Introduction: I'm Tim. I swam year round from when I was 5 or so until I was 18, took off for college and grad school, then started swimming competitively again in 2011, after a multi year hiatus. To date I've been competing for 25+ years. This is a blog to document my journies in the wonderful, wonderful world of swimming as a Masters swimmer!
Totally unrelated, it looks like this is my 101st blog post about my swimming since I started back up again in 2011. Coolio!
We had the 2022 USMS Long Course Nationals in Richmond this past weekend. Being a relatively local meet (~2 hour drive from home), we took a crew of 16 swimmers to the meet, including Alaina at her first Nats since 2016!
I took an extended break after Spring Nats and really didn't train much at all in the leadup to this meet. After 10+ years of training with nary but a covid shutdown break in 2020, I was a bit mentally burned out. I trained well last season, just needed some mental R&R to get ready to get back to the grind this fall. Beyond that, we traveled a fair amount this summer, so swimming took a back seat to life in general. As a result, from May-this past weekend, I only swam maybe 10 times or so, just enough to keep my feel for the water and not turn into a beached whale.
I went into the meet not expecting any good times, just wanting to put together some decent relay swims and have fun with our first large turnout at Nats since 2016 when I took ~20 swimmers to that meet. I didn't shave my head, only used a trimmer vs a razor on my body, and didn't clip my toenails before the meet (yes, it's weird, but that is the final thing on my checklist for getting meet ready).
Thursday
This was my first day of the meet and it had the 3 events I've trained the least for this summer, even given how little I trained at all in comparison. I had the individual 100 back and 50 fly, then the 50 breast on our men's 200 medley relay. After San Antonio in the spring, I decided that I'm going to take at least a full year off breast training after 4 years of focusing on it and instead switch to back and fly. As a result, I didn't do any breast training at all this summer and only swam it on the relay cuz there was no other feasible option.
100 back
(If the video doesn't load at the right mark, my race starts at 6:58:38, I'm in lane 8 at the top of the screen)
This was a surprisingly excellent race! Going back to the spring, my backstroke has felt strong in practice, but I didn't train it then or this summer, so I had no clue what to expect. My start was a bit iffy (I only do gutter starts, so when racing at pools like this that don't have a gutter, it throws off my start technique), but the rest felt excellent. My underwaters off both walls felt great, my stroke felt strong and smooth, my kick felt steady, and I didn't die.
The 1:15.58 was shockingly a masters PR! My former PR was a 1:16.25 from back in 2015, the last time I raced it at summer nats, but I hadn't expected to come close to that here. I would've been happy, and expected to be, somewhere in the 1:17ish range, so going 1:15 here was a happily unanticipated swim.
On a side note, watching the video, my underwaters and distance per stroke are both much better than the dude next to me. I'm 99% sure I physically cannot spin my arms as fast as he did for the whole race. I think if the pool had been 5m longer, I might've been able to get him on the finish.
Excellent way to open the meet!
50 fly
(If the video doesn't start at the right place, my race starts at 7:59:35 and I'm in lane 1 at the bottom of the screen)
This one was simultaneously a great race and a meh race. Meh in that I couldn't find a higher gear to save my life--it felt like I was swimming an appropriately paced first 50 of a 100 fly, not an individual 50 sprint...and I finished the race without being out of breath. Great in that I didn't fade at all, kept a good steady kick, kept to my planned breathing pattern, and nailed my underwater and breakout.
I've had plenty of fly and dies while swimming fly in long course, including while swimming the 50 fly last year at long course nats, albeit that one was just in the last 5m or so, but I had no such issues here. Honestly, I only swam a single long course 50 fly this entire summer prior to this race, and maybe a total of five 50s fly including short course practices, so for me to not fade at all while doing zero fly training is an excellent sign.
The time was a bit off my 31.91 MPR from last year, but right in the ballpark with my other three 32.0 swims from 2014-2015.
I'm not going to complain!
