I think I'm in the best shape I've been as a Masters swimmer right now! All season, I've been swimming with the senior prep group of the age group team I coach. I've been averaging 4-6 practices a week, usually most of 'em with the kids and one a week with my Masters team every now and then. It's definitely paying off--my aerobic base in practice is better than it's been in recent memory and I've been able to hold intervals I haven't hit since being a teenager. That's translated to meets this season, too, in that even when I've swum a race with a poor strategy and paid for it at the finish, I haven't been absolutely wrecked like has been all too common in the past few years (I'm looking at you, 200 fly and 200 breast).
So far this season, I've swum in 10 meets--5 age group and 5 Masters, with 2 Masters meets to go. Couldn't tell you the last time, if ever, that I swam 12 meets in a season! I came into the season with the goal to swim every event from the 1000 on down at least once. Through Zones in a couple weeks, I'll have doubled that and swum some of those events 3-4 times, to boot!
I'm a firm believer of the idea that the way to race better is to race more. I've had some absolutely atrocious races at various meets this season, but each one has been a learning moment and I'm happy to say that for the most part, I haven't repeated the errors that made the bad races so bad. Uh, I was informed in November that my approach to the wall in backstroke is too slow, thought I fixed it in practice, then was told by the same coach that, nope, my approach was still slow in February...but I fixed the other issues!
From a preparation standpoint, swimming at the age group meets has been fantastic. I generally swam on both Saturday and Sunday of those meets, and that's where I regularly had some of my worst races from a time standpoint. I discovered that being at the pool racing and coaching for 12 hours on Saturday completely wrecks me for doing that all over again on Sunday, but it's phenomenal preparation for being mentally ready to race through fatigue and pain. There were a couple times this season where I swam a particular event at an age group meet one weekend and put up an ok to middling time in the midst of being on deck for 20+ hours, then swam that same race the next weekend fresh at a Masters meet and dropped a substantial amount of time even if the race itself was sloppy or otherwise unoptimal.
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All that background out of the way, I've got my heaviest event lineup yet in place for Nats. I'm doing all five 200s (200 fly, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 free, and 200 IM) and have the 100 free as my optional 6th event. I've swum all of 'em except the 200 back at least twice this season and am quite happy with where I'm at right now. I'm a big taper swimmer, so me being at in-season PRs in most of those events right now is hopefully a great sign of things to come!
Here's the list of where I'm currently at for each of those events, along with how they compare in the grand scheme of things and what my Nationals targets are for 'em.
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Event
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Best in-season time this season
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Best in-season time last 3 seasons
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Best tapered time last 3 seasons
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Masters PR
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Goal time at 2019 Nats
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200 fly
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2:30.42
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2:22.68
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2:23.94
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2:22.68
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2:22.50
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|
200 back
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2:26.20*
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2:18.18
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2:16.60
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2:12.90
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2:14.50
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|
200 breast
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2:33.34
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2:38.60
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2:31.00
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2:31.00
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2:29.50
|
|
200 free
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2:06.03
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2:07.17
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2:04.36
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2:04.36
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2:02.50
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|
200 IM
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2:19.54
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2:19.94
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2:15.27
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2:15.27
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2:14.50
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|
100 free
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56.62
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57.10
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54.65
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54.65
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54.50
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Here's my breakdown event by event, in the order I'll swim them at Nationals.
Friday, April 26th
200 breast
I think the key for me to break 2:30 in this race is to be strategic. I know my underwaters are by far my strongest suit in breaststroke, but every time I hammer the underwaters in the 200, I pay the price on the back half. After the first 50, I want to shorten the underwaters a bit and try to not get into oxygen deprivation. I've been training in practice this season to hit 7 strokes per lap, but for the next month I'm going to aim for 8 strokes with a shortened pullout.
Two other things that will help me hit my goal:
- Better outsweep on my kick: Due to somewhat limited lateral mobility in my knees and especially in my ankles (I'm definitely not a natural breaststroker), I've naturally got a narrow kick that doesn't give much propulsion. I've been working on it for the past month or so and think I can continue to improve it through Nationals. I've gone to two private lessons for my kick and have another lesson coming up this weekend working on it, so hopefully it'll pay off! Side note--the lessons have identified *what* I need to do to fix the kick, it's a matter of actually doing it while I swim, since it feels really weird and is something that goes against what I assume is 20+ years of bad habits as a competitive swimmer.
