This past weekend was filled with the last non-championship meets of the 2014-2015 season for me. The kids I coach had their last short course meet of the season Friday-Sunday, and I had a Masters meet on Sunday. I mostly had my Nationals lineup already set, I just wanted to see where I was in my training a month out.
On Friday, I swam the 400 IM with the kids, then swam the 100 breast and 100 back with them on Saturday. I then swam the 200 fly, 50 breast, 200 back, and 50 back (on the medley relay) on Sunday. On top of all that, I spent an additional 9 hours at the pool on Saturday coaching the kids, most of it on my feet. I was definitely feeling it on Sunday! Anyways, with all that said, here's how everything went down.
400 IM
Hahahahaha! I hadn't raced this in two years, and the last time I'd swum it, I'd taken it out to fast and horribly crashed and burned on the back half. Behind the blocks on Friday, I kept telling myself to take it out easier and not kill myself on the front half...and proceeded to psyche myself out. I took it out criminally slow on the front half and was a 1:13 or 1:14 on the fly, then felt like I was barely inching along on the back. The breast didn't feel too bad, and the free wasn't a complete trainwreck like the 2013 swim, but the whole thing was slow. I went a 5:24 compared to that meet from two years ago's 5:11. My fly split alone was 6 seconds slower, so I can only imagine that the back was probably a similar amount slower. The results from the meet haven't been posted yet, so I don't know what my splits looked like except for the fly.
Oh well.
I plan to cut my kids coaching schedule back by two nights a week next season, so that should hopefully give me a solid 4-5 opportunities to practice each week, up from my current 2-3. Maybe then I'll finally be able to actually train for the 400 IM!
100 back
I wasn't feeling all that great going into this swim. I hadn't left the pool the previous night till around 8:00, and then was up at 5:15 to head back to the pool. Hadn't slept all that well, either, so it was just a bundle of fun. On top of all that, since I was actively coaching kids in the morning session, I'd had time for a whopping 300 warmup going into the race. Not my best preparation, I'll admit.
Anyhoo, onto the race itself.
I had a very lethargic start, but then kicked it (ha, pun intended!) into high gear once I was underwater. Totally killed the rest of my heat underwater, especially the kid next to me, but they were all better on the surface. I came up with about a half bodylength lead on the field, but they'd all caught up to me by the turn. I proceeded to pull ahead again off the 25 turn, but then lost the lead going into the 50 turn...then messed up my stroke count and turned about a foot away from the wall. Lost most of my momentum and had a resulting weak push off the wall, but made up enough ground underwater to pull even at my breakout. From there on I was behind the pack, ran out of steam on the last 25, and ended up 6th out of 7 in my heat with a 1:04.7.
Given my complete lack of backstroke training since the holidays, and everything else going on, I'm quite happy with that swim! It's the fastest I've been since last January, too. I'm hoping that with the more optimal conditions of Nationals (rest, taper, shave, better suit, an actual warmup, etc), I'll be around a 1:01.
100 breast
This was the first time swimming it since spring of 2013. Given my utter lack of breaststroke training since I busted my left knee last February (I've done maybe a total of 500 yards of breast since then), I had very low expectations. In addition, like with the 100 back, I had only a 300 warmup going into the event and was still a bit tight from the earlier race.
And yet I did much better than I thought!
I had a good dive and excellent underwaters throughout (seeing a theme here?), but got crushed on the surface. Going off the kid next to me, I'd routinely pull out a bodylength lead underwater, then he'd catch up to me by the next wall. Rinse and repeat. I really started to feel the 100 back around the 75, when my lats and shoulders started to burn, but pushed through it and ended up 4th in my heat of 7 with a 1:13.7, my 2nd fastest Masters time! My Masters best is a 1:11.74 from Zones in 2013, so I'm hoping I can get close to that at Zones or Nationals in April. I actually really liked this race and might add it to my repertoire next season, rather than having it be a pretty much one-off event.
