Back to back meets on 2/9-2/10...meh...

I swam at back to back meets on 2/9 and 2/10.  The meet on the 9th was an evening meet outside of Annapolis, and the meet on the 10th was in the morning in Richmond.  The Richmond meet was actually a 2 day meet, but I wanted to swim at the Annapolis one on Saturday instead.  That was probably a bad idea.  The Annapolis meet was supposed to start at 5:30, but got pushed back to 6:30, and I didn't finish swimming till about 9:30...and didn't hit the road for the drive down to Richmond till about 9:45!

I'd swum at the Richmond meet last year, so I was familiar with the pool, but this was my first time at this Annapolis pool, and I was decidedly not impressed.  It was small, the shallow end was really shallow, and the touch pads were not fixed at the bottom, so they bowed out from the wall (when you'd do a turn, you'd have to push the pad back into the wall before you could push off the wall, which is really sucky).

Here's how it all went down.

Saturday

100 back

This was my first event of the meet.  I'd had a big problem during warmup with the pads bowing out from the wall and feeling really spongy, and that applied to the race, too.  There was no gutter to hold on to (and I can't do a non-back flop start from the block's bar), so the shitty hand position and shitty pad position really screwed up my start.  I went absurdly deep and used up almost all of my speed just trying to get back up to the surface.  The first 50, aside from the bad start and first breakout, was actually pretty good.  However, at the 50 turn, I lost a bit of momentum having to push the pad back to the wall.  Realllllllllllllllly not a fan of that pad setup!  The third 25 also felt fine, but I just couldn't bring it home at the end.  I was racing against a recurring competitor, Justin H, and he soundly whupped me on the last 25.  I took it out in a 30.17 and brought it back in a 32.46 for a 1:02.63.  Not a terrible race, just looking at the numbers (and only .3 off my best), but I *should* have been able to break a 1:02, and probably would have except for the start and 50 turn.  On a side note, this was a rematch for Justin and I--we raced next to each other a few weeks before and I beat him then, a 1:02.3 to his 1:03.0.  I think we'll have another rematch in March, so I hope to regain the crown then! :-D

50 breast

Ugh.  This was my race to lose, and I lost it.  I got third, and all that separated me from first was .18 (I went a 33.34).  Good start, good speed, everything felt great...and then I totally bombed the turn.  Had a brain fart at the wall, since there was no gutter for me to grab onto.  Lost at least a few tenths of a second there, and that was all that separated me from first!  I should have been able to just break 33.  Sigh.  Did I mention that I'm not a fan of this pool?

50 back

This was my best event of the meet, which is pretty sad.  I had another shitty start, although I didn't go as absurdly deep as I did on the 100.  Once I came up, everything felt fantastic...till I got to the turn.  Coming off the wall, I was a shade deeper than I usually am, and due to how shallow the pool is at that end, I kicked the bottom twice before I came up!  All that said, I went a 29.32, which is my best in season time and only .4 off last year's Nats time!  If I can come that close...with The Beard...with kicking the bottom...and not shaved/tapered...I think I'm doing pretty well for myself!

I didn't warm down after swimming the 50 back.  It was already after 9:30 at this point, so I just wanted to get the hell out of there.  I stopped to get dinner on the drive down to Richmond, and didn't get to the hotel and into the room until around 1:00.

Sunday

200 back

I overslept and didn't get up till 7:30, and didn't get to the pool till right about 8:00.  There were only two heats of the 200 back left before mine when I got to the pool, so I only had time to jump in for a quick 250 warmup.  Umm...in case you were wondering...a 250 isn't NEARLY enough to loosen up after not warming down the night before and getting ready for the 200 back...  I know, I know, it's my own fault, but man, I did not feel good in the water!
The race itself was pretty good, all things considered.  I went a 2:18.89, with splits of 32.59, 35.81, 35.30, and 35.19.  I didn't start to feel warmed up till about the 100 mark, as is evident by my decreasing splits.  That's about 2 seconds off what I manually timed my 200 back video from the Tropical Splash the week before, but only about half a second slower than my *official* TS time.  Given how poorly I felt in the water, I will absolutely take that time!
I figure with another month and a half or so of heavy training under my belt, and sans The Beard, I should be able to shave 1.5-2 seconds off each 50.  I'll be swimming it at all three meets in March, so I'll be able to see how my heavier training impacts the swim.

