Yesterday was the last meet in the Carol Chidester Swim Series--it was a series of six meets in Maryland starting last fall. Two of the meets were in Annapolis, one I went to in January and the one yesterday. In January, Dan and I went to the meet, and this time it was Dan, Meggie, and I.
Last time around, I swam the 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM. This time I just swam the 50 fly and 100 fly. I would have liked to swim the 100 IM, but it was the next event after the 100 fly, so I didn't enter in it. Good thing, too, since it turned out that there were only three heats separating my 100 fly and the heat I would've been in for the 100 IM. Whew. That would have been a terrible swim.
50 fly: When I swam the 50 fly at the meet in January, I went a 28.16. This time around, I had a great race! My start was decent--I wasn't the first off the blocks, but I had perfectly adequate reaction time, so I can't complain too much about it. At least it wasn't a slow start, right? Anyways, I intentionally went a bit deeper than normal off the dive--up till the last meet, I'd tried to stay pretty shallow and do no more than six fly kicks before surfacing; this time I stayed under long enough to do ten. Good speed on the first 25 and breathed three times, including the last stroke into the wall. It wasn't a flawless turn, but wasn't a shabby one, either. Good push off the wall and felt really good once I surfaced. Breathed six times on the way back, but probably could have dropped one or two of them. The important point is that I didn't feel any oxygen deprivation, which used to kill me on fly. Didn't have a great finish, but again, it wasn't a terrible finish. Got second in the heat (and event) with a 26.48! The meet last weekend was a short course meters meet and my time converted to a 26.76, but my best Masters 50 fly yards time was a 27.29. Heck, in the last yards meet I swam at, just three weeks ago, I went a 27.45. This was a great drop for me! Looked up my old times from highschool, and it turns out that this is a lifetime best, since my best in highschool was a 26.67! Booyah! At this rate, especially given that I'm not tapering at all, and had some pretty tough practices the two days before the meet, I'm pretty pumped that I could probably break a 26 at Zones or Nats!
100 fly: This one wasn't near as good. In the last week or so, I've had some big problems in practice with my back and arms tightening up pretty badly when I do more than a 50 straight of fly. Not really sure why, since I haven't been doing that much more fly lately than I have been in general. Weird. Anyways, my goal in this 100 was to take it out a bit easier than I normally do in hopes of not having that issue on the back half. To start off the race, I had a fantastic start--excellent reaction time, and from what I could see with my peripheral vision, I think I was the first off the blocks (I've been working a lot on my reaction time at meets, so it looks like it is finally paying off!). Took the first 25 out way too slow, at more of a 200 pace than a good 100 pace. Realized it at the turn, so I picked up the pace on the second 25. One note that will help explain how the rest of the race went--the pool does have the wide competition lanes (8 feet, I think?), but doesn't have the wave-eating lane ropes, just the standard old lane ropes that do diddly for blocking waves. That out of the way, back to the second 25--I picked up the pace just fine, and then about halfway back, I started catching the wake from the guy in the lane next to me (I was in lane 6 with a 1:01 entered time, and lanes 3-5 were guys who go in the mid 50s). When I breathe in fly, my mouth is just above the surface of the water. I was doing a 2-1 breathing pattern at this point (breathe for two strokes, no breath for one). I've got a huge lung capacity--last time I went to the doctor in highschool, I took one of those lung capacity tests and nearly maxed it--but I go through oxygen extremely quickly when I push myself to that level of exertion, so I breathe a LOT on fly. First mouthful of water was alarming, but not panic inducing. Even though I wasn't supposed to breathe on the next stroke, I did anyways...and got another mouthful of water. At that point, pure panic. I was almost entirely out of oxygen and not even halfway through the race. All thoughts of technique and speed went out the window and I pretty much launched half my upper body out of the water on the next stroke to get air. I was successful in finally getting air, but doing a stroke like that totally destroys the body motion and isn't conducive to fast swimming in the slightest. Decent turn, though, so I thought the third 25 would be better. Nope. It was worse, a lot worse. First breath on the 25 was fine, then mouthful of water, mouthful of water, mouthful of water, sheer panic stroke that gave me oxygen, then another mouthful of water, another of water, another panic air, one more water, and then the last two were air. Launching yourself that high up out of the water to get air is incredibly inefficient and tiring. Doing it once, your muscles feel it. Doing it three times in a race is very hellish. Decent last turn. At this point, I was so oxygen deprived that I was breathing every stroke (all but the first stroke--I'm proud to say that all my coaches over the years were actually successful in drumming the mantra of not breathing on the first stroke into my head). Got three more full mouthfuls of water on the last 25, took two more panic breaths, and got two partial mouthfuls of water. My back, arms, and shoulders were on fire, my legs were gone, and it was probably the most painful 100 fly I've ever swum. All that said, I think I did a low 1:02, which is just half a second off my Masters best time. I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate it when a competition pool has the good lane ropes in it that block 99% of the wake from one lane going into another! My splits, while obviously slower than I'd like, weren't too shabby: 28.0 something on the first and then a high 32. I'm actually quite surprised my second 50 was that fast--with how terrible it was, I thought it would have been closer to a 35! It looks like the fundamentals are there, so I should be able to easily go under a minute at Nats, since I'll be fully tapered up, shaved, and swimming in a top tier competition pool.
*****
On a side note, this was Meggie's (she's my sister roomie) first meet as a Masters swimmer, and first time competing since 2000 or 2001, I think. She did decently well in the 50, 100, and 200 free! Comparatively much better than I did in my first meet back in October!
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