50 breast on men's 200 medley relay
(If the video doesn't start at the right place, our relay starts at 8:57:00, we're in lane 6 in the top lane and I swam the 2nd leg of the relay, though you really can't see much of my swim)
My start was horrifically slow--the swimmer doing backstroke hadn't practiced backstroke finishes and didn't know where the wall was, so I played it very, very safe on my start timing. That 38.61 is my 2nd fastest masters time after my flat start MPR last year of 38.16, and I'd wager that the difference between the two is almost entirely attributable to my slow start here.
Given that me and sprint breast don't mix at all, this was quite a good swim. Sprint breast for me is always a crapshoot, but I'm happy that I made up significant ground on the guy in the lane next to me for our back half swimmers (it looked like I was ~12m behind him at my takeoff and closed that gap to 5-6m). As a relay we swam way better than we expected based on our seed time, so it was a great race for the four of us!
Friday
Friday was my easy day, with just a 50 free on our mixed 200 free relay on the docket. We spent the day with the boys at the science center before Alaina dropped me off at the pool. Beats sitting at the pool for 8 hours before my race! :-D
50 free on mixed 200 free relay
I managed to slip my left foot while doing the windup part of my relay start and resultingly had a poor dive, then screwed up my stroke/breath count and ended up breathing 3 times instead of my planned 2 times, but I was just a hair off my 28.87 relay MPR from 2014 Nats. Not bad!
Saturday
I had the 50 free, 50 back, and 50 back on the mixed medley relay on the docket. I tried something new for this session. Instead of warming up in the water before each event (they were ~2 hours apart), I instead did dynamic dryland stretching before the races. Lots of regular stretching, arm/leg swings, pylometrics, etc for about 20 minutes before the race. I still went to the warmdown pool after each race and did my normal warmdown, but this was the first time I'd tried the dryland warmup instead of pool warmup. It worked out quite well! I hadn't planned to do that at this meet, but given the crowded warmup pool situation I'd dealt with on Thursday and Friday, I thought I'd give it a shot. Going forward at local meets, I'm considering now doing my main meet warmup first thing, then doing the dryland warmup before my events, but I'll play that by ear.
50 free
(If the video doesn't start in the right place, my race starts at 3:25:50, I'm in lane 2 at the bottom)
Much better race than on the relay! Hit my stroke/breath count and swam this just about as well as I think is possible for me to swim any free sprint. Knocked .19 off my former MPR from last year, so I'll take it!
On a side note, I didn't realize till rewatching the race video that I was stroke for stroke with the guy next to me coming into the finish. Cool!
50 back
(If the video doesn't start at the right place, my race starts at 6:13:20, I'm in lane 2 towards the bottom)
This was a new MPR for me, dropping my former MPR entry time from last year! I had another suboptimal backstroke start here and managed to wrench my neck in the process...which made the race ever so pain-free...but I'm quite happy with it!
50 back on mixed 200 medley relay
(If the video doesn't start in the right place, it starts at 9:21:35, we're in lane 3 towards the bottom)
Holy cannoli, I had an awful start! I don't know what I did--I think I had a better body position on the wall, my feet didn't slip, etc, but I got absolutely zero arch over the water and instead plowed straight back into it. Besides that snafu, I think the rest of the race was better than my individual 50 back. Underwater felt even stronger, stroke felt better on the surface, just think the deficit from the crummy start was too much to overcome. Still, not at all a bad split!
Sunday
I kept up my dryland warmup before my two races this day, the 50 free on the men's 200 free relay and individual 100 free.
50 free on men's 200 free relay
28.62 was a much better race than on the mixed 200 free relay on Friday and a new relay MPR by .25. I'll take it!
100 free
(If the video doesn't start in the right place, my race starts at 5:35:38, I'm at the top of the screen)
This was an ok race. For what it was, I think I paced it well. I tried to turn up the turnover coming off the turn and just didn't have a higher gear to shift into. I didn't die, didn't feel exhausted, just didn't have a higher gear. That's my 2nd fastest masters time, though a good bit off my 1:04.32 MPR from last year. I think this was probably the first race where my lack of training this summer really showed itself. Still, I'll take it! To still put up a respectable time, and more importantly not die, after 4 long days and 8 previous events, especially with a very light training base, is quite a good sign.
