Great last meet before Nationals!

All in all, I had a great last meet of the season before Nationals yesterday! I swam the 200 fly, 50 free on the 200 free relay, 50 breast, and 200 back. Except for the 50 free, they were all very solid swims.

200 fly

This was great! I wanted to take it out hard and just try to hold on, and I did much better than I expected! The official splits aren't out yet, but watch splits had me at 31, 35, 37, 39. That's only about a second faster than my front half at Nationals last spring, but 4 seconds faster on the back half, including the first time I've been under 41 on the last 50, haha.

I've been really pushing hard in practice the last month or so to maintain 6 kicks off the wall all the time. While my brain reallllllly wants me to come up after 3-4 kicks towards the end of the race, my back and shoulders feel much, much better at the end of the race when I stay underwater for those extra kicks. It paid off! I did 7 kicks off the start, then 6 off every other wall, putting me past the near 15m marker on the lane rope each time! Tried to keep it to 7 strokes per lap, too, but slid to 8 each on the last 50. Gonna try to tighten that up for Nationals.

Anyways, onto the race itself. Before the race, I'm guessing I drank too much water and swallowed some air in the process, because my stomach was seriously unsettled. Bending down on the start, I was legitimately worried I was going to throw up because it did not feel good at all. Pretty much just fell off the block at the start, because I didn't trust my stomach. It was sloshing around on the first 75, and I did big, sloppy turns in an attempt to keep pressure off my stomach and to not do an imitation of Old Faithful. It settled down a bit around the 100 mark, but definitely had me worried for the first half of the race!

My stroke felt good! I think I could have taken it out 1-2 seconds faster on the front half without killing myself. I felt long and relaxed through the 150. Started to tighten up a little bit on the last 50, and kept expecting to feel the piano land on my back, but I never reached that point! Definitely tightened up at the 190, but nowhere near as bad as I normally tighten up during the race.

I figure through the lack of a jump on the start, the slow and sloppy turns, and not taking it out quite as fast as I wanted, I left about 3-4 seconds in the water in this race. That would have put me right at the Nationals cut. My goal for Nationals is to go out in a sub-1:05 and hold on for a 1:10/1:11 on the back half, while keeping to only 7 strokes per lap. I think it's an achievable goal!

50 free on the 200 free relay

Ok, this was the stinker of the meet for me. The block was really wobbly and I went too deep on the start (I led off the relay). I then managed to turn too far out from the wall and hit almost straight legged...and hit with my feet too high on the wall in the process, resulting in me going really deep off the turn. Took forever to get back up to the surface, and I ended up splitting something like a 26.2. Nothing about that race was good!

50 breast

I had 2 heats of the 50 breast between our 200 free relay and my heat, so I had enough time to stretch out for about 1.5 minutes, then was up again. All in all, it was better than I expected! My pullout off the start and turn felt disjointed, and I just felt odd doing sprint breaststroke, given that all my breast training this year has been for the 200. I was long on the turn, too. I went a 32.6, which is my second fastest Masters time behind the 32.07 I went at Nationals last spring.

200 back

This was about 10 minutes after the 50 breast, and about 12 minutes after the 50 free. I'd warmed down a 150, but was definitely feeling the back to back races. My left foot cramped off the start, and was stuck curled inwards until it stretched out on the 75 turn. So not fun! I was really long on the first four turns, then ended up jamming the last turn. Just felt out of sync for most of the race, although the last 50, jammed turn aside, felt pretty darn good. Legs were burning by the 125, but that's normal in the 200 back. I can definitely tell I have done zero backstroke training this year--from the turns being all over the place to the pacing feeling off, those are all things I don't have to deal with when I train backstroke! I'll be interested to see how my splits were, since my last 50 felt like the best one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was faster than the middle two 50s.

Still, I went a 2:22 and change, which is right around the fastest I've been in season since 2013. I went a 2:19 at Nationals last year, and I think I could go under that fairly easily if I were to swim it at Nationals in Greensboro...which I'm not going to. Since I'm not coaching the kids next season, I'll have more time to train, so maybe I'll be able to add in backstroke to my training regimen again.

All in all, this was a pretty darn good meet! Abysmal 50 free aside, I am very happy with how I swam, and this just reinforces the good vibes I'm getting for Nationals in 5.5 weeks!

I'm baaaaaack!

All in all, I've been swimming better at meets this year than I expected, but didn't have any resounding races at meets to prove that point. Until this past weekend, anyways!

Last weekend was the Albatross Open, a short course meters meet held annually in Bethesda. I don't particularly like doing short course meters--since I don't train SCM, the shift from the flags being 5Y to 5M from the wall is jarring on backstroke. That's really the only problem I have with it besides having to do the conversions to figure out what my yards times would be on each race. Except for the flags issue, I don't mind the extra stroke or two I have to take on each lap. *Long* course meters...well, that's a whole 'nuther story!

Anyways, I had decided that I wanted to do a meet this season that wasn't almost solely comprised of my focus events, so I signed up for only events I haven't trained for: 200 IM, 100 back, and 50 free. I ended up swimming the 200 IM, 100 back, 50 free twice on 200 free relays, and then a 50 fly instead of my planned individual 50 free.

My thought process was that I wanted to race (I love racing!), but I wanted a meet of just throwaway events that wouldn't bum me out if I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. And with this meet being SCM, the stars aligned and let me just have fun. In addition, I set out with the goal this season of doing every event from the 400 IM on down at least once, so it gave me a chance to knock off most of the backlog with no impact on my overall training/racing plan.

