Well, that was definitely a hit or miss kinda meet! There was a three day short course meters Masters meet this past weekend at George Mason's Manassas campus. I didn't compete in November, so this was my first meet since October. I swam the 100 back on Saturday and the 100 IM/100 fly on Sunday.
First off, I do not like short course meters. Nothing against that distance itself, but the only time I ever swim SCM is in a meet, so I'm not used to the distance. I'm a yards swimmer through and through, although I can adjust to long course meters if needed. But SCM? No thank you. It's that middle distance that is just long enough to make my turn timing awkward, while not long enough to necessitate the mindset change that is LCM.
100 back
Ugh, I just don't have any speed. In warmup I tried doing some pace 50s and was holding 36s, which converts to a high 32/low 33 in yards...or about 2 seconds off my desired pace. That's how my backstroke has felt all season--nothing feels fundamentally wrong with the stroke itself, I just haven't been able to eke out any speed.
On the start, my right foot slipped off the pad, so I pretty much had a one legged push. I went long on the first two turns and just ran out of steam towards the end. Even before running out of steam, though, it just felt like I was swimming through molasses, with no speed. My final time was a 1:13 and change, 2 seconds slower than the last time I did the 100 SCM back, in March 2013. On the plus side, it was a second faster than when I did the event in December 2011!
100 IM
After Saturday's annoyingly bad 100 back, I was psyched up for Sunday's 100 IM. The 100 IM is one of my favorite events, and I'd been bummed when I had to scratch the IM events in the spring and summer due to my bum knee. I swam the 25 breast in October, but this was the first *real* race that tested my knee. I had a good start and felt fantastic on the fly and back. Got a big confidence boost on the fly/back turn when I came off the wall just a shade after the guy in the lane next to me, but then came up to the surface almost a full bodylength ahead of him! Breaststroke was very flat, uncoordinated, and felt like I was getting no power from my kick, but the important thing is that it didn't hurt! My free felt really good, too, the best it's felt in an IM since at least the 2012-2013 season. Usually by that point I'm sucking wind and my technique falls apart.
The only downside to this race, besides the cruddy breaststroke leg, were my turns. None of them were quick. Kinda like my 100 back, while my turns felt technically sound, they just were slooooow. Still, all that said, I pulled out a mid 1:10, just a couple tenths of a second off my best time from the runup to 2012 nationals, and 1.5 seconds faster than my time from spring 2013. Given my complete lack of breaststroke training this year (the most I've done in a practice since February has been about a 50) and lack of speed training since the summer, I will count the 100 IM a rousing success!
100 fly
...And I came crashing back down to earth on the 100 fly. I've been doing a lot of fly training in the past few months, since I think my main event at nationals is going to be the 200 fly. I haven't been doing any fly sprint training, though, just getting in bulk yardage. I've been able to put together some decent 100 fly repeats in practice at a moderate pace, but haven't haven't worked on 100 pace. I'll touch on that again in just a second.
My start was good, first 50 felt great, and I was only barely starting to feel it going into the 75 turn when it all fell apart. Curling my legs into the wall on the last turn, both of my hamstrings cramped up, and coming off the wall I could only do the downkick, not the upkick. Attempting to overdrive the arms to compensate for the loss of leg propulsion, my lats cramped up, too. The end result was me going vertical for the last 15 or so meters of the race. Sigh. I was happy about two things, though. One of the main things I've been working on in practice has been increasing my underwater time off the walls. Historically, I've done 4-5 dolphin kicks off the wall on the 100/200 fly, and I've been working to increase that. I did 9 off the start, 7 off the first wall, 6 off the second wall, then 5.5 spastic kicks off the third wall. On top of that, I've been trying to force myself in practice to mostly keep to a 2-up-1-down breathing pattern (only exception is the last stroke into the wall--I want to breathe on that stroke), and I was able to hold to it in this race, even when I went vertical! I'm very pleased with that part! I ended up with a 1:12, I think (might have been a 1:13, but don't quote me until I see the official results), which is about 3.5 seconds off my time from the leadup to the 2012 nationals, but 4 seconds faster than I was at this time in 2011.
I'm really starting to wonder if there's something wrong with my fly training. Ever since the summer, I've been able to do aerobic fly training with no out of the ordinary issues, but when I've raced fly since the spring, I've had massive lat cramps towards the end of the race, whether it's the 50 or the 100. At long course nationals in August, I swam the 50 fly twice, once on a relay and once individually. On the relay I kept it relaxed and stretched out, while still going at around 90% effort. No cramping issues then. Later, I did the individual race, bumped it up to 100% effort, and developed massive lat cramps around the 40 meter mark. Similar effect when I did the 100 in October, and same thing this time around. This one was by the simultaneous hamstring cramps, which is a first for me. Even when I have done fly speed work in practice, I haven't had the lat cramping issue that so far has only stuck in meets. I don't know what it is, or what I can do to prevent it.
All in all, I was fairly pleased with this meet. I did way better than I expected in the 100 IM, and the best part was that I had no knee pain, so maybe I can swim the IMs again! I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be another "lost" season for backstroke, like my '11-'12 season was. That season I proportionally did markedly better in fly than back, then I reversed that the following season. So far this season is shaping up to follow the '11-'12 season's pattern. I'll see how things stand in February, which will give me time to change up my training strategies as necessary in preparation for nationals in San Antonio in April.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
First masters meet of the season!
We had the first masters meet of the season yesterday at George Mason. I swam the 100 free, 100 back, 100 fly, and the 25s of each stroke. None of my times were anything to write home about, but I was fairly pleased with most of my swims.
100 free
I usually only swim this sucker once a season as an individual race, and then a couple times a year as part of a 400 free relay. I can't remember the last time I actually trained for the 100, and have never really cared enough about it to try in a masters meet. This time around, though, I figured I'd actually give it a shot. Trying something new, I decided to try galloping (deeper pull on one side, shallower pull on the other, breathing only to one side). I took it out in a 27.71 and brought it back in a 30.00. I probably could have taken it out about a second faster, but it's been so long since I've actually *raced* the 100 free that I don't really know how to pace it anymore. Anyhoo, it felt really good! I felt strong and smooth, and felt like I had a powerful kick (for the first time since the spring!). My third turn was too long (I was just far enough from the wall that it was either glide in to the turn or take a half stroke, and I picked the former), but everything else was good. Probably lost at least .5 on that turn. As far as my energy was concerned, I didn't fade too much down the stretch, and just really had a great all-around race. That 57.71 isn't anything to write home about, but is my third fastest masters individual 100 free, with my fastest being a 56.73 from Zones last spring. I was so pleasantly surprised by how good the race felt that I'm considering breaking my tradition and adding it to my event lineup at a handful of meets this season! Later in the season, as my fitness improves and I have a better aerobic base, I might creep down towards a 55.
100 back
Ugh. I have absolutely no idea what has happened to my turnover. Ever since last spring, I just haven't been able to turn my arms over quickly. I knew I was having turnover issues going into this meet, so I decided to drop the 50 back, since it would be completely pointless. I had a correspondingly slow swim, going a 1:05.39, a full 2 seconds slower than my slowest in-season time from the 13-14 season. That being said, my splits were good, taking it out in a 31.49 and bringing it back in a 33.90 (they were both slow, but I view anything less than a 2.5 second gap between the two 50s to be a good split...at least for me...). This was my first short course race wearing a nose plug, and I like it! I think it really helped on the turns, especially off the first wall. My underwaters felt really good, too, but I consistently got destroyed on the surface. I recovered from a partial slip on the start (left foot slipped down a few inches on the start, and I went really deep), but my underwaters were the only good thing going for me for the rest of the race. Sigh.
100 fly
This one was so aggravating! I haven't done any butterfly speed training so far this season, so I was rather leery of how I'd swim. I had a good start and fantastic first 50. My shoulders started to tighten up a bit heading into the 75, but nowhere near as badly as they did over the summer when I swam. Unfortunately, the turn at the 75 was a disaster. As I was bringing my feet in to the wall, both of my quads locked up. My legs locked into a bent position, and not only did I get almost no push off the wall, I don't think I kicked underwater. I came up right about the flags and I'm pretty sure my legs were deadweight for the whole last 25. My shoulders were on fire as they took on the full load, and I limped down the stretch. By the time I finally touched, I was in major pain. I couldn't fully straighten my legs, or bend them past about 90 degrees. I managed to pull myself out of the water and hobble back to the warmdown pool, but man, that was painful! In regards to the splits, I nailed the first 50, taking it out in a 30.02, but brought it back in an abysmal 35.20 for a 1:05.22. The first 50 felt phenomenal--I felt smooth and on cruise control, with my fly feeling better than it's felt in over a year. Except for my quads locking at the 75, I would like to think I would've been a 1:03, which would've been my fastest in-season time since Zones in 2013. So frustrating!
25 fly
Haha, this one was hilariously bad. I had really good reaction time off the block, but I entered the water a bit too deep and ended up completely misjudging how close I was to the surface for my breakout. Thought I had one more kick to get to the surface...and ended up coming to the surface still in full streamline. Oops. Lost most of my momentum on the non-existent *breakout* and couldn't make up for it. I went a 12.76, almost a half second slower than last year.
25 back
Didn't have any problems with slipping on the start, I just had a very anemic push (quads started hurting again), and then had problems getting any sort of speed with my dolphin kicks. Conversely, once I got to the surface, I actually felt like I had a good turnover. I went a 15.22, which is .6 slower than last year.
25 breast
This was the first time I'd done a full lap of breaststroke since screwing up my left knee last winter. Felt fine till the last two strokes, when my knee started to twinge. I went a 12.91, .3 slower than last year.
25 free
This time I went too shallow on the start (after a quad induced anemic start), and only got 4 dolphin kicks before surfacing, vs the 7-8 I normally do off the start on free races. Managed to hit the lane rope with my left hand, too, which was awesome. I went a 12.76, which was almost .5 off my time from last year.
All in all, I enjoyed the meet! Besides not being able to sprint backstroke and the unfortunate quad cramping issue, I'd say it was a pretty successful outing. I'm quite happy with my 100 free and the first 75 of my 100 fly. Good to know that even with no speed training and a less-than-ideal aerobic base, I've still got decent speed...at least in a 75 of fly... And the 100 free was a very pleasant surprise, so who knows, I might actually be able to do some free events this year and not make a complete fool of myself.
