a smart idea. Anyways, I must have pulled a tendon in my left elbow a couple months ago, and it has been flaring up off and on since then. The most common trigger is breaststroke (normally just breast, none of the other strokes) in practice, but ibuprofen before I do a lot of IM/breast work usually makes it a non factor. Well, not for this time. I'd tweaked my elbow in practice that morning, so dosed up on ibuprofen before the meet, and felt fine in warmup. Not in the IM, unfortunately. Elbow twinged off the start on fly, then hurt the rest of that stroke, was a steady burn in back, and was on freaking fire in breast, then just hurt on free. Totally screwed up my focus during the race--didn't think to do my back to breast turn, or the fly kick on the breast pullout, or work on any semblance of technique on my breast pull. Not cool!
- 200 back: Ugh. Like with the 200 IM, this was my first time swimming it as a Masters swimmer. Approximately a handful of ibuprofen later, the pain in my elbow had subsided to a dull ache, but it was still rather distracting. so I'm pretty sure my technique wasn't as good as it should have been. Didn't take it out fast enough, so I tried to turn it on in the second half...and my legs burned out at around the 150 or so. Sigh. Not exactly a stellar swim.
- 50 fly: I was feeling much better all around this morning--I'd been popping ibuprofen like M&Ms since the previous evening, so the elbow was peachy keen, and my energy level was up. Went a bit deep off the start, but got up and going without too much difficulty. Then promptly flubbed the turn. The pool has a metal gutter, and the metal extends down the wall about a foot or so. I've been working at not grabbing the gutter during open turns, so I tried that this time...and my hands slid straight down the slick metal of the wall as soon as they touched. Basically did an incredibly uncoordinated turn without my arms, for as much good as they did me. Still, I dropped .9 seconds from my previous fastest time and set a new Masters personal record! The Nats cut is a 26.78, so I've only got half a second to drop! I figure the flubbed turn alone cost me at least .3 seconds, so I'm right there in the ballpark for this cut. I've got two more meets to get the cut in--pretty confident that I'll get it.
- 100 IM: Eh, not so hot on this one. 4 years ago, I'd injured my chest--tore a small amount of the cartilage just to the right of my sternum, and inflamed the cartilage on the left side of the clavicle (the inflamation is called costochondritis). At the time, it would hit me in waves of literally debilitating pain--when the pain hit, I couldn't do anything, and one time when it hit while I was standing, I fell over. Took about 2 years and plenty of anti-inflammatory meds to fully get over the random waves of pain that would come through with no seeming rhyme or reason. Anyways, during my warmdown after the 50 fly, the left side of my sternum flared up. Nowhere near as painfully as it used to, but still pretty painful. So, going back to the 100 IM... Like the 50 fly, a bit deep on the start, but not too bad. My speed was a touch off, but again, not too bad. On the fly to back turn, the sternum flared up. Just on the turn, not during the back, although I could feel it every time I swept my arms in on breast. Took the first 50 out in a 27, so that was good, although as normal, the second half was cruddy. I have GOT to work on my breast and free in the IM. With a first half like mine, I should be able to go well under a minute, if my breast/free were halfway decent. I added about 3/4 of a second in the swim. My best is a 1:03.70, which is just under 3 seconds off the Nats cut. I've got two more meets to swim this event in, so I'm in the ballpark if I can nail everything in the race.
- 100 back: This was comparatively a better swim than the 100 IM, but my backstroke is just not where I want it to be. Good start, relatively good turns, and my stroke/kick felt decent. The last time I swam this event in yards was at the first meet of the season back in October, so I dropped a good 5.5 seconds since that swim. All of that and I'm still somewhere in the general vicinity of 8-9 seconds off my best 100 back time from highschool. I can't figure out why my back is so far off pace, since my fly is much closer to my old times (well, more on that below) than back is. Nats cut is a 1:01.53. With how relatively little progress I've made in my backstroke, I'm gonna have to write this event off as a pipe dream for this year's short course National Championship. GRRR!
