I came out of the meet with 3 lifetime best times, 1 Masters best time, and 4 Masters second best times. I can't recall any meet, either as a Masters swimmer or as an age grouper, where I swam so consistently well across that large a variety of events.
I swam 8 races over my 3 days of competition (the meet is 4 days long, but I didn't do the 1000 or the 1650 that were on the first day):
- Friday: 100 back, 50 free leading off our mixed 200 free relay
- Saturday: 200 breast, 100 IM, 50 back leading off our men's 200 medley relay
- Sunday: 100 breast, 50 free on our men's 200 free relay, 200 back
Side note--the video quality is pretty terrible, I have a defective camcorder that I'm sending in for a warranty repair/replacement.
Friday events
100 back
This was a pretty good race! I went a 1:01.19, my 2nd fastest Masters time and my fastest since 2013 Nationals, which was at IUPUI, too. My backstroke start wasn't terrible, but I definitely need to keep working on using the bars. My 50 and 75 turns were a bit long, but all things considered, I was very happy with the race! I haven't done any real backstroke speed work since the 2012-2013 season, when all I trained for was the 50/100/200 back, so this was a really good time. I'd gone into the race just hoping to break 1:02, so I'll take it! Side note--I've perfected the art of coming up right at the 15m mark off the start! :-)
Mixed 200 free relay
Another great race! I went a 24.95, just .03 off my Masters PR set at 2012 Nationals, and my fastest since then (my next fastest was a 25.44 from 2013). I had a bad turn...started the turn stroke almost a full stroke too far away from the wall, so I tried to salvage it by lengthening the turn. Looks like I managed it!
Saturday events
200 breast
Thankfully no video of this one... :-)
I set a new lifetime PR with a 2:31.00, which dropped my former PR of 2:32.50 that I set at Zones last year! That being said, technique-wise it was a sloppy race. I made the utterly boneheaded decision to try to pace the guy next to me for the first 75 after we were even at the first turn, which came back to bite me in the behind on the last 50--I'm pretty sure I looked like a little kid sprinting, taking 50 strokes, and barely making forward progress by that point (my stroke count for the 25-150 of the 200 is usually 7 strokes...I took 14 on the last lap...). I probably should have taken it out about .75 slower for the first 100, but it was still a new LPR, so I'll take it and count it as a lesson learned.
100 IM
This was my most ideal race of the whole meet! I went a 1:00.59, crushing my former lifetime PR of 1:01.42 from Zones last year. There was only one technical error, I was about a half stroke too close to the wall on my back-breast turn, so I lost some time and air trying to recover from it. Besides that, I can't think of anything else I'd have done differently!
Men's 200 medley relay
I led off the relay and went a 28.65, my 2nd fastest Masters time and fastest since 2013 Nationals. My start was again only ok, but hey, this meet was my first time using either the bars or the backstroke wedge, so I'm not complaining! Felt like I was spinning a bit, but the race as a whole was good, so no complaints from me!
Sunday events
100 breast
This one was a bit of a mixed bag. I went a 1:08.38, .4 off the lifetime PR I set at Zones last year, but my 50 split was a 31.47...which is a lifetime PR by .4! I just took this race out too fast and was hurting at the end, and also was really long on the 75 turn. Probably should have been out around a 31.8 or so, but it was all in all a decent swim. As a side note, it's really apparent in this video that I'm not a natural breaststroker. I've got a weak kick and my underwaters being better than most people I race is the only thing that keeps me from getting trounced by my competition.
Men's 200 free relay
Whoo boy! I went 2nd on the relay and went a new Masters relay split PR with a 24.63, despite a glacially slow relay start. Despite having never jumped and DQed a relay in my life, I've got a deep seated and utterly irrational fear of doing so, so I've got sloooooow relay starts. Conservatively, I'd say I probably left half a second on the block. Ya know, that means I'm like Caeleb Dressel! Both of our relay starts are only marginally faster, or no faster, than our flat starts! 'Course, the time difference in his is just because his flat start is that good, not because he's slow off the blocks on relays, but whatever... :-D
200 back
This was my last event of the meet and I was tired! I still went a 2:16.60, which is my 2nd fastest Masters time and fastest since 2013 Nationals. Frankly, I'm surprised I swam it that well. I've apparently forgotten how to swim back without a beard, since I had water washing into my mouth pretty much the entire time. I swam the race with 8 full breaths, the breath on the start and then the turn stroke breath at the end of each lap, every stinkin' single other breath I took resulted in at least a partial mouth full of water! I had to cut my underwater butterfly kicks down during the race--I've spent all season training to be able to hit 6 kicks consistently off every wall, but had to drop down to 5 and then 4 during this race. All that said, I'll take it!
Thoughts and path ahead
This was all in all a fantastic meet, very possibly the best meet I've had in my 20+ years of competing! I've had meets in the past where I've done better in a few events, but never had a meet that I can remember where I've done so consistently well across every event I swam.
Looking forward, I want to keep expanding my repertoire of events. Up till 2 years ago, I would not have expected to do anywhere near as well in the breast events as I've done over the past two seasons, setting lifetime PRs in all three distances. Over the next 5 years, I plan to spend at least one season focusing on each event from the 1000 on down (for example, this season I focused primarily on the 100 and 200 breast, with the 100 and 200 back as a very secondary focus...probably an 80/20 split between my breast and back training focus this season).
To help achieve those goals, I want to keep training with the NCAP senior prep group in the fall-spring season! I started swimming with them in late January/early February this year and it really paid off, so I plan to swim Monday/Tuesday/Thursday evenings with them again, starting at the beginning of the fall season this time instead of waiting till past the midway point of the season. I'll also aim to hit 1-3 Masters practices a week, possibly Thursday/Friday/Saturday mornings, or Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday mornings. On top of that, there is a free gym at my office, so I plan to start lifting twice a week over my lunch breaks this summer and maintain that moving forward. I'll focus primarily on legs and core, since that's where my strengths are as a swimmer and I'll want to capitalize on those strengths as much as possible, and then upper body for the rest, maybe a 75/25 split.
Most importantly, looking at my training plan moving forward, that is all actually reasonable! The NCAP practices are sandwiched between the practices I coach, so I don't have to add anything to my schedule to continue swimming with them. Same with weights, I'm already at the office and it doesn't add any time to my day, so those should be feasible. I've consistently been hitting 2-3 Masters morning practices each week since February, so I'd like to think I can maintain that moving forward, as well.
If I can maintain this kind of schedule starting from the beginning of the fall season in September, I think it will pay off much larger dividends than the abbreviated training schedule did this season, and I was quite happy with how this season turned out!