100 free
I usually only swim this sucker once a season as an individual race, and then a couple times a year as part of a 400 free relay. I can't remember the last time I actually trained for the 100, and have never really cared enough about it to try in a masters meet. This time around, though, I figured I'd actually give it a shot. Trying something new, I decided to try galloping (deeper pull on one side, shallower pull on the other, breathing only to one side). I took it out in a 27.71 and brought it back in a 30.00. I probably could have taken it out about a second faster, but it's been so long since I've actually *raced* the 100 free that I don't really know how to pace it anymore. Anyhoo, it felt really good! I felt strong and smooth, and felt like I had a powerful kick (for the first time since the spring!). My third turn was too long (I was just far enough from the wall that it was either glide in to the turn or take a half stroke, and I picked the former), but everything else was good. Probably lost at least .5 on that turn. As far as my energy was concerned, I didn't fade too much down the stretch, and just really had a great all-around race. That 57.71 isn't anything to write home about, but is my third fastest masters individual 100 free, with my fastest being a 56.73 from Zones last spring. I was so pleasantly surprised by how good the race felt that I'm considering breaking my tradition and adding it to my event lineup at a handful of meets this season! Later in the season, as my fitness improves and I have a better aerobic base, I might creep down towards a 55.
100 back
Ugh. I have absolutely no idea what has happened to my turnover. Ever since last spring, I just haven't been able to turn my arms over quickly. I knew I was having turnover issues going into this meet, so I decided to drop the 50 back, since it would be completely pointless. I had a correspondingly slow swim, going a 1:05.39, a full 2 seconds slower than my slowest in-season time from the 13-14 season. That being said, my splits were good, taking it out in a 31.49 and bringing it back in a 33.90 (they were both slow, but I view anything less than a 2.5 second gap between the two 50s to be a good split...at least for me...). This was my first short course race wearing a nose plug, and I like it! I think it really helped on the turns, especially off the first wall. My underwaters felt really good, too, but I consistently got destroyed on the surface. I recovered from a partial slip on the start (left foot slipped down a few inches on the start, and I went really deep), but my underwaters were the only good thing going for me for the rest of the race. Sigh.
100 fly
This one was so aggravating! I haven't done any butterfly speed training so far this season, so I was rather leery of how I'd swim. I had a good start and fantastic first 50. My shoulders started to tighten up a bit heading into the 75, but nowhere near as badly as they did over the summer when I swam. Unfortunately, the turn at the 75 was a disaster. As I was bringing my feet in to the wall, both of my quads locked up. My legs locked into a bent position, and not only did I get almost no push off the wall, I don't think I kicked underwater. I came up right about the flags and I'm pretty sure my legs were deadweight for the whole last 25. My shoulders were on fire as they took on the full load, and I limped down the stretch. By the time I finally touched, I was in major pain. I couldn't fully straighten my legs, or bend them past about 90 degrees. I managed to pull myself out of the water and hobble back to the warmdown pool, but man, that was painful! In regards to the splits, I nailed the first 50, taking it out in a 30.02, but brought it back in an abysmal 35.20 for a 1:05.22. The first 50 felt phenomenal--I felt smooth and on cruise control, with my fly feeling better than it's felt in over a year. Except for my quads locking at the 75, I would like to think I would've been a 1:03, which would've been my fastest in-season time since Zones in 2013. So frustrating!
25 fly
Haha, this one was hilariously bad. I had really good reaction time off the block, but I entered the water a bit too deep and ended up completely misjudging how close I was to the surface for my breakout. Thought I had one more kick to get to the surface...and ended up coming to the surface still in full streamline. Oops. Lost most of my momentum on the non-existent *breakout* and couldn't make up for it. I went a 12.76, almost a half second slower than last year.
25 back
Didn't have any problems with slipping on the start, I just had a very anemic push (quads started hurting again), and then had problems getting any sort of speed with my dolphin kicks. Conversely, once I got to the surface, I actually felt like I had a good turnover. I went a 15.22, which is .6 slower than last year.
25 breast
This was the first time I'd done a full lap of breaststroke since screwing up my left knee last winter. Felt fine till the last two strokes, when my knee started to twinge. I went a 12.91, .3 slower than last year.
25 free
This time I went too shallow on the start (after a quad induced anemic start), and only got 4 dolphin kicks before surfacing, vs the 7-8 I normally do off the start on free races. Managed to hit the lane rope with my left hand, too, which was awesome. I went a 12.76, which was almost .5 off my time from last year.
All in all, I enjoyed the meet! Besides not being able to sprint backstroke and the unfortunate quad cramping issue, I'd say it was a pretty successful outing. I'm quite happy with my 100 free and the first 75 of my 100 fly. Good to know that even with no speed training and a less-than-ideal aerobic base, I've still got decent speed...at least in a 75 of fly... And the 100 free was a very pleasant surprise, so who knows, I might actually be able to do some free events this year and not make a complete fool of myself.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Training plan for the 2014-2015 season
After a more or less disappointing Nationals meet last weekend (disappointing solely due to myself), I'm re-energized and ready to hit the pool hard for the fall and spring. As mentioned...uh, several times...in the previous post, I do not like long course. More to the point, though, I don't like swimming outdoors at the pools we train at during the summer. Half of them don't have flags or clocks, and some have cruddy lighting, so swimming in the evening is an exercise in futility. I'm an indoor swimmer through and through. Give me flags, a clock, and no worry of storms or losing my place in the lane, and I'm happy.
With all that in mind, I'm pretty pumped for Nationals in the spring. It's going to be in May at a brand new facility, presumably state of the art facility in San Antonio. The competition pool is an outdoor 50m pool, with the pool split into two 10 lane 25y courses (there's another, older, 50m pool and a 25y diving well inside). While it's outdoors, the lighting and signage should be just fine. I'll have to get used to swimming with mirrored goggles prior to then, though. On top of all that, there's an outside chance we can convince Alaina to go, so I'm going to try my best to get in tip top shape and drag her with me! :-D
I want to focus on two events this training cycle, the 200 fly and 200 back. As I've seen over the last two years, I can't seem to be able to find that top gear in my sprint backstroke, and to a slightly lesser degree the same for butterfly, so I'll focus on the events that don't rely on that top gear.
Training for those two 200s will also take care of their respective 100s, so I'm just going to focus on the longer distances. Successfully training to improve in those events will require significantly different training than I've done over the past 3 years. In the past, I've trained just doing Masters practices, and while they work well for general conditioning, they are really pretty terrible for competition training. Our practices are generally written for the lowest common denominator, so there isn't much competition focused training. This time around, I'm going to try and get in a good amount of competition focused training. Here's how I am currently planning to have my training schedule break down each week:
I have three key focuses with this training plan:
Also, one final point--I'm planning to compete in as many Masters and age group meets as I can. All the training in the world means nothing if you can't put it into play when it counts, so I intend to race as much as possible in order to get used to putting it all on the line.
If all this training plays off, here are my goal times for San Antonio:
I don't know what the other two events I'll swim at San Antonio will be, but I fully intend to swim these four and try to hit these times.
***********************
Outside the pool, I'm going to focus on three things, too.
Yep, I know I've set some pretty darn lofty goals, but I'm hoping I'll have enough motivation from friends and Alaina to push me to hold my goals!
With all that in mind, I'm pretty pumped for Nationals in the spring. It's going to be in May at a brand new facility, presumably state of the art facility in San Antonio. The competition pool is an outdoor 50m pool, with the pool split into two 10 lane 25y courses (there's another, older, 50m pool and a 25y diving well inside). While it's outdoors, the lighting and signage should be just fine. I'll have to get used to swimming with mirrored goggles prior to then, though. On top of all that, there's an outside chance we can convince Alaina to go, so I'm going to try my best to get in tip top shape and drag her with me! :-D
I want to focus on two events this training cycle, the 200 fly and 200 back. As I've seen over the last two years, I can't seem to be able to find that top gear in my sprint backstroke, and to a slightly lesser degree the same for butterfly, so I'll focus on the events that don't rely on that top gear.
Training for those two 200s will also take care of their respective 100s, so I'm just going to focus on the longer distances. Successfully training to improve in those events will require significantly different training than I've done over the past 3 years. In the past, I've trained just doing Masters practices, and while they work well for general conditioning, they are really pretty terrible for competition training. Our practices are generally written for the lowest common denominator, so there isn't much competition focused training. This time around, I'm going to try and get in a good amount of competition focused training. Here's how I am currently planning to have my training schedule break down each week:
- Monday: Swim 1 hour short course on my own, focusing on technique and underwaters
- Tuesday: Swim 1.5 hours long course with age group team's senior prep group
- Wednesday: Swim 1 hour short course on my own, focusing on stroke yardage
- Thursday: Swim 1.5 hours long course with age group team's senior prep group
- Friday: Swim 2 hours short course with age group team's senior prep group
- Saturday: Swim 1 hour with Masters team
- Sunday: Rest day
I have three key focuses with this training plan:
- Get my yardage base up high enough that I develop a good back end on my races. Looking at my best races from the past couple of years and comparing them to my best races back in the day, while I can take them out nearly as fast, my back end isn't even remotely close to what it used to be. Building up a high aerobic yardage base with the kids will directly impact my ability to bring races back.
- Underwaters, underwaters, underwaters. I'm comparatively much stronger underwater than I am on the surface in backstroke, and also stronger (albeit to a lesser degree) in butterfly. Especially since I'm focusing on the 200s, that's a lot of underwater time that I can capitalize on if I can improve my underwaters. Every time I swim on my own, I'm going to work on breath control and my underwater dolphin kick. Hopefully by the end of the season I'll see a marked improvement over my current underwaters.
- Racing technique. I know there's something jacked up with my fast fly and back, but I don't have the same problems when I swim at a slower pace. Hopefully I can work with the age group coach to identify what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it.
Also, one final point--I'm planning to compete in as many Masters and age group meets as I can. All the training in the world means nothing if you can't put it into play when it counts, so I intend to race as much as possible in order to get used to putting it all on the line.
If all this training plays off, here are my goal times for San Antonio:
|
200 backstroke
|
2:08.50
|
|
100 backstroke
|
58.50
|
|
200 butterfly
|
2:12.50
|
|
100 butterfly
|
58.50
|
I don't know what the other two events I'll swim at San Antonio will be, but I fully intend to swim these four and try to hit these times.
***********************
Outside the pool, I'm going to focus on three things, too.
- Getting stronger. From this past weekend, I can tell my lats and hamstrings aren't very strong. I'm going to add in a dryland program a couple times a week that will include squats/lunges/pushups/ab work/pullups, as well as some medicine ball and resistance cord work. If I can, I'll also join the Golds a block from my office and add in some weight lifting. Even without all that, I'm stronger than I was as a teenager, so hopefully I'll get substantially stronger with that training.
