2021 Long Course Nationals Recap

Frankly, going into this meet, I had just about zero expectations. Barring the ~12 long course practices I swam over the summer, I don't train long course as a general matter of principle. I also rarely race it, with a whopping total of 5 masters LCM meets under my belt prior to this meet, two in 2012, one in 2014, and two in 2015. Compared to SCY meets, where I've normally clocked 8-12 meets per season over the past 11 years, I might as well never race LCM!

All of that is just to say I didn't have any expectations going into the meet, and decided to treat it mostly as just another in-season meet, what with being in the middle of October and in the middle of heavy training. As a result, I didn't shave my body, I didn't taper (heck, I even did a double the day before my travel day, and did a practice the morning of my travel day!), and I wore an old suit. I'm very much a ritualistic shave/taper swimmer and follow the same routine for every masters nationals, but I threw that out for this meet and pretty much treated it just like any random in-season meet, barring shaving my beard.

I swam a handful of events: in order--50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, and 200 IM. With the exception of the 200 IM, none of those are focus events for me in SCY, either, so I threw them out there as totally throwaway events. My focus was primarily on getting to see my family, enjoying the break from reality that is a travel meet, and getting a second meet under my belt in the last 20 months.

Friday

This was a super light day, with just the 50 free on the docket.

50 free:

This was the sloppiest of my races by far, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I somehow managed to go shallow on my start (seriously, I *never* go shallow on my starts, I have no clue how I managed to pull that off) and only got 3 butterfly kicks in before my breakout, compared to my normal 6-7. I'd planned for it to be a 3 breath 50, then inhaled water on my 2nd breath, which turned it into a 4 breath 50. All in all, it didn't turn out as badly as I feared after the inauspicious start! I went a 29.48, which was a new masters PR by .28. It's a full 1.5 seconds off my lifetime PR as a teenager, but still quite acceptable. My LCM times tend to be 15-20% slower than the equivalent SCY times, and with having gone a 24.95 in SCY in my latest 50 free from back in 2018, that puts me at around a 18% differential, which is right in that range. I'll take it!

Here's the video. My race is at about the 52:15 mark in the video, I'm in lane 1 at the bottom of the screen.

Saturday

This was a slightly heavier day than Friday, with the 100 free and 50 back, but still quite an easy workload.

100 free: 

Having gotten my first race jitters out with the 50 free the day before, I was pumped up and ready and raring to go for the 100. I'd done the LCM 100 free all of once as a masters swimmer prior to this race, back at nationals in 2015, and my age group times in the USAS database only show one swim there, too (99.99% sure I swam it more than just once as an age grouper, but the database is pretty spotty with results from back then), so I had even fewer results to compare to than in the 50.

I had a much better start than in the 50, but did have a goggle malfunction. One of the eyepieces filled up when I hit the water and the other slowly filled up over the course of the first lap. I could only vaguely see where the wall was at the turn and flipped just a bit too far away from the wall, so pretty much just my toes made contact with the wall and I got very little push off the turn. Coming into the finish, it was a similar story, I thought the wall was closer than it was and glided a bit at the finish. Still, my splits were solid! 30.70 going out, 33.62 coming back for a 1:04.32! That was 1.78 seconds faster than my 2015 swim and .91 faster than the lone age group swim in the USAS database, so it counts as both a new masters and lifetime PR! I do think I had a 1:03 in me if not for the goggle-induced wall issues, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about with this swim. Even better, I'm now officially less than 20 seconds slower than Caeleb Dressel in the 100! :-D

Having gone a 56.02 at SCY nats in July, my 1:04.32 is just under 15% slower, so well within the SCY-LCM delta. Even going against my SCY masters best of a 54.65, that still comes out to 17% and change, so that's an excellent sign!

Here's the video. My race is at about the 55:15 mark, I'm at lane 7, 3rd from the top of the screen. Side note--while I'd LOVE to claim the :54 as shown on the video, all of the lanes were off by 1 on the graphic.

50 back: 

I didn't really have any expectations for this race. I've been doing a lot of free in practice and have noticed dramatic improvements in my freestyle over the past two years in training, but I've spent very little time working on my backstroke over that same period. I haven't worked on backstroke speed, or backstroke endurance, or even just backstroke technique. I just haven't worked on back, period. I still conceptually consider myself at least somewhat a backstroker, but I haven't been putting the work in. All that said, my backstroke hasn't felt bad, per se, I just haven't worked on it.