- 100 fly: This race hurt. All of 15 minutes after my 100 back, I didn't have enough time to warm down sufficiently, and still had an elevated heart rate and faster breathing when I got up on the blocks. First 50 was good, although I think my pace was a bit too slow for a 100. About halfway down the third lap, my legs just died. Given the short rest between events, I'm gonna say it was due to the 100 back. Pulling the remaining 25 and a half was *slightly* painful. That being said, I've been doing a LOT of fly at practice the past month or so, so I was actually able to finish without feeling like I'd just swum a 1650 fly. Still, the pull put stress on my sternum, so that was a dull ache on the last 25. This was my first time swimming this event yards as a Masters swimmer, so I was pretty happy. I was aiming for a 1:03.8 (Dan, one of my good friends on the team, is also a flyer, and that's what he went at the last meet), so I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't make it...but feel pretty confident that without dying, I could have gone a 1:01 or 1:02. Nats is a 59.09, so it is conceivably within reach. I've got two more meets to try for that cut, and another five weeks of practice time to train for it. My fly in general is doing much better than my back at getting close to my old times. My 50 fly is only about half a second off my old best (I think my old best was around a 26.7), and my 100 fly is about 6-7 seconds off my old best.
- 50 back: This one was just ridiculous. Unless I miscounted, this event was only 13 minutes after the 100 fly, so I only had time to do a 200 warmdown before going back to the blocks and stretching out for a couple minutes before swimming again. Nowhere NEAR enough time to get ready to swim again! Besides the fly kicks off the start and turn, I had no legs, and my arms were apparently nonexistent. All that being said, I only added .3 seconds from my best. I'll count that as a success! Going back to the my-backstroke-is-not-very-good thing, my 100 back is 8-9 seconds off my old best, and my 50 back is about 3.25 seconds off. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my back just isn't there. Everything feels pretty good--underwater work (what I think is my best aspect in back right now), kick, pull, turns, everything. I've even been working with my head coach, Drew, for the past month or so on my back pull to fine tune it. I'm improving...but slowly, much slower than my fly is improving, even though I do a good deal more back than fly in practice in general. Something just isn't right with back, and it's bugging me like crazy trying to figure it out.
I've got two areas of concern--my left elbow and the sternum issue. I'm hoping consumer strength ibuprofen is enough to take care of the sternum, and that it's not a return of the costochondritis. If it's back, it's gonna totally eff up my swimming if I have to deal with it for the next two years! For the elbow, I'm going to keep up the ibuprofen diet and refrain from swimming breast as much as I can this week, which will hopefully give it time to calm down. With the sternum issue, it's not as simple as just not swimming breast, since anything and everything can trigger it--since this morning, that has included looking before I change lanes while driving, extending either arm (sometimes), or a totally random movement that doesn't seem like it's connected to my sternum at all. Still not debillitating pain and is quite manageable, but I don't want it worsening. Since it's seemingly random, I'll keep up my ibuprofen diet this week and hope that takes care of both the elbow and the sternum.
Nats registration closes March 23rd. In the five weeks between now and then, I've got three meets to go, one distance meet (200s+) and two sprint meets. I'll probably do the 200 fly and 200 back at the distance meet for fun, but depending on the event order at the two sprint meets, I might only swim the 50/100 fly and 100 IM at those two meets, since those are the cuts I'm really trying to make...and actually have a shot at. Unlike most of the meets to date, when I've swum as many events as I could fit in, to try and eke out the best swim I can in each event, I might only enter in those three. I'll have to look at the event order to verify that, though. If the events are well spaced out, I might throw in another for fun. Maybe. Too early to decide, though, since the next sprint meet is March 4th, so I've got a while.
Until the next sprint meet on the 4th, and then the last qualifying meet after that on March 17th, I'm going to continue focusing a LOT on my fly in practice. 50 and 100 fly are the two main cuts I want to get. 100 IM would be nice, but I won't be heart broken if I don't get it in the next two meets. After fly, the next thing I'm going to focus on is my turns. My overall turn speed still isn't ideal, so that could squeeze out a few more tenths of a second per swim.
If I make those two (or three) cuts by March 23rd, then the two remaining meets, and the remaining month of practice time, before Nationals will be focused almost exclusively on fly, turns, and possibly back, depending on what I decide to swim at Nats.
5 weeks and counting!
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