- Flexibility. I'm woefully unflexible right now. When I got my massage at the meet, the massage therapist had to actively push my legs into positions that I used to be able to just swing them into with no assistance. I'm really tight and can't really extend or contract my hips and lower back like I used to. I'll have to add in a stretching routine at least a couple times a week, too.
- Massages. I felt fantastic after the massage at the meet, so I think I'm going to look into getting a sports massage once a month going forward. With the amount of training I plan to do, I can't see this being anything but a good thing.
Yep, I know I've set some pretty darn lofty goals, but I'm hoping I'll have enough motivation from friends and Alaina to push me to hold my goals!
Monday, August 18, 2014
2014 USMS Summer Nationals recap!
Man, I am not a fan of swimming or racing long course!
I never particularly cared for it back in the day, and don't like it now. At least back then I was in good enough shape and had the endurance to swim events without a gazillion walls. I don't have that endurance right now (to be fair, that is totally on me, since I didn't train much this summer), but only swimming one long course practice a week sure doesn't help get you ready to race long course, either.
Nationals was at the University of Maryland at College Park. I haven't swum at this pool before--I've swum multiple meets at UMD Baltimore County, but not at the College Park campus. It's a fantastic facility! Lots of space, good ventilation, deep pool from end to end (many are shallow at one end and deep at the other--while this one was deeper at one end, it was still 8'-9' deep at the "shallow" end), excellent gutters, and just felt fast. The blocks were cruddy, though, but that's the only downside in my experience.
Anyhoo, here's how my Nationals went.
I never particularly cared for it back in the day, and don't like it now. At least back then I was in good enough shape and had the endurance to swim events without a gazillion walls. I don't have that endurance right now (to be fair, that is totally on me, since I didn't train much this summer), but only swimming one long course practice a week sure doesn't help get you ready to race long course, either.
Nationals was at the University of Maryland at College Park. I haven't swum at this pool before--I've swum multiple meets at UMD Baltimore County, but not at the College Park campus. It's a fantastic facility! Lots of space, good ventilation, deep pool from end to end (many are shallow at one end and deep at the other--while this one was deeper at one end, it was still 8'-9' deep at the "shallow" end), excellent gutters, and just felt fast. The blocks were cruddy, though, but that's the only downside in my experience.
Anyhoo, here's how my Nationals went.
Friday
50 back
Ugh. This was not a good swim. I had a good start and almost fantastic underwaters (went a shade too deep and took one dolphin kick more than I had planned for). Once I came up to the surface, I tried to spin my arms at the rate necessary for a dead sprint...and failed miserably. It felt like I could only get them moving at about my 100 turnover pace, which doesn't work at all for a 50. On top of that, my lats started to tighten and cramp up towards the end, which slowed my stroke rate down even further. Sigh. I went a 34.76, which unfortunately was slower than my 34.40 entry time from my only other masters long course meet two years ago. A quite disappointing start to my meet.
Men's 200 free relay
I was the third person on our relay and had a rather slow start. I thought our second guy was going to glide and do the extended stroke into the finish, but he took a short, faster stroke instead, so my timing was off. Not the slowest relay start I've ever done, but still left probably close to half a second on the block. Felt really good for the first 30 meters or so, then had to take a breath. For sprint free, the problem I've had over the last year is that I have a really good rhythm while swimming without breathing, but taking a breath destroys that rhythm and I noticeably slow down while doing so. Ended up taking a total of three breaths in the 50 due to catching more water than air on the second breath, and slowed down correspondingly. I went a 28.87, which is right on my estimated split entry time (I'd estimated a 28.80), but isn't very good in the grand scheme of things. Like in the 50 back, my lats started to lock up in the last 5-10 meters of the race.
I've really gotta figure out how to keep my technique in sprint free. In the 100 and 200, in the few times I've swum them as a masters swimmer, I have no problems keeping my technique when I breathe. But in the 50, with the much higher turnover rate and much lower breathing rate, it totally jacks my stroke up when I take a breath. I'm going to experiment with galloping over the upcoming fall/spring season and see if I can figure out how to sprint at top speed using that technique. I've played around with galloping off and on for the past two years, but haven't put any serious effort into it. I've also never galloped at 100% effort before, so while I can breath just fine at 90% effort while galloping, I haven't experimented with that last 10%. Something to think about over the next 9 months.
Saturday
200 back
I felt better during warmup than I had the day before, and it more or less carried through to this event. I asked Chris (our on deck coach for the day) how I should pace the 200, go all out and try to hang on, or take it out long and strong and build the back half. He said to follow the latter strategy, so that's what I did. I felt long and relaxed for the first 150, but going into the last turn, I felt like I had too much energy left. I upped the pace on the last 50, and felt really good till my lats yet again locked up in the last 15 meters. Not looking at the speed, just *how* I split the race, I swam it quite well: 40.07, 43.55, 44.84, 42.52, for a 2:50.98. My time from 2 years ago was a 2:57.67, so I'll definitely take the almost 6 second time drop! That said, I had been hoping to go closer to a 2:45. I suppose I might have been able to lop a second or two off the first three 50s, but I don't know if that would have caused the lat cramping to start even earlier than it did.
Mixed 200 medley relay
I swam the 50 back leg on our relay. I was tired after the 200 back and just didn't have much gas in the tank, not to mention the whole lat cramping issue, which cropped up again on this race. Went a 35.49. It was just an icky swim.
Sunday
Men's 200 medley relay
I swam the fly leg on this relay. It felt really, really good! I kept it long and relaxed at about 85% effort. I knew there was enough of a gap between us and the relay ahead of us that there'd be no point in me sprinting it, so decided to just relax and enjoy myself. It was the best my fly has felt all year. Again, I had a slowish relay start (same guy that I went off of on the free relay also swam breast on this relay, and did another short stroke into the finish, messing up my timing), but I had a good entry, underwater, and then good swim. I went a 32.55, which is right around what I had hoped for. Even better, my lats felt fine!
100 back
Eh, this wasn't a terrible swim, but the last 15 meters were painful. While I didn't have any problems with my lats on the relay, they started to tighten up at the turn and had completely locked up by the 85m mark. Looking at how I split it, it wasn't a terribly paced swim at 37.03 and 39.59, for 1:16.62. On a plus note, I dropped exactly 2 seconds from my time from two years ago. I was definitely starting to run out of steam at this point in the meet--I'd estimate it felt like I was running at about 80% energy.
50 fly
This was my last swim of the meet and felt like my worst one. Like with sprint freestyle, I have problems conveying my good technique from 90% effort to 100% effort. My stroke felt choppy and a little bit off, and the ever present lat cramping monster reared its head at about the 40m mark. I could barely push my arms forward at the end, my lats were so tight. Blegh. I went a 32.02, just marginally faster than on the relay. It was faster than the 32.50 I went two years ago, though, so I suppose that's a good thing.
****************
After I finished swimming on Sunday, I got a massage--they have on deck massage therapists at the national championship meets, and man, are they worth the money! I got a 30 minute massage and had the lady focus on my upper back, lats, and hamstrings. She said my upper back was insanely knotted up, and likewise with my lats. While my hamstrings weren't quite as bad, she did say that my hip flexors are really stiff. She recommended, due to my proposed level of training in the fall and spring, that I get a sports massage at least once a month, as well as starting a comprehensive stretching routine. I got a referral to a sports massage place in Alexandria, so I'll check them out in the next few weeks.
****************
All in all, it was an ok meet. I didn't swim very well compared to my in shape times, but for the most part I swam better than I expected, coming off my off and on knee injury and lack of conditioning. I'll take it!
Monday, June 23, 2014
Kia Cadenza test drive review
I test drove the Kia Cadenza this past Saturday. For the most part, I liked it. Like the Avalon and Azera, it's a step down from the Genesis, so I'm going to directly compare it to the first two rather than the Genesis.
It's got a decent looking exterior, although I prefer the Avalon and Azera exteriors. As far as the interior goes, I like it better than the Avalon's. The console is much more logically laid out in my opinion, and doesn't look nearly as funky--looks quite classy. Plenty of storage space, although the cupholders are the non-adjustable kind. Very comfy seats, although I'd have to play around some more with the adjustments, since the seating position felt just a little bit off and I wasn't able to fix that in the 10 seconds I spent fiddling with the seat. Good visibility all the way around, although there is a blind spot off the front right of the car, with the pillar and side mirror blocking a fairly large swathe of scenery. Plenty of room front and back--even with the front seat pushed all the way back, I had at least 3-4 inches of knee room sitting in the back.
Under way, I was a little bit disappointed. The engine seems very revvy, and didn't have as much insulation as the Avalon. There was also a tad bit more wind noise at speed, although it's well within my tolerance level. Along with being revvy, the engine shifted gears a lot, and though it didn't cause any jerkiness or anything like that, it is kind of odd to hear the engine change pitch that much in a near-luxury car. I could definitely get used to it, but it just struck me as odd and a bit out of place. Acceleration was good and the ride was smooth enough for my liking. It would make a good highway cruiser, as well as being quite tolerable when sitting in the 395/495 parking lot going to and from work. Nice level of amenities inside: upgraded stereo, cooled seats, panoramic sunroof, etc. Only nitpick there is that the nav's street/guidance display looked very similar to nav displays I've seen in ~2009 era cars, not nearly as "new" as the other cars I've looked at.
All in all, it was ok. I'd rank it a bit above the Avalon in everything about the interior, but slight demerits for the nav display, wind/engine noise, and exterior styling. I think that puts it about tied with the Avalon, but definitely a step below the Genesis.
It's got a decent looking exterior, although I prefer the Avalon and Azera exteriors. As far as the interior goes, I like it better than the Avalon's. The console is much more logically laid out in my opinion, and doesn't look nearly as funky--looks quite classy. Plenty of storage space, although the cupholders are the non-adjustable kind. Very comfy seats, although I'd have to play around some more with the adjustments, since the seating position felt just a little bit off and I wasn't able to fix that in the 10 seconds I spent fiddling with the seat. Good visibility all the way around, although there is a blind spot off the front right of the car, with the pillar and side mirror blocking a fairly large swathe of scenery. Plenty of room front and back--even with the front seat pushed all the way back, I had at least 3-4 inches of knee room sitting in the back.