200 IM

Not only have I not trained for the 200 IM this year, I haven't trained IM period, and for the past couple of months, have only trained for fly. I went in with very low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised!

Fly felt pretty good. Could have pushed it a bit harder, but pacing felt pretty good. Back felt decent, nothing spectacular, although I was a bit long on the flipturn (and didn't get a full breath going into the turn, so came up a bit early), and was a full stroke too long on the transition turn. I totally dropped an F bomb when I reached for the wall and saw how far away I was, haha! Started running low on oxygen on the breast leg, and had probably the two shortest pullouts I've had in a loooong time. Free was very tight, but it felt much less like a dumpster fire than it normally does in my 200 IM, so I'll take it!

I went a 2:37.21, which converts to a 2:21.63 yards. That would be my third fastest Masters time and the fastest I've been since Zones in 2013, when I was 15 pounds lighter than I am now (had a beard then, it just wasn't quite as Poseidon-esque as it is now). I'd also been training IM that year, so I'm very pleased with this swim! I'm not going to be doing the 200 IM again till next season (only have two meets left this season and will not be swimming it at either), but it gives me hope that I could dip back down below 2:20, which I've only done once as a Masters swimmer!

100 back

I was very surprised with how this one turned out! I have done absolutely zero backstroke training this year, and have probably swum less backstroke in the last five months than I did in a single week during the 2013 season, which I spent focused primarily on backstroke. I had very low expectations and just didn't want to embarrass myself too much.

During the race, I thought it wasn't going very well. My underwaters weren't up to my normal backstroke snuff besides the start, and my turnover felt even slower than it normally is. On top of that, I was long on the first two turns and the finish, and started running out of steam around the 70m mark.

I was shocked when I saw my time! 1:10.35, which converts to a 1:03.37 yards! I was half a second faster than that at an in-season meet in February 2013, but haven't been faster than a 1:03.3 since Nationals 2013. I was quite surprised that even with no backstroke training and all the handicaps of a SCM meet, I was right in the mix with my times from three years ago, my best season as a Masters swimmer!

I'm doing the 200 back on 3/20, so now I'm quite intrigued by what I might do in it. It was originally just going to be a throwaway event, the last of my sub-400 IM events left to check off the list, but me being able to throw down a converted low 1:03 here makes me wonder if I'll be able to dip below 2:20 at the next meet. I was a 2:19.03 at 2015 Nationals (and haven't broken 2:20 besides that swim since 2013 Nationals), so I'd love it if I could come in under that in a few weeks!

200 free relays

I swam on two 200 free relays, anchored the mixed relay, and went third on the men's relay. I decided to play around with how I swam the two 50s. On the first relay, I galloped. It's a slower, lopsided stroke, but I get a really powerful pull on my left side, which is the dominant side when I gallop (despite me being a righty). On the second relay, I stayed pretty flat and went for a high turnover. The second relay was three heats after the first relay, so I wasn't at 100% for it. Didn't feel nearly as terrible as I have in the past when I've done relays back to back, so that points to substantially improved conditioning than in the past! :-)

Neither of my starts were quick. Really slow reaction time on the first one and marginally quicker reaction on the second, but definitely nothing to write home about. Despite leaving so much time on the block, I was quite happy with my splits! I was a 27.49 on the first one (probably would have been right around 27 flat with a good reaction time!), which converts to 24.76. That is a Masters best for a relay start, and my Masters best flat start is a 24.92 (and that was me shaved/tapered/178 lb at 2012 Nationals!). I'd like to think I'd have a realistic shot at dropping below 25 on a flat start again, which I haven't done since that 2012 relay! I was a 28.48 on the second relay, which converts to a 25.65 yards. Even not being at 100%, that's still right in the mix with my best flat start times from the past few years, so I also find it promising!

I thought the first one was a better overall race for me. I've been experimenting with staying underwater longer off the dive and turn, and I think it really paid off. Totally geeking out with numbers, I looked at the videos of that 200 free relay from 2012 and these two relays, and despite the difference in length of the two courses, found some interesting stroke count numbers.

-2012: 12 out, 18 back

-2016 #1: 13 out, 17 back

-2016 #2: 13 out, 19 back

I swam flat on both the 2012 and 2016 #2 relays, and think the extra stroke on both laps to be pretty self explanatory with the extra distance of the SCM pool. For 2016 #1, though, I find it interesting that I took one stroke less coming back despite going a further distance. I think that's primarily due to my underwater off the turn! If I can cover that much extra ground underwater, despite being 27 pounds heavier and not shaved/tapered, and be *right there* with my time, I'm hoping to throw down some good times on the relays at Nationals!

50 fly

I had planned on swimming free for my individual 50 free, but completely on a whim I decided to swim fly, instead. I'd already done the 50 free twice on the relays and was quite happy with my times on both, so decided I'd give fly a shot. I haven't trained any speed work for fly yet (switching to speed work in April, up till now it's all been distance and 200 pace work), so wanted to see how it'd go. Even with being my 5th race of the day, it went pretty well! I went a 31.01, which converts to a 27.93. That would tie the time I went at a meet in January 2014, and is the fastest since then. To give some more context, the fastest I've been since 2013 Nationals was a 27.76 in October 2013, and that's when I was still training speed work. I'm not doing the 50 fly again this season, so it doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but is a nice data point to have.

All in all, this was a great meet, much better than I expected! My in-season success in non-focus events has now got me quite optimistic for Nationals!