Since I've been doing my focus events (all the 200s) at meets throughout the season, I only signed up to race non-focus events at this meet to change it up and help me not set unrealistic standards a few weeks out from Nats. I've done that before, when I used to swim the same lineup at Zones that I was going to do at Nationals a few weeks later, and had some performances that got in my head when I didn't swim as well as I wanted, so by not doing *any* of the same events at both meets, I nicely side stepped that issue entirely!
I'll get into the event recaps next, but first I want to go over the major fiasco of the meet, the tech suit situation.
For some context, every year before Nationals (except for this one), I've ordered a bunch of different tech suits, tried 'em all on, then kept the one that fit the best to wear for Nats and returned the rest. Last year, out of the 8 I tried on, I really liked how two of them fit, so I kept both, wore one for Nats, and decided to save the other one to wear for Zones this year and next year. In case anyone is interested, the two suits I kept last year were the A3 Performance VICI and the Finis Rival. I wore the VICI at Nats last year and it was my in-season suit this year, and I broke out the Rival for this meet.
For the first time in 8+ years, I've been consistently lifting in the weight room for the past 5 months or so, and as a result, I've put on a noticeable amount of muscle mass in my legs. That came back to bit me in the heinie, more on that below...
I also didn't taper at all besides dropping a 50 here and there my last practice before the meet, and still kept with heavy workouts in the weight room on Monday and Wednesday. I've been swimming pretty tired and heavy in the water lately, which is right where I want to be before starting my 1.5 week taper for Nats, but I wasn't sure how that'd affect me for the meet.
Friday
1000 Free
I swam the 1000 on Friday. I'd swam it for the first time as a Masters swimmer in 2017, when Zones was my shave/taper meet. I'd gone a 12:10 then and wanted to be around that time now. In warmup, I'd noticed that the Rival was pretty tight on my legs, especially the bottom 4" or so above my knees, but didn't think much of it because I don't drive a hard kick during the 1000. The race started off pretty well, but I felt pretty low in the water. Bizzarely, around the halfway point of the race, my eyes went out of focus, with one eye feeling like it was focusing on an entirely different focal point than the other. It was super disconcerting and quickly became nausea inducing with both eyes open, so for the rest of the race I alternated between half a lap with only one eye open, then half a lap with the other eye open. At that point, I decided to not worry about my time, and only worry about finishing the race without hurling. I managed to finish without puking, but was seriously dizzy with a pretty pounding headache by the end of the race and didn't swim fast at all.
I ended up going a 12:26, 16 seconds slower than in 2017. All that said, it could have been much worse. From a purely physical standpoint, I still felt pretty fresh at the end of the swim. Well, relatively speaking--I was still feeling tired and heavy in general, but compared to how I felt before starting the 1000, I felt pretty fresh.
It ended up taking another 8-10 minutes for my eyes to go back to being in focus after I finished the 1000. I was still alternating which eye was open during my cooldown, then they just switched back to normal, and the headache faded away after another 30 minutes or so. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, so I don't know if it's something I should be worried about in the future, or if it was just some fluke. It didn't happen again the rest of the meet.
Saturday
I started to think something might be amiss with the Rival suit during warmup. My thighs felt quite fatigued and they didn't get any better over the course of my ~35 minute warmup, which usually isn't an issue. I also noticed while doing some fast kicking during the warmup that the band at the bottom of the leg right above the knee was almost painfully tight, and the few inches above that were also abnormally tight.
Mixed 400 Free Relay
I anchored our mixed 400 free relay and it was rough. First 50 felt pretty good, though my legs felt really fatigued, and everything just hurt on the 2nd 50, along with me feeling more like I was finishing a 200 than finishing a 100, and felt like a lead balloon, to boot. My time was actually quite good, though, with a 55.22 split. As a point of reference, last year at Zones I was a 56.64 on the same relay, and looking back over the past few years, I'm usually between a high 55 and high 56 in this relay. Getting out of the pool after the relay, my legs really freaking hurt, though.
Mixed 200 Medley Relay
This was about 5 minutes after the 400 free relay, with one heat of the 200 medley between the two relays. I led off with backstroke and not only had a bad start and way too long turn, but I was gassed--I went a 30.69 and really had nothing in the tank that soon after the 400 free relay. On top of that, my legs were excruciating coming off the turn and I don't know if I had any legs at all on the second lap. Looks like I was even slower last year, though, with a 31.39, but was much faster in 2017, with a 28.83.
50 Fly
I'd warmed down for a solid 500 after the two relays but my legs were still painful. Getting up on the blocks for this race was a slow and painful process. I went a 27.67, which is a bit better than the 27.79 I went at this meet last year, but a far cry from the mid 26 I regularly went when I actually trained for sprint fly several years ago. After both my quads cramped up while climbing out of the pool, I decided I had to ditch the suit.
500 Free
I scratched this race. I was scheduled to swim about 45 minutes after the 50 fly, but even after taking the suit off and using the roller on my legs for a solid 10 minutes, I was still cramping and didn't want to potentially make things worse if there was actually something wrong with my legs beyond the suit issues.
50 Back
By this point, I'd been out of the Rival for about an hour and a half and had swum around a 450 in the warmup pool in a borrowed speedo and my drag suit. Still felt tired and heavy in the water, but my legs weren't nearly as painful as they'd been earlier.