Under way, I was a little bit disappointed. The engine seems very revvy, and didn't have as much insulation as the Avalon. There was also a tad bit more wind noise at speed, although it's well within my tolerance level. Along with being revvy, the engine shifted gears a lot, and though it didn't cause any jerkiness or anything like that, it is kind of odd to hear the engine change pitch that much in a near-luxury car. I could definitely get used to it, but it just struck me as odd and a bit out of place. Acceleration was good and the ride was smooth enough for my liking. It would make a good highway cruiser, as well as being quite tolerable when sitting in the 395/495 parking lot going to and from work. Nice level of amenities inside: upgraded stereo, cooled seats, panoramic sunroof, etc. Only nitpick there is that the nav's street/guidance display looked very similar to nav displays I've seen in ~2009 era cars, not nearly as "new" as the other cars I've looked at.
All in all, it was ok. I'd rank it a bit above the Avalon in everything about the interior, but slight demerits for the nav display, wind/engine noise, and exterior styling. I think that puts it about tied with the Avalon, but definitely a step below the Genesis.
Monday, June 9, 2014
First round of large sedan test drives - Toyota Avalon and Hyundai Genesis
I've test driven half of the cars on my large sedan test list, the 2014 Toyota Avalon and 2015 Hyundai Genesis. I test drove the Avalon two weekends ago and drove the Genesis this past weekend. My plan is to do the Hyundai Azera and Kia Cadenza next weekend. Here are my thoughts on them.
I'll do a blog post after each round of test drives with my impressions of the vehicles.
2014 Toyota Avalon
For the most part, I liked it. It's a bit longer and wider than my 2000 Avalon, but didn't feel quite as big while driving (felt more like a mid size car). The engine is more powerful than the old Avalon (268 hp vs 210 hp) and accelerates quite a bit faster (6.4 seconds to 60 vs 8.7 in the old one). It also gets better gas mileage, at 21/31, vs the old Avalon's 19/27. Quite comfortable ride--the suspension soaked up all the minor imperfections of the road, and I was directly able to compare the ride in the Avalon, Mabel (1998 Corolla), Harvey (Meggie's new Mazda 3), and Alaina's 2007 Corolla over the same route--big bumps are a bit harsh, but anything smaller than that is smoothed over. Especially on the highway, it takes a lot of the vibration out of the road. There's not much road noise at all, but there is a bit of wind noise around the mirrors. The interior feels upscale, although the nav/dashboard control thingy would take some getting used to. Nice level of amenities--leather, heated and cooled seats, sunroof, upgraded sound system, nav, etc. The car felt effortless under all types of driving--I did city driving and then a loop on the highway--no strain or unevenness when accelerating, cruising, or doing stop and go. The seats are quite comfy and there's a ton of leg and hip room, front and back, although there's zero side bolstering on the seats, so I slid around when I went around a full curve. The car also has a massive trunk. Very good visibility all the way around--that's something I'm very leery about, as when I drove Harvey a few weeks ago, I noticed that the high and angled belt line results in limited rear visibility; not a problem with the Avalon.
The only downsides that I noticed are pretty minor. The two cupholders in the center console are small and don't have the adjustable prongs on the inside. The sunroof is just a single sunroof, while the other large sedans on my list (Kia Cadenza, Hyundai Azera, and Hyundai Genesis) all have panoramic sunroofs. I looooooove panoramic roofs, so that's a ding against the Avalon.
Overall, I liked it. I'd give it a solid A and will keep it on my list to review again later on in the search process.
2015 Hyundai Genesis
I liked it, I really liked it. I think the exterior looks the best of any of the large sedans on my list, hands down (on a side note, I think the ranking then goes Avalon>Azera>Cadenza). Hyundai used the 2015 redesign to take the Genesis further upmarket, and it shows. It looks and feels very nice on the inside, a full tier above the Avalon. There is quite a bit of room front and back, and the seats are fantastic, with plenty of padding in all the right places and good bolstering on the sides--I didn't have the sliding problem going around curves that I did with the Avalon. It has a more staid console design than the Avalon, which is just fine with me. The controls seemed to be in logical places for the most part, which I was looking for after the Avalon test drive when I had to hunt for some of the controls. Even higher level of amenities than the Avalon--along with the heated/cooled seats and nav, the leather seemed higher quality and the sound system sounded better (not a knock against the Avalon's sound system, just that this one sounded even better). To top it off...literally...the Genesis has a massive panoramic sunroof, which I LOVE. In terms of functional storage space, there is plenty of storage space up front, and one of the two cup holders in the console is larger, while the smaller one has the adjustable prongs on the inside. That's a step up from the Avalon, which had two small ones. It also has a huge trunk (slightly smaller than the Avalon's, though).
As far as driving goes, I was very impressed. The car is QUIET. Very good soundproofing all around--we were stopped at a stop light and a maintenance crew was using weed eaters on the median next to the car and it was just a minor background noise, not distracting at all. No wind or road noise, which is an improvement on the Avalon, which had some wind noise. The car is very poised, steering without any drama and its suspension soaks up all the bumps we drove over. The acceleration was quite good, both in town and on the highway--it effortlessly and quickly accelerated from about 20-70 on the on ramp to the highway.
I originally wanted to look at the AWD version of the Genesis, but it gets terrible gas mileage, at 16/25. The RWD I drove gets better mileage at 19/29. The Avalon's 21/31 is better, but 19/29 is acceptable (my only standard for fuel economy is that it must be better than my old Avalon's 19/27). Given that the Genesis has 311 hp and ~4100 pounds vs the Avalon's 268 hp and ~3500 pounds, the gas mileage difference is understandable.
I'd give the Genesis an A+.
Verdict
Not having to worry about price, I'd take the Genesis over the Avalon. I think the looks, performance, and features are better than the Avalon's, though it's not a slam dunk by any means. However, more or less optioned the same, the Genesis is about $4000 more than the Avalon. If I lease, it should still be in my budget, but purchasing would knock the Genesis out of my range, since purchasing runs about $100-200 more a month than leasing does.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Round 2, fight!
Whelp, here I go again.
2 years ago, in the spring of 2012, I was car shopping. At that time, I was still driving my 2000 Avalon, and it needed about $2500 of work done ASAP and another $3300 of work done soonish. Rather than sink in that kind of money, I decided to get rid of the car and buy or lease a new one. I ended up leasing a loaded 2012 Kia Sorento, which I loved. I had it for three months and then took it in to have a check engine light checked out, and was told that they needed to replace a part in the engine...and it ended up staying in the shop for over a month while they waited for the seemingly endlessly backordered part.
I got no rental assistance from the dealership and had to continue making my monthly payments, too. After being about $1200 in the hole (car payment plus rental fees for about 6 weeks) during the time the vehicle was in the shop and not being to drive my own car, I turned it back in under the Virginia lemon law. For the two years since then, I've utilized a combination of rental cars and Mabel, Meggie's 1998 Toyota Corolla, to get myself from point A to point B.
I bought Mabel from Meggie for $900 (which was probably too much, but that's neither here nor there) this spring, and am not planning to hold onto Mabel past this summer. Too much work needs to be done for too much money to make it worth holding onto. With the amount of money I've spent over the last two years on rentals and buying/leasing two cars, I should have just kept onto my Avalon, spent the money on the necessary repairs, and would have come out ahead.
Anyhoo, all that aside, I'm now on the market for a car. I pay off the first of my college era loans in August, so I'm planning to roll that $450 monthly payment straight over to a car payment without it impacting my current budget. On top of that, I'm in significantly better financial straits than I was in 2012, with a higher salary and about an extra $500-600 a month from my two coaching jobs, neither of which I had then. All that leads to my monthly price range of up to $1000 a month that I can afford without negatively impacting my savings/bills/fun money allocations.
I don't want to spend anywhere near that much a month, but it is nice to have the income to give me that flexibility. My goal payment is anything under $700 a month, which would result in a monthly payment of no more than $250 more than what I pay now.
With all that in mind, here are the cars I'm currently considering and planning to test drive over the course of the summer before making the purchase/lease in August or September. My requirements are an upscale interior (minimum of leather and a sunroof) and enough room to fit 4 people and gear for carpooling to meets and concerts; I'm fine with a smaller car, as long as folks would be able to sit in the back for at least an hour without too much discomfort. The car must also have good performance and at least decent gas mileage. Good visibility is also a must, as is a good sound system. Besides that, I'm pretty much open.
Large sedans
I'm planning to knock out at least the Azera and Genesis this weekend. Won't be able to check the Sonata till later this summer, and plan to hit up the Santa Fe on the same day I check out the Q5.
Gonna be a lot of fun!
2 years ago, in the spring of 2012, I was car shopping. At that time, I was still driving my 2000 Avalon, and it needed about $2500 of work done ASAP and another $3300 of work done soonish. Rather than sink in that kind of money, I decided to get rid of the car and buy or lease a new one. I ended up leasing a loaded 2012 Kia Sorento, which I loved. I had it for three months and then took it in to have a check engine light checked out, and was told that they needed to replace a part in the engine...and it ended up staying in the shop for over a month while they waited for the seemingly endlessly backordered part.
I got no rental assistance from the dealership and had to continue making my monthly payments, too. After being about $1200 in the hole (car payment plus rental fees for about 6 weeks) during the time the vehicle was in the shop and not being to drive my own car, I turned it back in under the Virginia lemon law. For the two years since then, I've utilized a combination of rental cars and Mabel, Meggie's 1998 Toyota Corolla, to get myself from point A to point B.
I bought Mabel from Meggie for $900 (which was probably too much, but that's neither here nor there) this spring, and am not planning to hold onto Mabel past this summer. Too much work needs to be done for too much money to make it worth holding onto. With the amount of money I've spent over the last two years on rentals and buying/leasing two cars, I should have just kept onto my Avalon, spent the money on the necessary repairs, and would have come out ahead.
Anyhoo, all that aside, I'm now on the market for a car. I pay off the first of my college era loans in August, so I'm planning to roll that $450 monthly payment straight over to a car payment without it impacting my current budget. On top of that, I'm in significantly better financial straits than I was in 2012, with a higher salary and about an extra $500-600 a month from my two coaching jobs, neither of which I had then. All that leads to my monthly price range of up to $1000 a month that I can afford without negatively impacting my savings/bills/fun money allocations.
I don't want to spend anywhere near that much a month, but it is nice to have the income to give me that flexibility. My goal payment is anything under $700 a month, which would result in a monthly payment of no more than $250 more than what I pay now.
With all that in mind, here are the cars I'm currently considering and planning to test drive over the course of the summer before making the purchase/lease in August or September. My requirements are an upscale interior (minimum of leather and a sunroof) and enough room to fit 4 people and gear for carpooling to meets and concerts; I'm fine with a smaller car, as long as folks would be able to sit in the back for at least an hour without too much discomfort. The car must also have good performance and at least decent gas mileage. Good visibility is also a must, as is a good sound system. Besides that, I'm pretty much open.
