First local meet of the season!!

Yesterday we had the first local meet of the season, the Sprint Classic at George Mason University!  We had a stellar turnout from the team with 15+ folks coming out to swim, with this being the first Masters meet for many of them!

I swam a total of 9 events: 50 fly, 100 back, 50 free, 100 IM, 50 back, then the 25 fly, 25 back, 25 breast, and 25 free.

50 fly: I hadn't felt good at all in the water during warmup (back and shoulders were really tight and still didn't loosen up with about a 900).  Stretched for a good 15 minutes before swimming the 50, but that didn't help much.  Still was really tight and couldn't shake it out.  On top of that, once I dove in, I couldn't establish the body rhythm I needed, so I stayed pretty darn flat on the water.  Consequently, my arms dragged through the water pretty badly during the first few strokes off both the start and the turn.  Sigh.  Even with how unsatisfying the swim was, I went a 26.49, which is only about half a second off my PR that I set at Nats in the spring.  With the increase in speed and conditioning over the course of the season, I should be able to drop down to about a 25.50 in the 50.  On an even better note, I whomped the tar outta my time at the same meet last year, which was a 29.30!  :-)

100 back: This was the event I'd gone to the meet to swim.  Everything else was extraneous--I just wanted to have a good swim in this to make all the back technique training I've done since June worth it.  And I got my wish!  I had a great start and probably the best all around backstroke race I've had in years, with a few minor exceptions.  At around the flags going into the last turn, I started to choke on water.  Normally by that point in a race, I'm *this* close to oxygen deprivation, so when I had three breaths in a row that were blocked by water, I started to panic a bit.  Ended up doing a super long turn as I hacked out the water in my throat and mouth, but it wasn't the worst turn I've ever had.  Couldn't feel my legs on the last 25, so I wasn't sure if I was even still kicking.  From watching the video, it turns out I was kicking, so +1 for me!  I split a 30.07 and 32.66 for a 1:02.73.  Over the last two meets, I've dropped almost four seconds from my best time last season!  I'm quite confident that I'll be under a minute by the end of the season.  As it stands, I only have to drop a bit less than a second to make the 2013 Nats cut!  As a side note, I'd gone a 1:11.57 at the same meet in 2011, so I'm extremely pleased with that progress!

50 free:  Ooh boy, this was a rather embarrassing swim!  It was pretty much right after the 100 back, so I only had enough time to warm down a 150 before heading back behind the blocks to stretch out before swimming again.  By the time I climbed up on the blocks, my heart rate still hadn't fully subsided from the 100 back and I was still breathing somewhat heavily.  I had zero energy on this race--couldn't get my turnover tempo up and just couldn't squeeze out any speed.  On the plus side, my kick was a lot better than I expected, although that isn't saying much!  I went a 26.26, which is a full 1.4 seconds off my 50 time leading off our 200 free relay at Nats.  I was aiming for a low/mid 25, but hey, after that 100 back, I guess I should be happy that I broke a 27!  :-D

100 IM: I was pretty darn tired at this point.  This one was the next event immediately after the 50, so I only had time for about a 250 warmdown in between the two.  I was dragging and just didn't have much gas in the tank.  I decided not to blow out and attempt a PR, but just focus on making it through the race without drowning and also pull off the crossover back-breast turn I've been practicing for the past few weeks.  Well, I succeeded on both fronts, although I did a reaalllllllly long back-breast turn.  Nailed the crossover itself, though!  I went a 1:03.82, about 2 seconds off my best from Nats.  That being said, I split a 28.94 and a 34.88.  The first 50 was about 1.3 seconds off my Nats split, while the second 50 was only about .7 off--I attribute it to the crossover turn and my breast being slightly less sucky than it was in the spring.  And to make it even better, I'd gone a 1:10.21 at the same meet in 2011!  I'll take it!

50 back: Ugh.  I didn't have anything left in the tank for this one.  On top of that, I went really deep off both the start and turn and had major problems getting up to the surface.  Not cool.  I went a 29.48, which is about half a second off my Nats time.  Still, I went a 31.71 at this meet last year, so I can't really complain too much!

