I've got 5 meets, and a bit under 2.5 months, to figure out what I want to swim and submit my entry for Nationals.
So, I've gotta figure out what to swim. As of right now, I only have a single cut, the 50 fly. My 100 fly Nats time from last year is about .5 off the cut, but I should be able to hit that this by the entry deadline. I'm about .6 off the 100 back cut, but should hit that in the next meet or two. I'm a bit over 9.5 seconds off the 200 back cut, but have a pretty decent shot at that by the deadline. That gives me four events. I can pick two more events to swim at Nats, even if I don't have cuts in either of them.
With that in mind, here's the breakdown of all the possible events I could train for and swim at Nationals, and put up decent times in:
50 free: The Nats cut is a 24.31. I went a 24.9 leading off the 200 free relay at Nats last year, but haven't broken 25.5 this year. I just can't find that top gear in freestyle! This is looking like a no-go.
100 free: The Nats cut is a 53.87. I went a 57 at the end of our practice meet back in September, but haven't swum it since. This should be *conceivably* within reach, but like with the 50, I can't find the top gear, so this is most likely a no-go.
50 back: The Nats cut is a 28.31. I went a 28.96 at Nats last year, but haven't broken a 29.4 since then. On top of that, I have consistently been taking the 100 back out in around a 30.0, which is way too close to my 50 time for my liking, even though the perceived level of exertion and effort is much less in the 100 than the 50. For whatever reason, while I'm exerting a lot more energy and effort in the 50 back than taking out the 100 back, my 50 isn't finding the top gear. With the amount of energy/effort difference between the two, I'd expect the 30.0 I take the 100 out in to correspond with a mid 28 in the 50, but that's not happening. Ergo, unless I can figure out how to tap that top gear, the 50 is shaping up to be a no-go this season.
100 back: The Nats cut is a 1:01.71. I went a 1:02.30 at last weekend's meet, having dropped nearly 4 seconds already this season, with five more meets to go. This should be a slam dunk.
200 back: The Nats cut is a 2:12.94. I've only swum this once so far this season, back in September, and it was a pretty poor swim even then--I went a 2:22.93. I've broken a 2:30 from a push numerous times in practice, so this should be a fairly safe bet over the next five meets, especially if I get my 100 under a 1:02. This should be a slam dunk.
50 fly: I've already got the Nats cut, having swum a 25.90 at Nats last year (the cut is a 26.83). This will be a slam dunk.
100 fly: The Nats cut is a 59.06. I swam a 59.53 at Nats last year. I have only swum this event once this season, and I didn't try at all in it. It will be a fixture at the next four or five meets and *should* be a slam dunk.
200 fly: The Nats cut is a 2:14.93. I've only swum the 200 once as a Masters swimmer, and that was almost a year ago. I can almost certainly drop about 10 seconds from the abysmal 2:32.90 I swam then, but I don't know if I have the full 18 second drop in me over the next 2.5 months. This is probably going to be a no-go this season.
100 IM: The Nats cut is a 1:00.95. I went a 1:01.77 at Nats last year, but haven't broken a 1:03 since then. That being said, I've not been able to have a good race in it since Nats, either having it be a back to back event, or it being the last event of the day, or not having eaten enough food, etc. I *should* be able to make the cut, but I'm just not sure if I'll be able to align the stars over the next 5 meets. I think this is going to be a maybe this season.
200 IM: The Nats cut is a 2:14.93. I went a 2:19.62 at Zones last year, and that was with a horrific back half of the race. My breaststroke has vastly improved since then, and my free is better, too, so I'd like to think I could get to around a 2:15 pretty easily. I'm swimming this at the first of the 5 remaining meets, so I'll see how it goes then. Comparing my splits from Zones to Katie's 2:15 at Nats, I was almost 3.5 seconds ahead of her going into breast, and then we were dead even going into free. I don't think my breast is nearly that much slower than hers anymore (more on that later), and I'd really like to think she doesn't have that much of a lead on me in free anymore, so a 2:15 should definitely be within reach. I'm gonna say this one is a slam dunk.
400 IM: The Nats cut is a 4:50.13, and I went a 5:09.40 last weekend. That 19 second gap is a lot smaller than it appears, since I most likely could have easily shaved off 10 seconds or so just from better race management. And it *should* be fairly achievable to shave off the other 9 seconds by training for the race over the next 2.5 months. All that said, it takes a lot of time to train for the 400 IM, and I'm already putting a lot of time in on other events, so I'll just call this one a maybe this season.