Large sedans
- Hyundai Azera
- Hyundai Genesis (redesigned 2015 model)
- Kia Cadenza
- Toyota Avalon
- Hyundai Sonata (redesigned 2015 model, should hit dealers soon)
- Kia Optima
- VW Passat TDI
- Audi A3
- Audi Q5 TDI
- Hyundai Santa Fe Sport
I'm planning to knock out at least the Azera and Genesis this weekend. Won't be able to check the Sonata till later this summer, and plan to hit up the Santa Fe on the same day I check out the Q5.
Gonna be a lot of fun!
Monday, April 7, 2014
Zooooooooooones!!
Ok, I might have overreacted a little bit with this blog post title...
This past weekend was the Zone Championship swim meet. If this were the past two years, it'd be my local untapered champ meet, with Nationals following several weeks later. Alas, work conspired against me and this became my sole championship meet of the short course season. On top of that, I hurt my left knee three weeks ago, so I went into the meet with rather low expectations. The cherry on top of my crap sundae going into the meet was that not only did I have low expectations (I planned to only swim at ~90% effort), but due to the knee issue and wanting to not destroy it, I had to scratch the 200 fly, 200 back, and 100 IM. The doc said no breast at all, and since turns are where my knee hurts the most, I didn't want to put the stress of 7 turns of the most dolphin kick intensive strokes on my knee.
Anyhoo, here's how my meet went down.
Mixed 400 free relay
Not too bad! This was my first event of the meet and I actually felt pretty good. I kept it at about 90% effort and tried to not put too much torque on my knee, with limited success--slightly twisted it on the last turn and it hurt doing the few dolphin kicks before I switched to flutter kick. With a relay start, I was a 57.79. If I'd gone all out, probably would have been a 56 and change. Not great, but I'm decidedly not a sprint freestyler, so I'll take it!
Mixed 200 medley relay
I was the fly leg on this relay and wanted to play it safe. My knee still felt a bit wonky after tweaking it on the previous relay, so I only swam at about 85% effort...and still managed to further tweak it on the turn when my left foot twisted a bit on the bulkhead. Go figure. With fly kick hurting for the next 10 yards or so, I went a 27.82. Meh. That's about 1.75 seconds off where I should be right now when I'm at 100%. When I'm fully in shape and at 100%, I should be able to split a mid/high 25 with a relay start, but for now 100% would be a low 26.
100 back
Ugh. This one hurt--I over extended my knee on the start, and then further tweaked it on the second and third turns. By the third turn, it hurt enough to make me drop from my normal 5-9 dolphin kicks off the wall to 2 dolphin kicks before switching to flutter kick. Given that the overwhelming majority of my speed in back comes from the underwater dolphin kicks (usually 14 off the start, 11 off the first turn, 9 off the second, and 7 or so off the third turn), having to cut them down takes a lot of my speed away. I went a 1:05.15. Could have been worse, but could have been much better, too. Oh well. In my current shape (without knee issues), 100% would probably have been around a 1:03 low. After this swim I took a handful of ibuprofen, which helped for the remainder of the day.
50 fly
I was hurting by this point. I had no turnover with my arms and my knee hurt off the block, though it was fine for the rest of the race. 28.91, which is by far the slowest I've been this season. Yuck. Just a bad swim all around.
Men's 800 free relay
Bizarrely enough, this was actually one of my better swims of the Saturday session! Not in time, but how it felt and how pain-free it was. When I swam this relay at Zones last year, I had an epic melt down and went from taking it out in a 59, if I recall correctly, to bringing it back in a 1:12. This time around, we put together a less competitive relay (only one of us was capable of a sub 2:00 swim, whereas last year I was the only one who wasn't capable of it). I didn't feel the pressure I did last time to swim hard, so I took it out at about 80% effort and just cruised till the last 50, when I saw a guy two lanes over who had half a body length lead on me and tried to run him down. I failed in running him down, but at least he didn't lengthen his lead! My splits this time around were out in a 1:05 and back in a 1:10. Better yet, I didn't fall apart and had no knee pain!
Men's 400 medley relay
This was two heats after the 800 free relay...and I was running on fumes. Although my 200 free hadn't been near 100% effort, it still took a lot out of me, so I was only running on about 40% energy by this point. Tried to get the arm spin going on the first 25 and failed miserably (plus, I had no legs at this point), so I decided to switch tactics and go for a slower turnover with maximum power per pull. Well, that's what I tried to do, anyways... I just flat out didn't have any steam for this swim, and the 1:08.35 I went aptly illustrates that point. I had been hoping for around a 1:06, so this was understandable, but still kinda disappointing.
Men's 200 free relay
I wasn't supposed to swim on this relay, but while I was dog tired after my 100 back on the 400 medley relay (which was just about 5 minutes before the 200 free relay), I very bizarrely felt pumped up to swim a 50 free. I swapped out with the anchor of our relay and swam in his place. I had what felt like a really good start and felt fantastic for the first 25, but at the turn I couldn't see anyone (we were in lane 1 and everyone but lane 2 at least a full 25 ahead of us by the time I went), so I pulled it back a bit but still gave it enough gas to beat lane 2. Went a 26.73, which, honestly, is substantially faster than I thought I could go at that point.
This past weekend was the Zone Championship swim meet. If this were the past two years, it'd be my local untapered champ meet, with Nationals following several weeks later. Alas, work conspired against me and this became my sole championship meet of the short course season. On top of that, I hurt my left knee three weeks ago, so I went into the meet with rather low expectations. The cherry on top of my crap sundae going into the meet was that not only did I have low expectations (I planned to only swim at ~90% effort), but due to the knee issue and wanting to not destroy it, I had to scratch the 200 fly, 200 back, and 100 IM. The doc said no breast at all, and since turns are where my knee hurts the most, I didn't want to put the stress of 7 turns of the most dolphin kick intensive strokes on my knee.
Anyhoo, here's how my meet went down.
Saturday
Mixed 400 free relay
Not too bad! This was my first event of the meet and I actually felt pretty good. I kept it at about 90% effort and tried to not put too much torque on my knee, with limited success--slightly twisted it on the last turn and it hurt doing the few dolphin kicks before I switched to flutter kick. With a relay start, I was a 57.79. If I'd gone all out, probably would have been a 56 and change. Not great, but I'm decidedly not a sprint freestyler, so I'll take it!
Mixed 200 medley relay
I was the fly leg on this relay and wanted to play it safe. My knee still felt a bit wonky after tweaking it on the previous relay, so I only swam at about 85% effort...and still managed to further tweak it on the turn when my left foot twisted a bit on the bulkhead. Go figure. With fly kick hurting for the next 10 yards or so, I went a 27.82. Meh. That's about 1.75 seconds off where I should be right now when I'm at 100%. When I'm fully in shape and at 100%, I should be able to split a mid/high 25 with a relay start, but for now 100% would be a low 26.
100 back
Ugh. This one hurt--I over extended my knee on the start, and then further tweaked it on the second and third turns. By the third turn, it hurt enough to make me drop from my normal 5-9 dolphin kicks off the wall to 2 dolphin kicks before switching to flutter kick. Given that the overwhelming majority of my speed in back comes from the underwater dolphin kicks (usually 14 off the start, 11 off the first turn, 9 off the second, and 7 or so off the third turn), having to cut them down takes a lot of my speed away. I went a 1:05.15. Could have been worse, but could have been much better, too. Oh well. In my current shape (without knee issues), 100% would probably have been around a 1:03 low. After this swim I took a handful of ibuprofen, which helped for the remainder of the day.
50 fly
I was hurting by this point. I had no turnover with my arms and my knee hurt off the block, though it was fine for the rest of the race. 28.91, which is by far the slowest I've been this season. Yuck. Just a bad swim all around.
Men's 800 free relay
Bizarrely enough, this was actually one of my better swims of the Saturday session! Not in time, but how it felt and how pain-free it was. When I swam this relay at Zones last year, I had an epic melt down and went from taking it out in a 59, if I recall correctly, to bringing it back in a 1:12. This time around, we put together a less competitive relay (only one of us was capable of a sub 2:00 swim, whereas last year I was the only one who wasn't capable of it). I didn't feel the pressure I did last time to swim hard, so I took it out at about 80% effort and just cruised till the last 50, when I saw a guy two lanes over who had half a body length lead on me and tried to run him down. I failed in running him down, but at least he didn't lengthen his lead! My splits this time around were out in a 1:05 and back in a 1:10. Better yet, I didn't fall apart and had no knee pain!
Men's 400 medley relay
This was two heats after the 800 free relay...and I was running on fumes. Although my 200 free hadn't been near 100% effort, it still took a lot out of me, so I was only running on about 40% energy by this point. Tried to get the arm spin going on the first 25 and failed miserably (plus, I had no legs at this point), so I decided to switch tactics and go for a slower turnover with maximum power per pull. Well, that's what I tried to do, anyways... I just flat out didn't have any steam for this swim, and the 1:08.35 I went aptly illustrates that point. I had been hoping for around a 1:06, so this was understandable, but still kinda disappointing.
Men's 200 free relay
I wasn't supposed to swim on this relay, but while I was dog tired after my 100 back on the 400 medley relay (which was just about 5 minutes before the 200 free relay), I very bizarrely felt pumped up to swim a 50 free. I swapped out with the anchor of our relay and swam in his place. I had what felt like a really good start and felt fantastic for the first 25, but at the turn I couldn't see anyone (we were in lane 1 and everyone but lane 2 at least a full 25 ahead of us by the time I went), so I pulled it back a bit but still gave it enough gas to beat lane 2. Went a 26.73, which, honestly, is substantially faster than I thought I could go at that point.
Sunday
Mixed 800 free relay
In warmup, my back was all knotted up and sore, and free was the only thing that didn't hurt. Given that, and also given my surprisingly not sucky (relatively speaking) free performances on Saturday, I decided to see what I could do on the relay by actually trying...or at least trying more than I did the day before. I had a fantastic start and took it out markedly faster than I did the day before, but took it down a notch at the 100 and then held it through the finish. Went a 2:10, going out in a 1:02 and coming back in a 1:08. While that time is absolutely nothing to write home about, it actually felt really good, all things considered. I still only swam it at about 90% effort, so I'd like to think I might have had a 2:05 in me if I'd really pushed it. Honestly, it is quite surprising for me! I don't train for free in the slightest, don't care about it, don't like swimming it in practice, but apparently can sorta race it (that is, "race" it by my loooooow standards). Very peculiar.