I'd had a series of utterly abysmal backstroke starts in warmup using the wedge, so I went back to the tried and true gutter start for the race itself, and it went off mostly without a hitch--the start itself was fine, but I came up after 13 butterfly kicks instead of my normal 14, so apparently a touch shallower than normal. The rest of the race seemed like a good, clean race. I've done the LCM 50 back 5 times before as a Masters swimmer, with my latest time being a 34.83 from nationals in 2015. This time, I went a 34.58! The only time I've got recorded that was faster than that (34.40) was from pool that's flagged as unmeasured in the USMS database, so I'm gonna go ahead and asterisk this swim as my new masters and lifetime PR. :-)

My latest SCY 50 back was a 30.06 from 2019, which puts this swim's delta right at 15%. Even from my recent-ish best time from 2018 of a 28.65, that puts the delta at around 20%, which is still in the ballpark.

Here's the video: My race is at about the 39:30 mark, I'm in lane 2, 2nd from the bottom. Again, the graphic is jacked up as far as times go.

Sunday

This was my heavy day, with the 50 breast, 50 fly, and 200 IM.

50 breast:

Ooh boy, me and sprint breaststroke really do not mix, especially me and LCM sprint breaststroke, since the only reason I'm halfway competitive in SCY breast is because I have relatively great underwaters. I'd never done the LCM 50 breast before, either age group or masters, so the only thing I had to go off of was a 1:31 100 breast from back in 2012 at the same unmeasured pool I mentioned earlier. I pulled off a 38.16, which, given the lack of a measuring stick, feels like a pretty good time!

My most recent SCY 50 breast was a 32.52 from 2019, which would put this swim's delta at about 18%. My masters best SCY 50 breast is a 31.49, which would give a delta of about 21%, so I'm pretty happy with how it went. Felt like a clean race throughout, minus a bit of a sloppy breakout stroke.

Here's the race video. My race is at about the 2:27:30 mark in the video, I'm in lane 6 towards the top of the screen. Times on the screen are still jacked up.

50 fly:

We've been doing a lot more fly in practice lately than I'm used to (I swim with the senior group 3 days a week now and they do a lot more fly than I'm used to doing with the senior prep group) and it's been paying off! I'd done the LCM 50 fly four times prior to this swim and the three previous swims were plateaued at a 32.0--32.02, 32.05, and 32.06. I couldn't get my turnover going like it should for a 50, and felt like my arms were pacing for a 100 fly, but I finally broke 32 with a 31.91! It felt like I maintained my tempo and technique well through the 45m mark and only tightened up a bit on the no-breath finish. Given some of the struggles I've had in the past finishing out some of my SCY 50s fly, I'll take it.

My most recent SCY 50 fly was a 27.32 from 2020 right before everything shut down, which puts the delta for this swim at right around 17%, which is good enough for me!

Here's the race video. My race is at about 43:20 in the video, I'm at the bottom of the screen.

200 IM:

When I'm untapered, and especially when I'm in heavy training, I swim tired. This was the first of my races where I swam tired, and I swam tired from the first stroke all the way through the last stroke. For all the 50s, swimming untapered doesn't really impact me too much, and I had enough adrenaline in the 100 free to not be too affected by it, but this race was like swimming with a piano on my back the whole time.

I'd only swum this once before as a Masters swimmer, back in 2012, and went a 2:51.68. That was pretty much my only yardstick, and I beat it with a 2:47.48! It's a far cry off my lifetime/age group best of a 2:35, but for where I'm at in my training cycle and swimming career, I'll take it. I'd like to think I'd have been closer to a 2:42 or so if I was shaved and tapered right now, but I'm happy with just having beat my 2012 time.

I went a 2:22.45 in the SCY 200 IM in July, which would put the delta for this race at around 18%, right in my target zone. My masters best of 2:14.87 from 2019, on the other hand, would put this at about a 24% delta, which sounds about right.

Here's the race video. My race (well, what little you can see of it) is at about the 1:39:15 mark and I'm 2nd from the top of the screen.

Conclusions

I came out of this meet with 4 lifetime bests! Admittedly, three of those four lifetime bests were for stroke 50s that I most likely hadn't done after the age of 12 as an age grouper, but still. Gotta set lifetime bests at some point! :-D

I'm really happy with how I swam overall. I'm a HUGE shave/taper swimmer and only rarely swim the same times or slower shaved/tapered as I do in-season, and that's pretty much only in the 200 fly. Usually I make pretty significant time drops in-season to tapered, like dropping 5 seconds in the 200 IM, or 4 seconds in the 100 breast, or 4.5 seconds in the 200 free, and so on. For me to go quite solid times at this point in my training cycle, that's a fantastic sign. Barring injuries between now and then that might throw me off my training, I'm expecting to throw down some excellent times come short course nationals at San Antonio at the end of April!