50 breast: The Nats cut is a 30.82. If the split for the relay was correct, I went a low/mid 32. Given how abominable my start was, and that I was laughing for the first 25, I might be able to pump out a high 31 right now, without any breast training. That being said, I haven't swum the 50 in a meet yet, so I'll have to wait a meet or two to see what happens with it. If I train for it, and have a race where I nail the turn, I could conceivably hit the cut this season. Based on the IMers I've swum against this season, I've got a much stronger pullout than everyone I've swum against, even the ones who royally kick my behind once I'm up on the surface. Stands to reason that I should be able to tweak my actual swim enough to carry over some of that speed to the surface. I'll list this one as a maybe this season.
100 breast: The Nats cut is a 1:07.03. Way back in the day, my fastest was a mid 1:08...but my 50 relay split is right at my all time fastest 50 ever...so it stands to reason that I *might* be faster now than I was back in highschool. I'll have to swim it at a meet, though, to see where I'm at, since I haven't swum this event in ~8 years. This'll be a maybe this year.
I'm trying to hit all of these events over the next two meets (2/3 and 2/9), so I can see where I'm at with each one and figure out what I need to focus on.
Should be interesting!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
First meet in a while...
I had my first meet in a while on Sunday. I haven't been training much at all since before the holidays, so I didn't have high hopes. I was pleasantly surprised! I swam three individual events, the 400 IM, 100 back, and 100 IM, and the 200 medley relay.
400 IM
It's been a loooooong time since I'd swum this in a meet--spring of 2005. Back then it was one of my go-to events, along with the 200 back and 200 fly. I've only swum it a handful of times in practice in the last year and a half, and have done absolutely no training for this event at all. Given how little rest I'd gotten the entire weekend (coaching and going out with friends), I had even lower expectations at the meet itself. On top of that, I had eaten very little food that day. I'd entered myself as a 5:30, and with how I was feeling behind the blocks, would have been happy to hit that.
I took the fly out at about 75% effort. I'd hurt my right shoulder last week, and hadn't been able to do more than a 50 of fly straight without it hurting in practice, so I was kinda leery about the 100 fly to kick it off. No worries! While I was deliberately going slow, my fly felt great. Smooth, pain free, and felt like I could've gone for the 200 fly instead. Unfortunately, my left goggle fogged up at the first turn and my right goggle filled up at the turn, as well. Dan was in the lane next to me, so I was gauging where I was in the pool by his outline (he was about half a bodylength ahead of me on the fly), since I couldn't really see forward or down. Switching over to backstroke, I still held back and kept it at about 75% speed. My back felt great, though! Did something I haven't done in ages, and fixed my goggles during the swim at the 125 mark. After that, I could see again, and the rest of the race was less problematic. On top of that, I pulled about a bodylength and a half ahead of Dan! Going into breaststroke, I hammered the swim, and let the walls just serve as a quick oxygenation point, not focusing on fast walls. That's the best my breast has ever felt, at least as much as I can remember. It felt powerful and fast, and didn't feel near as uncoordinated as it normally does. I think I pulled to about 2-2.5 bodylengths ahead of Dan on the breast, but then died, like always, on the free. I don't think it was quite an epic meltdown, but Dan made up a LOT of ground on me on the free. I finished with a 5:09.40 (time on the board after the swim was a 5:09.23, so I'm not sure what's up with the extra .17 they sent out in the results) and beat Dan by about 3 seconds. Hell of a lot better swim than I expected! Just through better race management, I probably could have cut that down to around 5:00. I'm considering actually training for this event, since the Nats cut is only a 4:50. I've still got about 2 months to go to get my cuts for Nats, and have 5 more meets to swim between now and then, so I'll see how it goes.
100 back
I was starting to feel the effects of inadequate fuel intake during the day, but still had a good swim. Didn't have all that great of a start, but felt fantastic once I started swimming. Established an early lead and maintained it throughout. I've been working almost exclusively on back so far this season, and I can notice a big difference from last spring! Faded a bit on the last 25, but still won with a 1:02.30, dropping about half a second from my previous best. I figure my beard is at least a second's worth of drag with how much time I spend underwater, so that puts me down around a 1:01... ;-)
On a side note, I'm kinda disappointed with my top end speed. I just can't crank it out in the 50! I only barely broke a 29 at Nats last spring, and my normal 50 time is a mid 29. I was a 30 point at the 50 in my 100 back on Sunday--I'm swimming the 50 back at the next meet, I think, and I'll bet I'm less than a second faster than my 50 split from the 100. For whatever reason, I just don't have that top gear when it comes to backstroke!