I had a much better start than I did on the relay and ended up with a 30.06. I'd been a 29.64 at Zones last year, but that was with me wearing an actual tech suit, so I figure a .4 deficit with a drag suit on isn't too shabby!
Going off on a bit of a tangent here...notwithstanding the too-tight issue, there's a definite difference between wearing a tech suit and a brief (or drag suit in my case). With a properly fitted tech suit, the jammer's compression locks your muscles into place, provides a bit of buoyancy, and helps lift your legs into a more optimal position, along with varying degrees of water impermeability from one tech suit to the next. With a brief/drag suit, you have none of that and it's a very clear difference going from one to the other. Throw in the amount of extra drag a drag suit provides and it's a night and day difference between the two types of suits.
Men's 200 Free Relay
I anchored our men's 200 free relay at the end of the day. I pulled a 25.23 out of my kiester, which I was quite happy with, all things considered. Even being fatigued and rocking a drag suit, that's faster than I usually am at Zones with a relay start--I'm normally in the mid-upper 25 range. I'd gone into the meet hoping to break 25, but I will definitely settle for this time with everything going on!
Sunday
I had a lighter lineup on paper than what I actually swam on Saturday, but it ended up being pretty much just as rough. During warmup I felt really, really tired and heavy in the water, but my legs felt no more fatigued than they should've been after two days of swimming, so at least the cramping/pain issues were resolved! I stayed with the drag suit for all my races on Sunday. I figured that since I was training through Zones, I'd *really* train through it and deprive myself of the benefits of a tech suit.
50 breast
Ugh, this was a sloppy race. I really can't figure out sprint breaststroke. Increasing my tempo to anything faster than my 100 pace makes it feel like everything is falling apart--my kick feels like both my feet and knees are getting all wonky, I feel like I'm losing water on my catch, and my body perpetually feels out of place since I'm not getting a good glide between strokes. On top of all that, my left hand was out of place on the turn and it slipped down the wall, making my turn off balance and jerky. I went a 32.52 which isn't a great time, especially compared to the 31.49 I went last month, but could've been worse. All things considered, I wasn't happy with the time, but also wasn't disappointed with it, just meh.
400 IM
Hey, I won my age group in this! :-D
As far as time is concerned, this was pretty bad. I went a 5:14, which is 14 seconds off my Masters best. With how everything was going, I decided I just wanted to make it through the event while hopefully not completely dying. First 50 of fly felt good, though I felt really, really low in the water, and my back locked up on the 4th lap of the fly, with that last lap feeling like the closing lap of some of my more painful 200 flys in memory; in addition, both goggles had almost completely filled up during the fly. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the swim. I couldn't really see anything on the backstroke leg except during the flip, when the water would move away from my eyes, so I did that 100 based solely on stroke count. Surprisingly, I nailed 3 of the backstroke walls going off stroke count with only the 150 turn being long! My legs were pretty long gone by the time I got through the breast and started on the free portion, and my back muscles had long since atrophied and turned into fossils, too, but I made it through the free with less pain than I've had other times I've swam the 400.
Also surprisingly, with the exception of the 2nd 50 fly, my splits were surprisingly consistent. Slooow but consistent. 32-39 for fly, 41-40 back, 43-43 breast, and 37-36 free. You can call me Eeyore!
Bonus points if you can figure out if the video is of my race or that chick's butt... 😂
Men's 400 Free Relay
I led off this relay, but was dragging by this point. First 50 felt great, my legs very quickly died after the 50 turn, and the rest of my body shut down after the 75 turn. I was a BLAZING 58.01...which is surprisingly only the 2nd slowest relay 100 free I can find, after an absolute stinker of a 1:03.4 I did at Zones in 2015. Fun fact, the dude leading off the relay in the lane to my right is Katie Ledecky's older brother. I can say I got to race Ledecky! :-D
Men's 200 Medley Relay
This was another 5 minute double, like the two relays Saturday morning. I did the breast leg this time and actually pulled out a 34.01, which really surprised me. Still dirt slow, but with a relay start that was pretty much me just exhaustedly falling off the block and little energy on the swim (side note--my tired tempo on this race felt much better than my too-quick tempo from the individual 50 breast, and I nailed the turn, to boot), I'm pretty happy with it. Back in 2013, which is the last time I can find me doing the 50 breast on a relay at Zones, I was a suited 33.36. It's not really an apples to apples comparison, though, since my breaststroke all around was markedly worse in 2013 than it is now (my best times then vs now for the 50, 100, and 200: 33.34-31.49, 1:11.74-1:07.99, and 2:47.61-2:31.00).
Overall thoughts
With everything taken into account, I'm pretty happy with how this meet turned out. Dizziness and suit induced leg issues aside, my times were surprisingly solid for racing in a drag suit. I touched on it earlier, but there is a HUGE difference in my opinion between swimming in a properly fitted tech suit and a drag suit. Even taking that into account, my times were surprisingly good (for me, anyways).
This week will be my last of heavy training before starting my taper for Nats--5 practices and 1 lifting workouts with medium weights (I'm stepping the weights down this week, up till now I've alternated between 2 and 3 lifting sessions per week and they've all been heavy), then I start tapering in the pool and I'm out of the weight room till after Nats.
I'm usually a big shave and taper swimmer, but this is the first time as a Masters swimmer that I've been lifting heading into the end of the season, so I'm hoping two weeks is enough for my body, especially my legs, to recover from lifting and put me in my normal tapered state ready for traveling to Arizona on April 24th for Nats!
No comments:
Post a Comment