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.
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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.
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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!
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