Mixed 400 medley relay
I had enough time to do a 200 easy in the warmdown pool after the previous relay before we were up for this one. For whatever reason, I was the freestyler on this relay, which NEVER happens. I can't even remember the last time I swam free on a medley relay prior to this. Anyhoo, my lats and triceps were completely locked up from my 200 free, so it's a good thing I wasn't doing fly or back, since those kill my triceps and lats on a good day! I had an ok start (slow reaction time and went too deep, but had good distance in the air), but the 200 hit me at about the 35 yard mark. I faded pretty darn hard but managed to scrape out 59.88. With how much I was hurting going into the swim, I had considered it a good race if I broke a minute, so there's that.
Mixed 200 free relay
I wanted to see how I'd do in this when I was actually swimming it for real, unlike on the 200 free relay on Saturday. Except for a really slow start (I was going off someone I've never gone off before and didn't know her stroke count, and thus left at least .5 on the block) and a slightly too long turn, it was a fantastic race. Great distance through the air, entered at the right angle, and got up and moving after a good amount of dolphin kicks. It felt really, really good, even better than my swim on the 200 free relay at Nationals last year, and that's with me not doing a very big flutter kick in an attempt to not put too much strain on my knee. I went a 25.53, which is my best non-Indy Nats time. With a faster start and bigger/stronger flutter kick, I'd like to think I'd have been sub-25. I don't know where the hell this swim came from, because although in the grand scheme of sprint freestyle, it's a pokey time, it's my second fastest Masters 50 free time, with my fastest being with me shaved down, in shape, uninjured, and wearing a much better suit. I'll definitely take it, but I don't know where it came from!
50 back
I was a deck seed for this event--long story short, my registration for this event got messed up and I was entered with a NT instead as a deck entry. This was right after the 200 free relay--I literally had managed to walk from our relay's lane to the bleachers where we were sitting, not even to the warmdown pool, just to the bleachers...and then got called back for the 50 back. From the 800 free relay to this point, probably only 15 minutes had elapsed, with me only having done about a total of a 250 warmdown between the four events. I got stuck in heat 1 with the septuagenarians and octogenarians. My legs were gone, I was still out of breath, my upper body was nonexistent, and I felt like I was running on about 10% energy. I had a very weak start, good underwater...and then completely ran out of gas once on the surface. Went a 32.82, which is surprisingly not godawful, but definitely wasn't a good time for me. Without the back to back to back relays right before this swim, I would have liked to have been around a 30 flat. On a good note, my knee didn't hurt on any of these first four swims!
100 fly
I was completely spent by this point! I felt very sluggish while warming up for this race (it was about 2 hours after the 50 back) and had a hard time getting my arms out of the water--my back and shoulders were very tight and sore, and everything just felt incredibly weak. I had a good dive and felt good for the first, oh, 15 yards of the race. I could already feel myself tightening up at the 25, and my breakout on the second lap hurt. It just went downhill from there, with the 4th 25 feeling about the same as the last 25 of the 200 fly. Not a good feeling at all, but I managed to scrape by with a not completely abysmal 1:06.18. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with that time, all things considered. Last year at Zones I'd gone a 1:04 and change, if memory serves, and I was in much better shape then, and without a bum knee.
*************************
All things considered, it was an ok meet. I think freestyle was actually my best stroke of the meet, which is not usual at all! My 50 free on Sunday's 200 free relay, especially, was the highlight of the meet for me. I'm not in a rush to go start training for free instead of fly and back, but I'm going to think about maybe entering the free events more often at meets. With my knee feeling as bad as it did on Saturday, I think I swam fairly well. In conclusion, not too bad of a meet, but not the best I've had by a long shot.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Thoughts and ruminations on the DC Auto Show - 1/25
First off, this post has absolutely nothing to do with swimming or working out. It's focused solely on cars, and more to the point, the cars I saw at the DC Auto Show on 1/25.
I'm getting a new car this summer. Since turning my Kia Sorento back in to the dealership in July 2012 as a lemon (the dealership couldn't get a part it needed, so they had it for almost a month and a half and wouldn't give me a loaner or help pay for a rental, which resulted in me cutting my losses and turning in the keys as a lemon), I've been renting cars and sharing Mabel (a 1998 Corolla) with my sister, Meggie. Mabel is getting on in years and miles and needs some pretty substantial (ie, expensive) repairs to get her ship-shape. Pretty much the entire suspension needs to be replaced, the AC compressor needs to be replaced, and there are various other odds and ends that need to be replaced/fixed.
Since leasing the Sorento in 2012 (I leased it from March-July, although I only had it in my possession from March through the beginning of June), my income has gone up a good amount, primarily due to coaching, and my expenses have gone down a large amount as various bills and lines of credit have been paid off. Getting to the point, I have approximately 1.75 times the potential budget for car shopping that I did two years ago.
I've long had the goal of getting a compact/mid size SUV. My dream SUV is the Audi Q5, but that was out of my price range in 2012, so I settled for the Sorento, which I thought was the best of the rest. My original plan was to get the Q5 this summer/fall, but I've decided to hold off on that for a couple of years. Audi is supposed to redesign the Q5 for the 2016 model year (should be out in the summer of 2015), so I'm intrigued to see what the redesign will look like. I understand it is going to lose a substantial amount of weight, so since I'm primarily interested in the diesel model, I want to see what the more svelte version of the Q5 will be like. So, since it's not being redesigned for another year, and it's switching to a new factory at the same time, I've decided to wait at least till the 2017 or 2018 model years to let them work out any manufacturing kinks due to a new design and new factory.
Thus, I'm looking for a car to tide me over till then. Enter the DC auto show. I used it to take a look at, and tried to sit in, the various cars that I'd researched. As far as what type of vehicle I'd researched, I'm interested primarily in sedans this time around, although I'm open to an SUV. Here are the main criteria I am looking for in a car, in no particular order:
I'm getting a new car this summer. Since turning my Kia Sorento back in to the dealership in July 2012 as a lemon (the dealership couldn't get a part it needed, so they had it for almost a month and a half and wouldn't give me a loaner or help pay for a rental, which resulted in me cutting my losses and turning in the keys as a lemon), I've been renting cars and sharing Mabel (a 1998 Corolla) with my sister, Meggie. Mabel is getting on in years and miles and needs some pretty substantial (ie, expensive) repairs to get her ship-shape. Pretty much the entire suspension needs to be replaced, the AC compressor needs to be replaced, and there are various other odds and ends that need to be replaced/fixed.
Since leasing the Sorento in 2012 (I leased it from March-July, although I only had it in my possession from March through the beginning of June), my income has gone up a good amount, primarily due to coaching, and my expenses have gone down a large amount as various bills and lines of credit have been paid off. Getting to the point, I have approximately 1.75 times the potential budget for car shopping that I did two years ago.
I've long had the goal of getting a compact/mid size SUV. My dream SUV is the Audi Q5, but that was out of my price range in 2012, so I settled for the Sorento, which I thought was the best of the rest. My original plan was to get the Q5 this summer/fall, but I've decided to hold off on that for a couple of years. Audi is supposed to redesign the Q5 for the 2016 model year (should be out in the summer of 2015), so I'm intrigued to see what the redesign will look like. I understand it is going to lose a substantial amount of weight, so since I'm primarily interested in the diesel model, I want to see what the more svelte version of the Q5 will be like. So, since it's not being redesigned for another year, and it's switching to a new factory at the same time, I've decided to wait at least till the 2017 or 2018 model years to let them work out any manufacturing kinks due to a new design and new factory.
Thus, I'm looking for a car to tide me over till then. Enter the DC auto show. I used it to take a look at, and tried to sit in, the various cars that I'd researched. As far as what type of vehicle I'd researched, I'm interested primarily in sedans this time around, although I'm open to an SUV. Here are the main criteria I am looking for in a car, in no particular order:
- The car cannot feel "cheap." It makes zero difference to me if it is inexpensive, but I will not get a car that feels cheap. Inexpensive = good. Cheap = bad.
- There must be suitable room for 4 adults. We carpool a fair amount to local meets, concerts, and the like, so I'd like to be able to drive from time to time without having to rent a car as I do now.
- Tying in with the first criteria, I want a car that feels premium. There are inexpensive cars that do this well and there are expensive cars that do not--as far as I can tell, price really doesn't have anything to do with the premium feel.
- The seats must be comfortable.
- The car must have a good level of amenities: leather (or high quality pleather), nav, upgraded sound system, etc.
- The upgraded sound system must be high quality. I listen to a loooot of music, and I demand good quality.
- It must not feel tiny. I drove a friend's early 2000s Jetta from time to time in Charleston and it felt like a clown car.
- There must be good visibility all around, but especially to the rear half of the field of view.
- There must be good cargo space.
- If possible, it needs to have a sunroof.
- When driving, road and wind noise need to be subdued. Mabel has practically zero insulation, so both abound. Ixnay on that in a new car.
- The ride quality needs to be composed--I'm fine if it's firm or soft, I just don't want it to be all over the place like Mabel's terrible ride quality.
- Engine performance is key--I don't need to be able to go 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, but it needs to take less than a minute and a half to get to 60. And it needs to be able to do that with decent fuel economy. Around here, driving is about 60-70% city, 30-40% highway. Mabel has only been getting an average of about 25 mpg, and the engine does not have the oomph to be reassuring when accelerating.
- Ingress and egress has to be easy--the driver's seat in Mabel is really low to the ground and I nearly always jam my leg into the steering wheel when climbing in, so I want a car that doesn't involve me experimenting with contortionism to get in and out.
Hatchbacks
- Kia Forte5: I liked it a lot. It's the Kia version of the Elantra GT, and I prefer the Forte5. Nice quality interior with a fair amount of front and back seat room. Comfy seats and nice level of amenities when loaded up. Decent sized cargo area, although it didn't overwhelm me. Good visibility out the sides and with the side mirrors, but the rear window isn't very tall. I'd have to see how the rear visibility is while driving. Comfy seats, too. Fully loaded it's about $25k. I'd give it a solid A.
- Hyundai Elantra GT: I was kind of disappointed. They only had the bare bones version on display, so I didn't get a chance to see what it's like after this year's redesign--one of the people in my complex has a fully loaded version from a year or two ago and I quite like how it looks, but the base version of the new model is just meh. It didn't feel cheap or anything, just so-so. The seats felt flat in both the front and back, but I believe the higher trim models have different seats; plenty of room front and back. Good visibility out the sides and with the mirrors, but the rear window is a shade smaller than I'd like. Decent sized storage space (seems like it has a bit more than the Forte5). Fully loaded it runs about $24k. I'd give the model I saw a B-. With a higher level of amenities, that will probably improve to an A.