For next year's long course nationals in Richmond, I'm planning to redo the 100 free and 200 IM, though the rest of my event lineup is up in the air right now. Again with the caveat that this is predicated on injuries not derailing my training again, I'm guesstimating a 1:02 high in the 100 free and a 2:40 in the 200 IM with a shave and taper for that meet.

2021 Short Course Nationals Recap

I swam at short course Nats last week and it was definitely a mixed bag!

Like for most folks, this was a weird training cycle, though for me it wasn't just the covid related pool closures. I've had off and on shoulder issues for the past 4-5 years, initially with my right shoulder and for the past 2 years, my left shoulder. It's been diagnosed as micro-tears in the labrum on both sides and, while pretty constant on the left side, got really bad in the January/February timeframe.

I had been training heavily up to that point, hitting 6 practices per week or so, but dropped down to just 2-3 per week, then tapered off to 1-2 per week with some weeks not getting in the water at all. I went to the doctor and got a prescription for rest and PT exercises, so I effectively twiddled my thumbs for several months, not starting to really "train" train again till May.

Even when I started hitting it again in late May, I still eased into it and never got back to the heavy training intensity I had pre-break. 

Anyways, that's all just to say that my training wasn't the same this cycle as it normally is and my conditioning wasn't remotely in the same ballpark it usually is going into Nats. Usually I train heavy from September-April and then taper into Nats in late April/early May, while knocking out 8-10 meets throughout the season before Nats. This time around I had nothing more than a couple intrasquad practice meets and effectively started tapering in February and held the taper through July, which, uh, didn't go as well as you might think. 😁

That aside, here's the recap of the meet!

Friday Events

100 IM

From a technique standpoint, this was a trash race. I had had major issues nailing my breakouts in warmup, I presume due to just being rusty racing and going off the blocks, and started my breakout too far underwater. Besides that, it was great through the flags heading into the back-breast turn. I flat out had a complete brainfart and had no idea what race I was swimming, whether I was swimming a backstroke race, in the middle of the backstroke leg in the 200 IM, or if I was heading into the back-breast turn in the 100 IM. I effectively lost all speed there for a couple seconds as I frantically figured out what I was doing, but thankfully figured it out! After that dumpster fire of a turn, the rest of the race went well.

Honestly, given the poor breakout and atrocious back-breast turn, this was actually quite a respectable swim. I went a 1:02.10, which is my 5th fastest Masters time. I went a 1:00.59 at 2018 Nats, but besides that time my best is a 1:01.42. If I'd had a better breakout and hadn't pissed away so much time at the back-breast turn, I think I probably could have hit a low 1:01/high 1:00. My splits were 29.13 and 32.97. Comparatively speaking, in that 1:00.59 swim, my splits were 27.71 and 32.88. I probably left at least a second in the first 50 with the breakout and back-breast turn. I'd have loved to get my 25 splits to see how they compared!

There's the race video. I'm in lane 1 at the top of the screen. If it doesn't start at the right timestamp, my race is at 18:00. The slowdown going into the back-breast turn is *slightly* noticeable... 😬

100 Free

Like in the 100 IM, I blew the breakout and started my first stroke way too deep. Besides that, it felt like a pretty good race through the 75 and then I just totally shut down on the last lap. I definitely don't think I took it out too fast, which has caused plenty of meltdowns for me in the past, but I had spent most of Thursday on my feet at the zoo and science center with Alaina and Rhys, so I'm sure that was some sort of factor.

My splits were 26.19 and 29.83 for a 56.02. That is my 4th fastest Masters time, with my fastest being a 54.65 (with splits of 26.05 and 28.60) from 2017 Zones. I did the 100 free at one of our intrasquad practice meets earlier in the season and was a 56.59, so it's slightly disappointing to have only dropped half a second from what was effectively a random Saturday practice to Nats.

There's the race video. I'm in lane 6. If it doesn't start at the right timestamp, my race is at 2:05.30. Huh, the video doesn't look as bad as it felt!

Saturday Events

100 Fly

This was one of my worst 100 flys from a technique/performance standpoint, though the time wasn't too atrocious at my 10th fastest out of 23 Masters swims.

I actually hit my breakouts this time, but went too deep off the start and first turn, which resultingly took me one extra kick to get to the surface off both. I felt easy and cruised through the 65y mark or so, then started tightening up going into the 75 turn and utterly imploded on the last 15y or so. Shoulders and legs died and I went vertical, but at least I kept my breathing pattern! The last time I'd swum the 100 fly prior to this was at a meet in December 2019 and I felt much better in that race despite having swum it about 7 minutes after swimming the 200 free.