- Attacking it on the 2nd 50: In the past I've tended to ride the pullout too long on the 2nd 50 and have given up valuable speed. Gonna try tightening that up and get that 2nd 50 split down. I think if I can do that and keep myself out of the ox dep zone, I should hopefully keep the last 50 under :40.
100 free
Frankly, I don't train speed work for anything, especially not for free. This is going to be a crapshoot, but if I hit my turns, I should be able to go a Masters PR.
200 fly
I haven't trained for the 200 fly for several seasons now, but since my aerobic base is much better than it was when I last trained for that race in the 2015-2016 season, I think I've got a real shot at hitting my goal time. I've swum the 200 twice this season, both times in the last month or so, and both times simply cruised through the 200 without a race strategy, just doing it as a morale booster. I have a complicated history with the 200 fly. I love the race in general, but as a Masters swimmer it's almost always had my number and treated me as its red headed stepchild...and I've had a tendency to really melt down on the last 50.
A few key focus areas for me:
- Technique: Up until this past summer, I had a tendency to have my hands enter too narrow, and correspondingly sweep my hands outward before pulling back. That's, uh, pretty inefficient and wastes time, and I've been working on it in practice this season. I still tend to do it in the 50 and sometimes in the 200, but I think I've eradicated that habit in the 200, so I'm hoping I can carry that through this race.
- Underwater kicks and stroke count: Like with breaststroke, I've historically tended to stay underwater too long and it's bit me in the booty with severe oxygen deprivation in the last 50-75 of the race. While I haven't been working on 200 fly training in practice, per se, I have been working on my kick and stroke count. Before, I was focused on 6 kicks and 7 strokes per lap, now I'm working on 5 kicks and 8 strokes per lap. I did that for both of the 200s I've done this season and didn't feel the piano until the last 5-10 yards of both swims, so I'm hoping that will carry through to Nationals when I actually *race* the 200.
Saturday, April 27th
200 back
Ok, I've only done this once so far this season, and just cruised it since I had the 200 fly coming up about 15 minutes later. I went the 2:26 listed in the above table, but I was barely even breathing hard at the end of the race--I've got a number of 2:23s and 2:24 in-season races in the past, and those were all ones where I hammered it to go those times, in comparison to now where I more or less loafed it and still came within a few seconds of those times. I've gone pretty decent in-season times in the 50 and 100, so I'm overall pretty optimistic for this race.
As is a common refrain with the underwater-heavy races, my key focus area is being more strategic with my underwaters in this race. In the past I've gone 14 kicks off the start (that gets me breaking out right at the 15m marker), 10-11 kicks off the first turn, 8-9 off the 2nd turn, 6-7 off the next few turns, then 4-5 kicks off the last turn, and have always run into major oxygen deprivation by the end of the race. The clearest example of that was the race at 2013 Nats where I went my Masters PR--I fully blacked out on the 2nd to last lap--I remember turning at the 150 and then coming out of the turn at the 175, no clue what happened in between those two turns.
I've been working in practice to hit 12 kicks off the start, 8 off the next turn, 7 off the next, then 6 kicks after that. There will inherently be ox dep in the 200 back, but if I can keep out of the worst of that zone, I should be all right.
200 IM
I've been a victim of self inflicted poor race strategy in this race, primarily around swimming too slow on the fly and back legs--I think I've always been subconsciously afraid of taking it out too fast and then having an epic crash and burn on the back half, but I've got the aerobic base now that unless I truly sprinted the fly and back, I'll be able to handle a back half pain train, so this is a mental issue rather than a physical limitation.
We've done some great 200 IM pacing sets in the age group practices this season, so if I can actually carry those lessons learned through to this race, I should be able to knock it out of the park.
Side note--the 2:19 I did this season in January is .5 faster than my next fastest in-season time as a Masters swimmer (and is my 2nd fastest Masters time, to boot!), and I had the double whammy handicap of swimming the front half too slow and having my back foot slip off the block on the start and effectively just falling into the pool. Subtracting the start handicap, I should've been on track for a 2:17 high or 2:18 low, which would have been a phenomenal in-season time, since my fly split was about 1.25 seconds slower than it should have been and my back split was about .5 seconds slower than it should have been.
Sunday, April 28th
200 free
Almost verbatim, this is the same issue as the 200 IM. I swam it most recently at a Masters meet in January...and took it out noticeably too slow and had far too much left in the tank at the end of the race. If I can get over that subconscious hurdle of holding back on the front half, I should be able to throw down a (for me, anyways) great time.