100 IM
Not that great of a swim. I was really feeling the lack of fuel at this point and just couldn't get my turnover up on back and free. Fly felt good, back felt slow but good, breast felt good, and free felt pretty bad--kept inhaling water, so I was double and triple breathing. Botched the back-breast turn (stroke count was off, so I had to do an open turn instead of the crossover turn, which is much faster turn than an open turn). I went a 1:03.7, which is right about what I did at the last meet, but is 2 seconds off what I did at Nats.
200 medley relay
This was the last event of the day for us. We put up a men's relay, and for a change, I swam breast! I honestly can't remember the last time I swam breast on a relay. Given that we had Adam and then Craig on my club team since I was 12, I think it might be 13+ years since the last time I was the breaststroker on a relay! I almost got us DQd on my start--the guy swimming back, Chad, ended up kicking in instead of taking the final stroke into the wall. I start my windup on the second to last stroke, so I was expecting him to touch right as I started the dive. Nope. Since he was kicking in, he was still about a foot and a half off the wall as I started to lean forward. I tried to jerk back enough so that I didn't blatantly pull a Dan (reference to our 200 medley relay at Zones), almost fell off the block instead, and then did a very flat dive with no windup and no forward momentum when he finally did touch. I was laughing during the entire first 25! I believe my split was a 32 something, so even with a hilariously awful start, I'm right there with the fastest competing breaststroker on the team, Katie! I might have to swim some more breast events in the next few meets.
Overall, it was a pretty good meet! The 100 IM was disappointing, but at least I didn't add any time from the last meet! Over the last six months or so, I've apparently managed to turn my breaststroke from a liability to an asset, so I'm very happy about that! My backstroke is feeling very solid, and my butterfly surprisingly felt good, although I haven't trained for it at all.
Gameplan for Nationals
Now that we're in 2013, I am starting to train for Nationals in earnest. I can swim three events without making any cuts, and can swim up to six (individual) events if I make three cuts.
I've already got the cut in the 50 fly, and my Nats time is about .75 off the cut in the 100 fly. I'm about half a second off the 100 back cut (1:01.71), and should be within reach of the 200 back cut (2:12.94), too, although I'm currently about 9.5 seconds off. I could conceivably make the 400 IM cut (4:50). The 200 and 100 IMs might be a stretch, though, but I'll see what I can do with them over the next two months worth of meets.
I think the 200 fly and all the breast events are out of reach. I'm not going to bother really training for them this year, although I'll really go after them next year. As of now, my plan is to have the cuts for the 100 back and 50 fly for sure. I would really like to get the 100 fly cut, too, so that way I can then pick my three freebie events. If I get the three cuts, my Nats lineup will be the 100/200 back, 50/100 fly, and 100/200 IM.
There are five meets left to qualify for Nationals. I'm really going to hammer those events at the meets, and really focus on training for them in practice. I'm in a much better position now than I was at this time last year!!
400 IM
It's been a loooooong time since I'd swum this in a meet--spring of 2005. Back then it was one of my go-to events, along with the 200 back and 200 fly. I've only swum it a handful of times in practice in the last year and a half, and have done absolutely no training for this event at all. Given how little rest I'd gotten the entire weekend (coaching and going out with friends), I had even lower expectations at the meet itself. On top of that, I had eaten very little food that day. I'd entered myself as a 5:30, and with how I was feeling behind the blocks, would have been happy to hit that.
I took the fly out at about 75% effort. I'd hurt my right shoulder last week, and hadn't been able to do more than a 50 of fly straight without it hurting in practice, so I was kinda leery about the 100 fly to kick it off. No worries! While I was deliberately going slow, my fly felt great. Smooth, pain free, and felt like I could've gone for the 200 fly instead. Unfortunately, my left goggle fogged up at the first turn and my right goggle filled up at the turn, as well. Dan was in the lane next to me, so I was gauging where I was in the pool by his outline (he was about half a bodylength ahead of me on the fly), since I couldn't really see forward or down. Switching over to backstroke, I still held back and kept it at about 75% speed. My back felt great, though! Did something I haven't done in ages, and fixed my goggles during the swim at the 125 mark. After that, I could see again, and the rest of the race was less problematic. On top of that, I pulled about a bodylength and a half ahead of Dan! Going into breaststroke, I hammered the swim, and let the walls just serve as a quick oxygenation point, not focusing on fast walls. That's the best my breast has ever felt, at least as much as I can remember. It felt powerful and fast, and didn't feel near as uncoordinated as it normally does. I think I pulled to about 2-2.5 bodylengths ahead of Dan on the breast, but then died, like always, on the free. I don't think it was quite an epic meltdown, but Dan made up a LOT of ground on me on the free. I finished with a 5:09.40 (time on the board after the swim was a 5:09.23, so I'm not sure what's up with the extra .17 they sent out in the results) and beat Dan by about 3 seconds. Hell of a lot better swim than I expected! Just through better race management, I probably could have cut that down to around 5:00. I'm considering actually training for this event, since the Nats cut is only a 4:50. I've still got about 2 months to go to get my cuts for Nats, and have 5 more meets to swim between now and then, so I'll see how it goes.