I went a 28.50 and 34.55 for a 1:03.05. Comparatively, my splits were 28.80 and 34.15 in that December 2019 swim. My last "good" Masters time before that was from March 2017 and I was 27.96 and 32.85 for a 1:00.81. Given how my splits were better in 2019 right after a 200 free, and I fluctuate taking my 100 fly out in anywhere from a 27.5 to a 28.7, I'm gonna chalk this one up to just a lack of conditioning vs pacing the race wrong.

Here's the race video, I'm in lane 6. It starts at 11:38 if the video doesn't take you there automatically.

200 IM

This was the first race I was happy about. I had a series of technique issues throughout, but finally nailed the start and breakout, after botching them on my previous 3 races. I had a whole slew of water inhalation issues on the backstroke leg that led me to losing speed on both the back and breast legs, but my pacing was solid (albeit slow across the board) and I didn't crash and burn like I'd done on the 100 free and 100 fly.

My splits were 30.03, 35.77, 42.59, and 34.06 for a 2:22.45. The overall time is dirt slow as my 13th fastest out of 18 Masters 200 IM swims, including a 2:21.39 at one of the intrasquad practice meets this season, but I didn't die! Compared to my 200 IM at 2019 Nats, my splits then were 28.05, 34.57, 40.03, and 32.22 for a 2:14.87. Absolutely nothing to write home about, but at least it was not a meltdown.

Here's the race video, I'm in lane 6. It starts at 1:23.40 if the video doesn't take you there automatically.

Sunday Events

200 Free

Timewise, this wasn't a great swim, but I was quite happy with it! From a pacing standpoint, I just about nailed it--no shenanigans with crashing and burning, no real technique failures despite some wake water inhalation midway through the race.

My splits were 28.69, 31.49, 32.78, 32.85 for 2:05.81. That time isn't all that bad! It's my 5th fastest out of 12 Masters races, with my 2:01.72 at 2019 Nats being the only swim under 2:03, and with one 2:03 and two 2:04s also faster than my time just now. Looking at my 2:01 from 2019 Nats, my splits then were 27.44, 30.35, 31.87, 32.06 for 2:01.72. Looking at the 2:03 I went in December 2019 (the 200 that was just a few minutes before the aforementioned 100 fly), my splits then were 28.52, 30.93, 31.71, 32.04. At least I'm in the ballpark this time around, with the slowdown being pretty consistent across the 50s.

Here's the race video, I'm in lane 8 at the top of the screen. It starts at 17:10 if the video doesn't take you there automatically.

100 Breast

I'd originally planned to pace this one appropriately, but while waiting behind the blocks due to a starting snafu a few heats ahead of mine, I decided to say eff it and just take it out fast and try to hold on as best as I could. I haven't done any real breaststroke training this cycle, either before or after the shoulder break, so I had no real expectations for how this would go. I'd gone a 1:12.53 at one of the intrasquad practice meets, but besides that hadn't raced one since early 2019, at which point I'd been a 1:09.92.

Oh, I totally crashed and burned at the end, as to be expected for taking it out in a sprint, but the time was decent! I split 32.22 and 38.88 for a 1:11.10, which isn't *that* bad of a time for me. It was my 7th fastest out of 21 Masters swims. Looking at that 2019 swim, my splits were 32.27 and 37.65. Looking at my lifetime PR from 2017, my splits then were 32.32 and 35.67, so my opening speed is good right now, but I don't have the back end, which is pretty much to be expected given my comparative lack of conditioning this cycle.

Here's the race video, I'm in lane 8 at the top of the screen. It starts at 1:10.00 if the video doesn't take you there automatically.

Overall Thoughts

I knew going into this meet that it wasn't going to be as good as my Nats usually are, what with the shoulder issues and comparative lack of conditioning, but I was surprised at how variably my events were affected. 100 IM was theoretically right in the ballpark, 200 free was close, 100 breast was close-ish, but the 200 IM, 100 free, and 100 fly were all off. I was also just rusty! Having not done a real meet in 17 months was quite apparent--breakout issues galore, just general rustiness overall in racing, my starts were pretty pitiful for the first few races (though I was happy with them on both the 200 free and 100 breast), etc.

I'm satisfied with how it went overall, though. Sure, none of the times were what I'd really hoped for, but I love racing and it was great to be back at a real meet.

Looking forward, I've got long course Nats coming up in October in Ohio, then there should be at least a few local meets before short course Nats in the spring in San Antonio, so hopefully getting back in the swing of regular racing, not to mention hopefully no more shoulder malarkey, will set me up well for San Antonio!