I swam all four 25s and had a blast with them, too.  Didn't set any sort of speed records by any means, but posted decent times that were all pretty significant improvements over last year's times.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how this meet turned out!  Even though I wasn't super happy with any of my swims besides the 100 back, I'm still in a much, much better position at this point in the season than I was at this time last year!

Heavy competition promoting has paid off in spades!

All last short course season, I watched as at meet after meet, we'd send the same 2-3 folks, while other teams that were our size or smaller would regularly send 10+ swimmers to the meets without fail.  Even at Zones in April, we had to struggle to make sure we could put together a relay, and that was a local meet.  For a team with a total of 150+ swimmers, that's a downright pitiful competition rate!

At Nationals and for a few weeks afterward, I communicated with a swimmer on one of the much more competition prone teams in the area, trying to figure out what they were doing that we weren't.  Short answer, they were doing a LOT that we weren't!  They had a group that was focused on competing, did lots of stuff together to build camaraderie, and a bunch of other stuff along those lines.

Probably the biggest issue we faced is that meets weren't publicized...at all.  About 75% of the local meets last season were posted on team website's calendar, but they weren't announced.  If you never looked at the calendar, the only way you'd hear about meets would likely be by word of mouth.  The handful of us who were blatantly focused on competition all were in the know, but we did a pretty terrible job about spreading the news to everyone else.

Over the course of the summer, we started to broaden the path of our word of mouth meet announcements, but didn't really start hitting it hard till the short course season started in September.  The head coach has sent several meet announcement emails out and I've made competition a key part of my coaching philosophy.

Every week, I send out an email to my evening swimmers letting them know the themes of the next week's practices, upcoming team social events, and upcoming meets.  I also started a coaching specific blog (if you're remotely interested in reading it--it's kinda dry, since I target it towards my swimmers, not the general public--you can check it out here), in which I've added a calendar that has all the upcoming local meets on a rolling month-month and a half basis.  And I REALLY plug these meets both in the weekly email and when I talk about them at practice!  In addition, I've told my swimmers that I'm training them for competition, whether or not they'll ever actually compete.  As far as I'm concerned, none of them are training just for fitness.  We do extremely competition specific training, lots of IM work, lots of technique work, and plenty of other stuff that would be completely unnecessary for folks who're swimming just for fitness.  I'd say 50% of my swimmers probably are swimming just for fitness, but they're getting trained for competition.  Sure, they grumble when I'm having them do a long, hard IM set, but even if they don't compete, it's beefing up their general fitness!  I don't know what the other coaches are doing, but I'd imagine they aren't staying mum on the whole competition thing.

...All of that leads up to this weekend, the first local meet of the short course season.  The first meet of the season was actually a few weeks ago, but this is the first one that's within the DC area.  I've been plugging the crap out of the meet for about a month and a half, both as a coach and to my fellow swimmers on Saturdays.

Last year we had 3 swimmers at the meet, including me.  There were a total of 163 swimmers representing 49 teams.  This year there are 200 swimmers representing 39 teams.  We've got 19 of those swimmers!  That was far more than my wildest expectations--I would have been happy if we'd gotten 7 or 8 swimmers signed up!  Of our 19 swimmers, 11 of them are evening swimmers (counting me).  I'm absolutely floored by the registration take up we've gotten for this meet!  Who knows if we'll be able to sustain this type of participation rate for the whole season, but holy cow, this is a hell of a way to open the competition season with a bang!

Team practice meet this morning!

In lieu of the regular Saturday morning practice, we held a practice meet instead.  Lots of folks on the team have never done a swim meet before, or haven't done one since they were a teenager.  This was an attempt to familiarize them with the meet process and hopefully drum up their interest in competing in real meets with the team.

In terms of that aspect of the whole shindig, I think it worked very well!  I spoke to a handful of the meet newbies afterwards, and they all said they were interested in doing meets now.  +1 for us!