200 fly
Oof. Again, not a great setup for the race. Although I had gotten a full night of sleep and was more rested than I was for the 100 back or 100 breast on Saturday, I was feeling rundown from the 11.5 hours at the pool the previous day. Energy level was at maybe 75%, and to put a cherry on that sundae, I had forgotten to seed our relays before the meet and spent most of the warmup time period putting them together, resulting in only about a 400 warmup. Definitely a pattern this weekend!
All that said...it was a good swim!
I made the switch to breathing every stroke (except the first stroke off the wall) in training a few weeks ago and this was my first meet putting that into play. I think it helped! I started to run out of steam at about the 160 yard mark, but it wasn't like at Tropical Splash in January, which felt more like this guy's 200 fly. Rather, it was a tightening up of the lats and shoulders, followed by a deep seated burning in my traps at the 175. Still managed to keep it legal...unlike my two DQ swim in January...and the pacing wasn't as abysmal as it could have been. My splits were 32.04, 38.80, 42.53, and 45.27, for a 2:38.64. Given my low energy level going into the event, I think I could have taken off a handful of seconds under better circumstances. Even though that swim was 2 seconds slower than January's swim, it was a much better race.
My Masters best is a 2:32.90 from 2012, so I'm right in the ballpark. Of course, my lifetime best is a 2:11, so I'm not gonna go there... ;-)
If all goes well at Nationals, I'd like to think I have a shot at going sub-2:30. I've got a month to work out the kinks on pacing and the little things in the race.
50 free (200 free relay)
This was a pretty cruddy swim. I felt terribly uncoordinated in the water and everything felt out of sync. While I think I had a decent start, my underwater off the start felt lethargic, and I turned a bit too early, then started my breakout about 6 inches too deep. Blegh. I went a 26.36, which is pretty darn slow time.
50 breast
After my surprisingly good 100 breast on Saturday, I was actually looking forward to this race. I only had a couple of minutes to warm down between the 200 free relay and this event, so I was kinda nervous about how well I'd do.
I had a great start and pullout, great first 25...and then botched the turn. Sloppy body movements during the actual turn itself, didn't seat my feet properly and pushed off slightly twisted, resulting in me pushing off at an angle and swerving from the middle of the lane to almost under the lane rope on one side. Tried to recover back to the middle on the pullout, but my, uh, lateral movement shenanigans cost me a noticeable bit of speed. Still managed to get more speed and distance underwater than the woman in the lane next to me, but much less so than off the start. Still, I went a 33.64, which is only .3 off my Masters best! I think I would have crushed my Masters best if I hadn't screwed up the turn!
I'm hoping to go around a 33.0 at Zones or Nationals.
200 back
I was really running low on energy by this point, so I figured that instead of killing myself and trying to go a great time, I'd step it back a notch and just aim for a respectable time. I had a decent start and good underwater, then just tried to keep it controlled during the race. I had some breathing difficulties around the 125 and was having trouble getting enough air in through my mouth, and spent that whole 25 debating how much of a time penalty it would be if I ripped my nose clip off, and if I could do it without getting DQd. Decided to keep it on, though, and finished the race out pretty well. Coming off the last wall, I wasn't anywhere close to oxygen deprivation, which is usually where I'm at in that portion of the race, so I probably could have attacked the middle 100 of the race harder and shaved off a few seconds. Oh well. My splits were respectable, at 33.04, 36.44, 37.31, and 36.77 for a 2:23.56. While that time is nothing to write home about, it's right on my best time from last year.
I'm hoping for a sub-2:18 for Nationals.
50 back (200 medley relay)
Ooh boy, this one hurt! It was just a few minutes after my 200 back, and my quads were completely locked up and felt like they were on fire while I was standing on the deck getting ready to jump in. It felt like I did the 50 backstroke pull, but I managed to put up a 30.36, which is honestly way faster than I expected, and is only about a second off my in shape, in-season time. Given how wiped out I was by that point in the meet, I expected to be much slower than that. Huh, maybe there's some hope for putting up a good split on our medley relay at Nationals!