100 breast

This was a pretty bad swim.  I felt good for the first 50, started to tighten up on the 3rd 25, and completely locked up on the last 25.  The meet ran very quickly (start to finish was only 2.5 hours!), and since many events only had 2 heats (quite a few only had one heat), tops, I didn't have a whole lot of time between my 200 back and this race.  I attribute that to the pacing of the meet, me not training for the 100 breast, and me not being sufficiently warmed down/up.  Anyways, I split a 35.09 and 39.09 for a 1:14.18.  Not a downright awful swim, but I should have been closer to a 1:10-1:11, with splits around a low 34 going out, low 37 coming back.
On a side note, the guy in the lane next to me should have been DQed--on every pullout, he was doing a dolphin kick at the beginning and end of it, and then did a dolphin kick at the finish.

100 fly

I crashed and burned.  My legs were toast at this point and my upper body was quite tight and sore, and I totally died on the second 50.  I took it out in a 30.30 and brought it back in a 35.22 for a 1:05.52.  Horrible splits!  I had no speed taking it out--I should have been 2.5-3 seconds faster on the first 50, and at least 2-3 seconds faster on the second 50.  Besides the aforementioned factors affecting me at the meet that day, I need to really train for this event, since that was a pitiful performance!

Great Tropical Splash on Sunday!

My team hosted the Tropical Splash this past Sunday, and I had a blast!!  The meet itself was quite fun and it had a pretty lively atmosphere (well, for a meet, anyways).

I swam a pretty big lineup of events--in order, the 100 IM, 200 back, 50 free on the 200 free relay, 50 breast on the 200 medley relay, 200 IM, and 200 breast.

EDIT: videos have been added for the races in which I was filmed--everything but the medley relay.

100 IM

This race felt pretty good, with some exceptions.  My back foot slipped on the block and I thus went deep on the start.  Normally I stay under for about 8 dolphin kicks off the start on fly, and this time I was under for 10 before I made it to the surface.  And then on backstroke, I went too deep and completely misjudged where the surface of the water was, so I started my breakout stroke while I was still about a foot under the surface, so I had to take another three dolphin kicks before I finished the stroke.  Besides those problems, everything else felt pretty good!  I dropped about a second from my time at the last meet to go a 1:02.7, which is right at my time from Zones last year, which was my best non-Nats time.  Probably could have shaved off at least half a second to a full second by coming up to the surface faster on fly and back.  Still, with the lack of heavy duty training up to this point and with the significant drag my beard gives me underwater (I can definitely feel it, at least), I'm gonna say I should be under my 1:01.7 Nats time from last year by the end of the season.

EDIT: I watched the video twice and used my stopwatch to get my splits from the video.  I came up with around a 28.30 and 33.59 for a 1:01.89.  (First time I got my splits, I got a 28.26 and 33.65 for a 1:01.91). I don't know why there's a ~.75 difference between what I got and what the timers got!
If I did in fact go around a 1:01.89, I'm right where I want to be at this point in the season!

200 back

This was a much better swim than my 2:22.9 at the beginning of the season in September--I dropped down to a 2:18 mid.  That being said, my legs died at around the 125.  Again, I attribute that to my lack of heavy duty training at this point in the season.  I think I could have hit around a 2:15 if my legs hadn't died.  Anyways, the race felt pretty good--good start, good turnover, everything felt strong for the first 125 and then I started to fade over the next 75.

The Nats cut is a 2:12.94, so with me being less than 6 seconds off, I think this should most likely be a slam dunk by the end of March!