In terms of my performance (I swam the 50 fly, 100 free, and 50 free), I only swam fair to middling overall.  Had some of the best competition that I've had at any Masters meet, since all the fast guys were there and swam--swam against one of them in the 50 fly, and then swam against two of them in the 100, then all three of 'em in the 50 free.

I didn't have high hopes for my times going into the meet, though.  My upper back and shoulders have been ridiculously tight and sore for who knows what reason since Wednesday night.  On top of that, the pool we swim at has moronic blocks--they've got the slatted surface, but the slats run vertically, rather than horizontally, so there's no purchase for your feet.  I can't even count how many times I've flubbed my starts off those blocks in practice.  With all that in mind, though, here's how I did.

50 fly:  I had a rather ginger start, since my back foot had slipped on both of my starts in warmup.  Not much speed or power off the block, but once I entered the water I actually felt really good.  I felt a bit flat in the water, but everything felt like it was clicking...until the turn.  I completely misjudged the wall and went to dive forward at the end of my last stroke into wall...only to realize that I was nearly a full stroke out from where I thought I was.  As a result, I ended up doing 4 kicks to get myself to the wall.  The second 25 felt great, though.  If I heard the timer right, and if she actually got the time right (they used stopwatches, and several times people got were very iffy), I went a 26.48.  With the wussy start and abominable turn, that's a heck of a good time!  I went a 25.90 at Nats, and that was when I was tapered and all trained up for the 50.  Not to mention that I was shaved and had no major problems with the race.  If I did in fact go a 26.48 (the fast guy next to me was told he went a 25.8, which makes my time sound about right in comparison), that means I can probably cut off at least a second from that this season.  Without the start/turn trouble, I probably could have kept pace with the other guy and hit my Nats time!  I might need to update my 25.50 goal time for the season...

100 free: Okay, this one wasn't that hot.  Since we were cramming 7 events into 40 minutes, there was very little time between swims.  I didn't get a chance to swim down more than a 100 after the 50 fly and my upper back had really tightened up.  I had another wussy start but then took it out pretty well.  Unfortunately, I started to fade a bit on the third 25 and ran out of gas halfway back on the last 25.  Still, I went a 58.5 (again, if the timer is to be trusted), which is what I went at the meet a few weeks ago, when my performance all around felt better.  My 55.0 goal time for the season should definitely be in reach.

50 free: Blegh.  I don't think it was a bad swim, all things considered, but I just couldn't everything put together.  Had probably my best start of the three, but it felt like I was stuck in second gear and couldn't shift.  I went a 26.5...a shade slower than my 50 fly, even with that swim's turn problems!

Best part about coaching!

(This is my second post today, unrelated to the first one)

At this point, I've been coaching for Potomac Marlins and Alexandria Masters for a month.  I've gotten into the swing of things and have come to know almost all of my adult swimmers and a good number of my little kiddos.  I'm coaching several groups:

• Monday evening: One of my three Masters practices.  With the exception of random swimmers from the morning practices, I know all of the swimmers.
• Tuesday afternoon: My Tuesday/Thursday kiddo group (Mini Marlins, the second practice group up the group hierarchy).  I know all of them.
• Tuesday evening: My second Masters practice.  Most of the swimmers are regular Monday/Thursday swimmers, too, but some I only see on Tuesday nights.  Again, I know all the regulars.
• Thursday afternoon: My second Mini Marlins practice, same group as on Tuesday.
• Thursday evening: The last of my Masters practices.  Normally it's the same group as on Monday, with a few other people thrown in.  I know all the regulars.
• Friday afternoon: My age group practice (fourth practice group up the group hierarchy).  I've only coached them once so far, so I don't really know them yet.
• Sunday afternoon, session 1: Sunday Mini Marlins group--this is a largish group, around 18 kids, and I'm struggling with their names.  Only know about 2/5 of the group by name, but know 'em all by sight.
• Sunday afternoon, session 2: Sunday Stroke School group (introductory group, the first on the group hierarchy list)--this is a large group, around 22 kids, and I'm doing even worse with names than with the Mini Marlin group before them.  I know about 3/4 by sight, but only about 1/3 by name.  Sigh.
• Sunday evening: Just picked this one up this past Sunday, but it's two of the area summer league teams that have a weekly winter swim session.  Don't know which kids I'll be coaching on a regular basis.