- Mazda 3: I looked at both the sedan and the hatchback. I think the hatchback is gorgeous looking inside and out, while the sedan has a matching interior but only ok exterior. The interior quite impressed me--comfy seats, nice level of amenities, and satisfactory room front and back. It has an ok amount of storage space, but nothing to write home about; didn't get a chance to check out the sedan's trunk. Visibility is good to the side and front, although rear visibility is merely ok out the back; the sedan has slightly better rear visibility in my opinion. A fully loaded hatchback runs around $29k and I believe the sedan runs about $2000 cheaper. I'd give the hatchback a solid A and the sedan an A- due to the exterior styling.
Sedans
- Kia Cadenza: Very nice car. It's a fairly large sedan, but didn't feel gargantuan. Fantastic interior--I liked it a shade more than the Hyundai Azera--feels a touch higher quality, but the layout is a bit better in the Azera, in my opinion. Very high quality in fit and finish, and didn't feel cheap in the slightest. Good visibility all the way around, and excellent visibility with the side mirrors. Decent sized trunk, too. With how I'd option it up, it's at the top of my completely arbitrary price range of $37k. I'd give it an A+.
- Kia Optima: I thought it looked fantastic. I've driven Optimas several times as rentals, but those were bare bones models. They had a fully loaded top of the line model on display, and it was substantially nicer. Excellent interior and amenities, with plenty of room front and back; comfy seats all around. Good side visibility through the windows, but I couldn't check the side mirrors--they were tilted down and I couldn't change them. The rear window is small, though, and the rear view mirror doesn't show a whole heck of a lot. Fully loaded, it goes for about $33k. I'd give it a solid A.
- Hyundai Azera: This is Hyundai's version of the Cadenza. Tons of interior space--it felt like a somewhat bigger car than the Cadenza (haven't looked up its stats to tell if it is in fact longer, but it felt longer) and very comfy seats. I really like Hyundai's dashboard layout, but it felt a small rung below the Cadenza in terms of quality and fit and finish. Nothing to complain about at all, but the Cadenza did feel a touch higher quality inside. Good visibility out the sides and rear, but I could only check the passenger mirror, as the driver mirror wouldn't move and was aimed at the ground. Largeish trunk. It is cheaper than the Cadenza, at about $33.5k. I'd have to test drive it, since it is a pretty big car, and I don't need that much passenger space. I'd give it an A+.
- Mazda 6: Like the Elantra GT, they only had bare bones models on display. I wasn't terribly impressed. Phenomenal looking exterior and enormous trunk (seriously, I could probably lay down lengthwise in it and only have to curl my legs at the knees), but the interior just looked and felt meh; looked and felt nicer in the 3, in my opinion. I was also very disappointed in the seats--the sport bolstering was very narrow at the top of the shoulders and dug in about 1.5 inches in on either side into my shoulder blades. I had to curl my shoulders forward just to get my spine to touch the seat back. I don't know if that would be ameliorated by moving up to a higher trim level, but I would absolutely not be comfortable in those particular seats over an extended period of time. Besides that, though, the seat cushions were comfy and there was plenty of room. Decent visibility all around, too. A fully loaded one goes for about $29.5k. I'd give it a B-, primarily because of the seat bolstering. A higher trim might bump that up to a solid B, but that's as high as it's going to get with that seat bolstering and interior.
- Audi A3: I was very, very impressed with this one, and thought it was the best of the lot. It felt very high quality all around, higher quality that all the other cars on the list, although it wasn't quite as opulent looking as the Cadenza. Excellent dashboard layout and front room, and still plenty of room in the back. The sport seats the demo model had were very comfy, and I didn't have any issues like I did with the Mazda 6. It felt sporty, even more than the Mazda 3, which is probably the "sportiest" car of the bunch. Good sized trunk. Visibility was excellent all around, though people kept opening the trunk when I was in the driver's seat, so I couldn't get a good look out the rear view mirror. A fully loaded, top of the line model runs about $44k. They offer the same model with a smaller engine that runs about $41k. With the discount I get through Deloitte, though, that drops down to about $37k. With a regular sized down payment, I'm under $35k. I'd give this one an A+.
SUV
- Hyundai Sante Fe Sport: I was very pleasantly surprised with this one. I've seen pictures of the car and have seen a few on the streets, but haven't really had a chance to look at it in depth. Excellent interior, very comfy seats, plenty of room front and back, and a good sized cargo area. Good visibility all around. I think the interior looks and feels high class, which is something I couldn't say for the previous Sante Fe (I test drove it in 2009). Fully loaded, it runs about $33k. I'd give it an A+.
Prognosis and general thoughts
My extended driving experience (not counting weekend rentals) to date has been large sedans (my first car, a Toyota Avalon, and multiple extended rentals of Ford Tauri and Chrysler 300s), compact sedans (Corollas, primarily), and SUVs (the Sorento). I've got a soft spot for large sedans, since my first car was the approximately aircraft carrier sized Avalon. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been driving Mabel for almost two years now, and don't feel as badly pinched as I first did.
That being said, while I do have a soft spot for large sedans, and have enjoyed the nine Ford Tauri I've rented over the last two years, I don't *need* a full size sedan. The Cadenza and Azera, while very nice, are more than I need. None of the cars I looked at are too small for my tastes. On a side note, I find it quite interesting how much larger the compact cars of today (Forte, Elanta, 3, and A3) are than the compact cars (Mabel and the aforementioned Jetta) of 10+ years ago. I didn't have any problems with the sizing of said cars at the auto show. Compact cars today are approximately the size of yesterday's mid size car, and today's mid size car is approximately the size of yesterday's full size car, and so on and so forth.
With all that said, my top cars of the auto show were the Cadenza, Azera, Optima, A3, Forte5, and 3 hatchback. I really liked the Sante Fe Sport, but I think I'll stick with a sedan for now.
Of those 5 cars, I'm primarily interested in the Audi A3. I was beyond impressed with it and it has high marks on all my non-driving criteria. The Cadenza and Azera, while very, very nice, are probably too much car for my purposes. Driving in DC is bad enough with a small car, and I'm not a fan of driving around here with a big sedan; if I was still in South Carolina, or even just 30 miles down I-95, that would be a different matter. The 3 hatchback and Forte5 are likewise very nice, but can't match the level of refinement of the A3. Same with the Optima, although it is the sedan closest to the A3 in size on my short list. I will test drive all six cars over the next few months, but pending the test drives, my money's on the Audi. I've test driven several other (older) Audis, and had a 2014 A4 rental over Thanksgiving and was quite impressed with the lot of them.
So, in the order that I will test drive and seriously think about the cars as of now:
- Audi A3
- Mazda 3 hatchback
- Kia Forte5
- Kia Optima
- Kia Cadenza
- Hyundai Azera
I'm going to be researching cars through April/May, then plan to buy or lease one at any point after that. All six are within my budget, so it just comes down to the test drives and my gut feel.
Should be a fun few months! :-D
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tropical Splash, baby!
We had the Tropical Splash meet this past Sunday--that's the meet my team hosts every year.
When I've done this meet the past few years, I've done mostly short events like the 50 back and 100 IM. This year I decided to go for the longer events--I did the 200 back, 200 fly, and 200 breast, in that order. I'm going to swim the 100/200 back, 100/200 fly, and 400 IM at Nationals in May, so I figured I should probably start competing in the longer events... :-)
200 back
I felt decent while warming up, but had noted that my legs didn't feel 100%. I know, I know, walking around all day the day before at the auto show wasn't a great idea, but whatever. I thought I'd be able to muscle through it without too many problems.
Nope.
I took it out at what I thought was a decent pace (I wanted to take it out faster than last weekend, since I'd been too slow on the front half then), but then crashed and burned at the 125. My legs completely disappeared, I couldn't breathe at all, and I dropped from doing my normal 6 dolphin kicks off of each wall to 3, and then 2 off the last two turns. On top of that, my lats were on fire. The last 50 was my own private hell, and I watched the girl in the lane next to me, who I had at least a 1.5 bodylength lead on at the 100, inexorably eat up the space in between us. I did end up beating her, but not by more than a second or so.
My splits: 32:30, 34.80 (1:07.10), 37.05 (1:44.15), 38.41 (2:22.56). Terrible, simply terrible. The first 100 wasn't too bad, but I'd have liked to have been under 1:07. I don't know what happened on the back half. While my overall time was about a second faster than last weekend, and my first 100 was about 3 seconds faster, this was a horrible race. I completely fell apart and felt way worse than I did a week before. I think it was mainly a combination of two factors--being on my feet all day Saturday and allergies (I got really bad allergies on Wednesday and am pretty sure I literally coughed up a lung at Saturday's practice).
On a side note, my splits last year prior to Nationals were usually in the region of 32, 35, 35, 35. I was right there for the first 100 this time...and then just a wee bit off for the second 100...
200 fly
Man, during the last 75 of that 200 back, I was sure that I'd actually die if I tried to do a 200 fly! I've done almost zero physical training for the 200 fly. I'd done maybe a total of 500 yards of fly over the last month or so, but had psyched myself up enough to think I could do it without absolutely killing myself...
And I was right!
Sure, it was slooow, and I went into survival butterfly in the last 50 or so (3-4 kicks per pull), but I made it without stopping and am pretty sure I could have kept going indefinitely.
My splits were 34.73, 41.02 (1:15.75), 44.47 (2:00.22), 46.19 (2:46.41). Just looking at the spread without paying attention to the actual times, the spread wasn't too bad. A 5 second difference between the 2nd and 4th 50s is fine by me. However, the overall speed wasn't there. That was also fine by me--I knew I would require the services of a lifeguard if I actually tried to race a 200 fly without training for it, so I made my main goal to just finish and swim a legal 200.
Honestly, it hurt far less than my 200 back. I still had legs, I still had arms, the only part that really hurt was my upper back. I was about 13.5 seconds off of my time from 2 years ago, when I'd actually spent 3 months preparing for the 200 fly. I'll take it! I figure if I spend the next three months training for the 200 fly, I should be in good shape for swimming it at Nats.