100 back
I was starting to feel the effects of inadequate fuel intake during the day, but still had a good swim. Didn't have all that great of a start, but felt fantastic once I started swimming. Established an early lead and maintained it throughout. I've been working almost exclusively on back so far this season, and I can notice a big difference from last spring! Faded a bit on the last 25, but still won with a 1:02.30, dropping about half a second from my previous best. I figure my beard is at least a second's worth of drag with how much time I spend underwater, so that puts me down around a 1:01... ;-)
On a side note, I'm kinda disappointed with my top end speed. I just can't crank it out in the 50! I only barely broke a 29 at Nats last spring, and my normal 50 time is a mid 29. I was a 30 point at the 50 in my 100 back on Sunday--I'm swimming the 50 back at the next meet, I think, and I'll bet I'm less than a second faster than my 50 split from the 100. For whatever reason, I just don't have that top gear when it comes to backstroke!
100 IM
Not that great of a swim. I was really feeling the lack of fuel at this point and just couldn't get my turnover up on back and free. Fly felt good, back felt slow but good, breast felt good, and free felt pretty bad--kept inhaling water, so I was double and triple breathing. Botched the back-breast turn (stroke count was off, so I had to do an open turn instead of the crossover turn, which is much faster turn than an open turn). I went a 1:03.7, which is right about what I did at the last meet, but is 2 seconds off what I did at Nats.
200 medley relay
This was the last event of the day for us. We put up a men's relay, and for a change, I swam breast! I honestly can't remember the last time I swam breast on a relay. Given that we had Adam and then Craig on my club team since I was 12, I think it might be 13+ years since the last time I was the breaststroker on a relay! I almost got us DQd on my start--the guy swimming back, Chad, ended up kicking in instead of taking the final stroke into the wall. I start my windup on the second to last stroke, so I was expecting him to touch right as I started the dive. Nope. Since he was kicking in, he was still about a foot and a half off the wall as I started to lean forward. I tried to jerk back enough so that I didn't blatantly pull a Dan (reference to our 200 medley relay at Zones), almost fell off the block instead, and then did a very flat dive with no windup and no forward momentum when he finally did touch. I was laughing during the entire first 25! I believe my split was a 32 something, so even with a hilariously awful start, I'm right there with the fastest competing breaststroker on the team, Katie! I might have to swim some more breast events in the next few meets.
Overall, it was a pretty good meet! The 100 IM was disappointing, but at least I didn't add any time from the last meet! Over the last six months or so, I've apparently managed to turn my breaststroke from a liability to an asset, so I'm very happy about that! My backstroke is feeling very solid, and my butterfly surprisingly felt good, although I haven't trained for it at all.
Gameplan for Nationals
Now that we're in 2013, I am starting to train for Nationals in earnest. I can swim three events without making any cuts, and can swim up to six (individual) events if I make three cuts.
I've already got the cut in the 50 fly, and my Nats time is about .75 off the cut in the 100 fly. I'm about half a second off the 100 back cut (1:01.71), and should be within reach of the 200 back cut (2:12.94), too, although I'm currently about 9.5 seconds off. I could conceivably make the 400 IM cut (4:50). The 200 and 100 IMs might be a stretch, though, but I'll see what I can do with them over the next two months worth of meets.
I think the 200 fly and all the breast events are out of reach. I'm not going to bother really training for them this year, although I'll really go after them next year. As of now, my plan is to have the cuts for the 100 back and 50 fly for sure. I would really like to get the 100 fly cut, too, so that way I can then pick my three freebie events. If I get the three cuts, my Nats lineup will be the 100/200 back, 50/100 fly, and 100/200 IM.
There are five meets left to qualify for Nationals. I'm really going to hammer those events at the meets, and really focus on training for them in practice. I'm in a much better position now than I was at this time last year!!
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