With all this coaching, I've got some favorite swimmers from each group.  One of the little girls from my Tuesday/Thursday Mini Marlins group, Hannah, is probably my all around favorite kid.  Cute little pint sized kiddo who is invariably polite.  "Hi Coach Tim!  How are you?"  "I'm doing great, Miss Hannah, how are you?"  "I'm doing well, thank you."  And then after practice, after I've told her she did a good job (what I tell all of the kis): "Thank you for practice, Coach Tim."  Cracks me up every time.  She's also at the top of the group, as far as ability goes, and pays the closest attention to what I say in practice.  Scratch that, she's the only one who gets stuff on the first try, without me having to repeat what we're doing two...three...four times.  As far as I can tell, she's legal in all four strokes.  I'm actually kinda bummed about that, since it most likely means that I'll have to move her up to the next group in a month or two, which would mean that I wouldn't coach her anymore.  Sigh.  On a side note, she's the one who said I was her favorite teacher when I asked the kids how school was going a few weeks ago.  Anyhoo, she's usually very attentive to what drill I'm showing them how to do and tries to do everything properly.  Not that she actually does everything properly, but she's 7, so 'tis to be expected.

That all leads into the main point of this post.  The best part about coaching, in my opinion, is seeing my swimmers actively work on something I'm trying to teach them.  Whether that's Hannah struggling mightily to master the dive (we've worked on it as a group for three practices now, often with quite hilarious results across the board--it's rather hard to stay *professional* when these kids dives make me laugh out loud pretty much at every attempt) or one of my adult swimmers finally fixing a head positioning problem I've been working on with them for a few weeks, or something else along those lines.

There are a number of my adult swimmers that I've been working with more than the rest, as they've either actively sought out my feedback or have proven to be extra receptive to my suggestions.  Three of them have names that start with an A, so I'm calling 'em A1, A2, and A3.

• A1 is a guy who only started swimming in the last 6-9 months, I believe.  If I remember our conversation from a few weeks back, I think he said he decided back in the spring that he wanted to train for a triathlon, so he started running and swimming then.  He's lost way more weight than I have in that time frame, so I give him huge props for that.  As a self taught swimmer, he's made vast strides since he started on the team.  Over the past few weeks, I've worked with him in a butterfly and a flipturn clinic.  Flipturns are still problematic, but he's now legal in butterfly.  He won't be swimming any butterfly at any meets, but to see that level of improvement after just a 45 minute clinic on butterfly is immensely gratifying as a coach!
• A2 is an older lady who had shoulder surgery a while back and has been gingerly getting back into swimming.  Since we do a LOT of IM work in my practices, we've had several conversations about how she could alter her stroke so that she could swim butterfly.  We've also had some fairly in depth conversations about freestyle technique, specifically about how changing her pull technique could reduce the strain on her recovering shoulder.  Seeing that level of interest from one of my swimmers is awesome!  Quite a few of my swimmers are extremely set in their ways in regards to technique, so to see someone like her who's been swimming for who knows how long be open to changing technique based on my feedback is a heck of a job satisfaction boost!
• A3 is a few years older than me, but hadn't swum since high school up until a month ago.  And when she swam in highschool, she said the coach never really gave any sort of correction or feedback--I'm guessing she swam for one of those teams that was all yardage and no technique.  Anyways, she's been very receptive to my feedback at practice and I've worked on her technique with her for 15 minutes outside of practice.  I really appreciate the effort and interest she's putting into this, and she seems to be even more appreciative of the attention I'm giving her, which is just awesome!
• K is one of my good friends on the team and is my main freestyle competition during practice, since Dan and Katie are out of my league.  Anyhoo, I've mentioned some body positioning tips to her and she's been working on them--I noticed last night that the issue in question last night was looking a whole lot better than it had a few weeks ago when I first mentioned it to her.  Fantastico!
• J is new to swimming, as far as I can tell.  She can swim free and back, and can swim the other two strokes rudimentarily.  She participated in the fly and flipturn clinics that A1 also participated in and I've seen a lot of improvement since I started coaching her in September.  She's got a long way to go like A1, but I've been very impressed with the amount of improvement I've seen thus far.