200 breast
This is the event I'll do once a year, at the Tropical Splash. I don't train breast in practice and don't particularly like the stroke to begin with. That being said, I felt really good for the first 125 of the race. This wasn't too long after the 200 fly...and it hit me like a dump truck full of bricks at the 125. I went from feeling efficient and smooth to having no energy or ability to move in a coordinated movement. I went a 2:48.71, with splits of 37.04, 42.52 (1:19.56), 45.20 (2:04.76), 43.95 (2:48.71). I was exactly 1.1 seconds off my time from the same meet last year. There were three big differences between the two races:
1) Last year, I'd actually trained for breaststroke--this year, I'd done even less breast than fly in practice
2) Last year, I'd swum it in order to really race--this year, I just swam it
3) I wasn't coming off the 200 fly last year
All that said, I was quite surprised. Discounting the 200 fly hitting me at the 125, I felt really, really good in the water. It almost felt like I could swim breaststroke! I had enough fun with it to briefly consider swimming it more often, then realized that I'd have to drop a TON of time in order to make the Nats cut in it. Not gonna happen...
When I've done this meet the past few years, I've done mostly short events like the 50 back and 100 IM. This year I decided to go for the longer events--I did the 200 back, 200 fly, and 200 breast, in that order. I'm going to swim the 100/200 back, 100/200 fly, and 400 IM at Nationals in May, so I figured I should probably start competing in the longer events... :-)
200 back
I felt decent while warming up, but had noted that my legs didn't feel 100%. I know, I know, walking around all day the day before at the auto show wasn't a great idea, but whatever. I thought I'd be able to muscle through it without too many problems.
Nope.
I took it out at what I thought was a decent pace (I wanted to take it out faster than last weekend, since I'd been too slow on the front half then), but then crashed and burned at the 125. My legs completely disappeared, I couldn't breathe at all, and I dropped from doing my normal 6 dolphin kicks off of each wall to 3, and then 2 off the last two turns. On top of that, my lats were on fire. The last 50 was my own private hell, and I watched the girl in the lane next to me, who I had at least a 1.5 bodylength lead on at the 100, inexorably eat up the space in between us. I did end up beating her, but not by more than a second or so.
My splits: 32:30, 34.80 (1:07.10), 37.05 (1:44.15), 38.41 (2:22.56). Terrible, simply terrible. The first 100 wasn't too bad, but I'd have liked to have been under 1:07. I don't know what happened on the back half. While my overall time was about a second faster than last weekend, and my first 100 was about 3 seconds faster, this was a horrible race. I completely fell apart and felt way worse than I did a week before. I think it was mainly a combination of two factors--being on my feet all day Saturday and allergies (I got really bad allergies on Wednesday and am pretty sure I literally coughed up a lung at Saturday's practice).
On a side note, my splits last year prior to Nationals were usually in the region of 32, 35, 35, 35. I was right there for the first 100 this time...and then just a wee bit off for the second 100...
200 fly
Man, during the last 75 of that 200 back, I was sure that I'd actually die if I tried to do a 200 fly! I've done almost zero physical training for the 200 fly. I'd done maybe a total of 500 yards of fly over the last month or so, but had psyched myself up enough to think I could do it without absolutely killing myself...
And I was right!
Sure, it was slooow, and I went into survival butterfly in the last 50 or so (3-4 kicks per pull), but I made it without stopping and am pretty sure I could have kept going indefinitely.
My splits were 34.73, 41.02 (1:15.75), 44.47 (2:00.22), 46.19 (2:46.41). Just looking at the spread without paying attention to the actual times, the spread wasn't too bad. A 5 second difference between the 2nd and 4th 50s is fine by me. However, the overall speed wasn't there. That was also fine by me--I knew I would require the services of a lifeguard if I actually tried to race a 200 fly without training for it, so I made my main goal to just finish and swim a legal 200.
Honestly, it hurt far less than my 200 back. I still had legs, I still had arms, the only part that really hurt was my upper back. I was about 13.5 seconds off of my time from 2 years ago, when I'd actually spent 3 months preparing for the 200 fly. I'll take it! I figure if I spend the next three months training for the 200 fly, I should be in good shape for swimming it at Nats.
200 breast
This is the event I'll do once a year, at the Tropical Splash. I don't train breast in practice and don't particularly like the stroke to begin with. That being said, I felt really good for the first 125 of the race. This wasn't too long after the 200 fly...and it hit me like a dump truck full of bricks at the 125. I went from feeling efficient and smooth to having no energy or ability to move in a coordinated movement. I went a 2:48.71, with splits of 37.04, 42.52 (1:19.56), 45.20 (2:04.76), 43.95 (2:48.71). I was exactly 1.1 seconds off my time from the same meet last year. There were three big differences between the two races:
1) Last year, I'd actually trained for breaststroke--this year, I'd done even less breast than fly in practice
2) Last year, I'd swum it in order to really race--this year, I just swam it
3) I wasn't coming off the 200 fly last year
All that said, I was quite surprised. Discounting the 200 fly hitting me at the 125, I felt really, really good in the water. It almost felt like I could swim breaststroke! I had enough fun with it to briefly consider swimming it more often, then realized that I'd have to drop a TON of time in order to make the Nats cut in it. Not gonna happen...
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
First meet of 2014...hahahahahahahaha!
Had the first meet of 2014 this past Sunday in Annapolis.
Overall, not as terrible as I thought it'd be. I've only been swimming regularly for the past few weeks, so I figured I'd have an awful meet with slow times and lots of crashing and burning. I swam three events, the 50 fly, 100 back, and 200 back, in that order.
50 fly
Sigh. This could have been so much better. My back foot slipped a bit on the start and I didn't enter the water at the right angle, causing my goggles to flood as soon as I hit the water. I almost would have preferred them to have fallen off, since I would have been able to see when breathing, at least. Anyhoo, I couldn't see crap with them filled, and when I came close to the wall for the turn, the refraction in the water made me think I was at the wall. I dove forward thinking I would touch the wall momentarily...and had to kick for a second or two since I had to be at least 1-1.5 strokes away from the wall. Oops. Lost at least a second on the turn and couldn't make up for it in the second half. I could see the vague shapes of the other people in the heat when I pushed off the wall and I think I would have been in the lead if I hadn't boffed the turn. Sigh. I went a 27.9. On the plus side, this is the first time in over a year that I've felt like I've been able to sprint fly. I didn't have any problems with establishing a body rhythm, which has been my big problem with the 50 fly for a long time. If I'd nailed the turn, I probably would have been a mid/high 26.
100 back
This was only about 10 minutes after the 50 fly, so I wasn't very rested going into the event. I was in the lane next to Dan, so my only concern was beating him. Had an only so-so start and he beat me into the water. Caught up to him underwater, but he pulled a little ahead of me on the surface. Pulled ahead again underwater off the first turn and then extended my lead from there, although I reallllllly stretched out the second turn (had a brain fart and only took one stroke inside the flags instead of two). Legs gave out at about the 85 yard mark, but went a 1:03.9 and beat Dan by about 1.5 seconds.
200 back
Wow, this was a pretty hilariously terrible race. I had a ridiculously hilariously awful start--my left wrist locked when I was positioning myself (sometimes my wrist will lock into one, usually painful, position and I can't apply any weight to it without it hurting) and then my left foot slipped off the pad right before the start, so I just flopped back into the water and had zero push off the wall. On top of that, I psyched myself out and had convinced myself that if I took it out too fast I'd burn out, given my lack of conditioning at this point in the season. Took it out too slow (around a 1:10, versus the 1:07 or so I should have been) and ended up dying at about the 125. On top of that, I choked on water at the 150 turn, so I almost went into full panic mode trying to get to the surface. Came back in a 1:13 for a 2:23. Should have been around a 2:18. I almost wish I'd had Dan video tape this race, cuz it would go perfectly with a laugh track!
*****************
Overall, this could have been a much, much worse meet. I've only been swimming regularly for about 3 weeks now. With the exception of the 200 back, my times weren't that far off of where I was at this point last year with a much higher training and conditioning base. I've got what should be a pretty stable next three months at work, so my schedule should allow me to get in the pool much more than I did in the fall, so I hope to maintain my current training through Nationals in May.
Overall, not as terrible as I thought it'd be. I've only been swimming regularly for the past few weeks, so I figured I'd have an awful meet with slow times and lots of crashing and burning. I swam three events, the 50 fly, 100 back, and 200 back, in that order.
50 fly
Sigh. This could have been so much better. My back foot slipped a bit on the start and I didn't enter the water at the right angle, causing my goggles to flood as soon as I hit the water. I almost would have preferred them to have fallen off, since I would have been able to see when breathing, at least. Anyhoo, I couldn't see crap with them filled, and when I came close to the wall for the turn, the refraction in the water made me think I was at the wall. I dove forward thinking I would touch the wall momentarily...and had to kick for a second or two since I had to be at least 1-1.5 strokes away from the wall. Oops. Lost at least a second on the turn and couldn't make up for it in the second half. I could see the vague shapes of the other people in the heat when I pushed off the wall and I think I would have been in the lead if I hadn't boffed the turn. Sigh. I went a 27.9. On the plus side, this is the first time in over a year that I've felt like I've been able to sprint fly. I didn't have any problems with establishing a body rhythm, which has been my big problem with the 50 fly for a long time. If I'd nailed the turn, I probably would have been a mid/high 26.
100 back
This was only about 10 minutes after the 50 fly, so I wasn't very rested going into the event. I was in the lane next to Dan, so my only concern was beating him. Had an only so-so start and he beat me into the water. Caught up to him underwater, but he pulled a little ahead of me on the surface. Pulled ahead again underwater off the first turn and then extended my lead from there, although I reallllllly stretched out the second turn (had a brain fart and only took one stroke inside the flags instead of two). Legs gave out at about the 85 yard mark, but went a 1:03.9 and beat Dan by about 1.5 seconds.
200 back
Wow, this was a pretty hilariously terrible race. I had a ridiculously hilariously awful start--my left wrist locked when I was positioning myself (sometimes my wrist will lock into one, usually painful, position and I can't apply any weight to it without it hurting) and then my left foot slipped off the pad right before the start, so I just flopped back into the water and had zero push off the wall. On top of that, I psyched myself out and had convinced myself that if I took it out too fast I'd burn out, given my lack of conditioning at this point in the season. Took it out too slow (around a 1:10, versus the 1:07 or so I should have been) and ended up dying at about the 125. On top of that, I choked on water at the 150 turn, so I almost went into full panic mode trying to get to the surface. Came back in a 1:13 for a 2:23. Should have been around a 2:18. I almost wish I'd had Dan video tape this race, cuz it would go perfectly with a laugh track!
*****************
Overall, this could have been a much, much worse meet. I've only been swimming regularly for about 3 weeks now. With the exception of the 200 back, my times weren't that far off of where I was at this point last year with a much higher training and conditioning base. I've got what should be a pretty stable next three months at work, so my schedule should allow me to get in the pool much more than I did in the fall, so I hope to maintain my current training through Nationals in May.
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