EDIT: I watched the video three times and used my stopwatch to get my splits.  All three times, my splits were within a few hundredths of each other, so here's a good approximation of them: 31.66, 34.38, 35.33, and 35.39, for a time of 2:16.76.  That's nearly two seconds faster than what the timers told me, so either they can't time worth crap or there's something fishy with the video...
If I did in fact go a 2:16, that puts me in even better position than I expected at this point in the season! That would put me less than 4 seconds off the Nats cut, which should be easily achievable!  In addition, my turns look much, much better than they did in September!  Still have work to do, but a significant improvement.  On the downside, my turnover rate is still substantially faster in my head than it is in actuality.  Hmm.

50 free (200 free relay)

Umm, this was a bad swim.  I had a fairly decent start--pokey reaction time, but the dive itself was good, and the first 25 felt really good...and then I bombed the turn.  I started the flip too far out, so I tried to lengthen the turn and ended up with just one long awkward mess.  And then nothing was in sync on the second 25.  My hips weren't rotating at the same time or angle as my shoulders, my kick felt off, and my two breaths made my stroke lopsided.  Sigh.  Don't know what my split was, but I'd be surprised if I broke a 26, what with how horrid it felt!

EDIT: I watched the video twice and got my split both times--24.91 and 24.98 (I'm the anchor in the middle lane).  Nowhere near as bad as I thought!

50 breast (200 medley relay)

This made up for the 50 free!  I was pokey coming off the block (I'm still getting used to having to go off someone swimming backstroke, since this is only the second meet in at least a decade in which I've done breast on a relay, and it's definitely a work in progress), but otherwise had a great start.  The rest of the race felt good, although I did take a half stroke on the finish instead of gliding in.  I split a 32.1, which is .3 faster than the relay two weeks ago.  Not too shabby!

200 IM

This was not a good race at all, not even close.  And that's solely due to my totally screwing up the pacing!  When I swam the 200 IM both times last spring, I had a pretty good first half and then crashed and burned spectacularly on the second half.  Not having swum the 200 since last April, I was a bit leery of repeating that, so I decided to hold back a little bit on the first 100, just enough to have gas left in the tank for the second 100.  Oops.  I took it out waaaaay too slow!  I took it out at 400 IM pace and didn't realize that till I was going into breaststroke, when I realized that I wasn't tired at all.  At that point, it was too late--I had too much ground to make up and couldn't swim that fast to make up the difference.  I finished with a mid 2:22, which is a full three seconds slower than my Zones time last year.  At Zones, I took it out in a low 1:03, vs taking it out in a high 1:07 this time.  On the plus side, I did swim the second half of the race almost 2 seconds faster than I did at Zones!

On a side note, I swam in the same heat as Katie.  I should have had about a bodylength lead on her going into breast, and then finished about even or a bodylength behind her.  She was ahead of me going into breast and just kept extending that lead over the back half, ending up with a 2:16.  If I'd paced the race properly, I should have been right there with her.  Sigh.  Till next time...

EDIT: Again, watched the video and got splits.  All three times I watched the video, the splits were all in the ballpark of 30.28, 35.74, 40.95, and 33.63 for a final time of 2:20.62.  That's a full two seconds faster than what the timers told me!
While the time is quite a bit better than what I was told, it still wasn't a great race.  The only bright spot was the breaststroke leg--it was about 1.5 seconds faster than the last time I swam it.

200 breast

This was the first time I'd swum the event since 2004 or 2005.  I had no race strategy except for making it to the end.  Good start and good first 100.  My biceps and lats started to tighten up at the 125 and completely locked up at the 150.  That turn was really darn slow, as was the turn at the 175.  And that whole last 50 was pure torture.  I finished with a 2:47, which was faster than my completely made up 2:50...but is way off from my 2:32 from a decade ago...

On the plus side, I beat my teammate who also swam it, Sara, by 2 seconds!  And she's a legit breaststroker!! :-D

EDIT: Video, splits, yada yada yada.  My time from the video was a 2:45.87...again about two seconds faster than what the timers told me...  I got a 36.30, 41.82, 43.72, and 44.03.  Not too horrific!

All in all, it was a pretty good meet!  Despite my bad swims and quite noticeable lack of heavy duty training (especially compared to this point last year), I swam pretty well, all things considered!