I've got plenty of other swimmers who've been taking what I say to heart, but this group of swimmers really make me happy to be a coach!  It's just very cool to see someone I've worked with make such strides in their swimming technique, and really makes me glad that I'm their coach!

Comparison from this time last season to now--feeling great!

This is the first of two posts I'm putting up today (the other is mostly unrelated).

Overall, I'm feeling great in the water, almost as good as I was in the buildup during the last few weeks before Nationals in April!  My fly isn't back to where it was then, but that's perfectly understandable since I was doing a LOT of fly then and haven't been doing all that much lately.

Weight: This time last season, I was pushing 215.  When I weighed myself Monday morning, I was 182.8.  I hit 179 at the peak of my training in April, and given that I haven't been training near as hard as that for quite some time now, I'm quite happy with it!  Of course, this is with my sometimes spastic scale, so I don't know how accurate it actually is, but relatively speaking I seem to be close to what I was at my best in the spring.

Water feel: I was still really pretty cruddy in the water last October.  I felt like a bloated whale and was swimming two lanes down from where I swim now.  I was having to push to hold 1:30 for multiple 100s free, and now I can hold 1:20s ad infinitum without breaking a sweat at all.  Back then I constantly had to fight the water, and now I feel like I'm just sliding through it.  I think it's a combination of me being substantially smaller than I was then and me now being in much better shape.  Whatever it is, it's great to go from feeling very out of place in the water to being back to feeling like it's where I belong!

Butterfly: No comparison at all!  Last October, I was struggling to make it through a 50 fly without my arms falling off.  My speed was abominable and my endurance was right around 0.  Fast forward to today, and while my endurance isn't at its April heights, 50s are no problem.  I currently have to push for a 100, but only start to feel it at the last 25.  The next month or so should help out with that.  Again, my speed has improved a ridiculous amount.  It hurt...a LOT...to try and break :40 in my 50 fly in practice last year, and now I can routinely break :35 without really pushing, and can hit a :29 or :30 at a sprint from a push.  Night and day difference!

Backstroke: Even more of an improvement than in fly!  I remember not being able to crack a 1:30 in the 100 back during a main set without sprinting last October, and now I can cruise to a 1:20-1:25 without breaking much of a sweat.  Pushing hard, I can hit around a 1:12 or so.  Still plenty of room for improvement, but I'm doing so much better than I was a year ago!

Breaststroke: My breast felt shitty last October, but to be honest, it's felt that way ever since I stopped being a breaststroker 13 or 14 years ago.  It still doesn't feel great, but the Rebecca Soni-esque pull that Katie introduced me to over the summer has made it feel a lot better than the craptastic stroke it had been.  I'll swim some breast events at one of the meets in the next month or so, just to see where I'm at.

Freestyle: Soooo much improvement!  As I mentioned before, I had to push myself to make consecutive 100s on 1:30.  Now I can hold 1:20 with no real expenditure of effort and can do at least a few consecutive 200s on 2:30 without having to kill myself.  For a single 100 from a push, I can hit around 1:10 without having to sprint, although I have to push hard.  In the spring I hit a couple 1:05s at a sprint from a push in the middle of practice (they were on 2:00, so I got lots of time to recover between them).  Haven't tried that yet this season, but I'd imagine I'm right there timewise.

Overall, I feel much more natural in the water.  Oh, sure, I still have to try hard to swim fast, but being in the water feels more like a natural state for me than it did a year ago.  Can't complain!