Times comparisons
I decided to do some comparisons on my swims from this meet compared to my most recent SCY time (they cover 2019, 2021, and 2022 Nats, so quite a spread!) and compared to my swims at LC Nats last summer.
Event
2022 LCM
Most Recent SCY
Delta
2021 LCM
Delta
50 Free
29.29
24.95
17%
29.48
-1%
100 Free
65.74
55.04
19%
64.32
2%
50 Back
34.41
30.14
14%
34.58
0%
100 Back
75.58
61.19
24%
N/A
N/A
50 Fly
32.09
27.32
17%
31.91
1%
50 Breast*
38.61
32.52
19%
38.16
1%
My strength on the underwaters is what makes me a halfway decent swimmer, and long course has always penalized me accordingly. For me, a good 50 and non-backstroke 100 delta is in the 15-20% range from short course to long course, and a good 100/200 backstroke delta is in the 20-25% range.
My swims were towards the upper end of those deltas, but I stayed in bounds! I do find it interesting how close the delta between these LC swims and last year's LC swims given the big difference in my training base between the two. That gap is really only apparent in the 100 free, everything else is within the margin of error for each race. I'm hoping that's a good sign for this upcoming season!
Overall thoughts
This meet was an unqualified success! I'm much less invested in long course than I am in short course, so that took a lot of pressure off me going into this summer and this meet, which I wasn't sure how it was going to impact my ability to race well, especially given my lack of training in comparison to the short course season. I had a lot of fun, racked up a good number of new MPRs and upper tier times, and got to race on relays again. Going off on a bit of a tangent, I'm a HUGE fan of relays and love to swim them no matter what other events I'm doing or how I'm swimming, and these past few Nats where we haven't had enough people to do relays has been a bummer. 2018 short course Nats was the last one before this one that we had relays at and I really missed it!
Backstroke start issues aside, I'm quite pleased with my performances in my backstroke races; I'm also quite pleased with my endurance and technique in the 50 fly. That helps solidify my plan to switch from training breast to training for back and fly once short course starts back up. If I can put up solid to excellent swims in long course with the shape I'm in right now, what can I do when I actually train for them and train seriously in general? It's been years since I've seriously trained for either stroke, with my emphasis the past ~4 years being almost entirely on breast and free, so I'm excited to work on something different.
It's nice getting back to the normal Nationals schedule of short course in the spring and long course in the summer! In 2020, both were canceled, then last year they were both pushed back--short course was in the summer and long course was in the fall, so this was my first normal Nats cycle since 2019.
Anyway, here's the recap of each event, as well as a comparison at the end of each recap of how my times were compared to my time expectations from before the meet, and capping it off with thoughts for long course this summer and the next short course season starting in the fall.
Note--for anyone who's read my blog, you know I tend to be my harshest critic and don't give myself much slack in evaluating my races, so that's going to be a constant theme in my race recaps/critiques.
Friday
Friday I had my first 2 events of the 6 I had lined up for the meet. First up was the 100 fly, then about 2 hours later I had the 200 free.
100 fly
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 13:30 mark on the video. I'm in lane 3 towards the top of the screen.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the time! That is my 5th fastest Masters time and the fastest I've been since 2017. My only faster swims were two in 2012 (59.53 and 1:01.27), one in 2013 (1:00.18), and one in 2017 (1:00.81). In 2012 I trained just for sprint fly, in 2013 I trained for sprint fly and sprint back, and 2017 I trained just for the 100 and 200 fly. Given that I neither trained fly nor trained for the sprints this season, I'm quite happy to getting back down towards those times.
It wasn't a terrible race, either. Excellent start (side note, I've been very happy with my reaction times in general and have been noticeably off the block quicker than the swimmers on either side of me the past few meets, and you can see that on the video here) and felt great through the 50. Started to feel the fatigue a bit going into the 3rd turn and struggled on the last lap. Dropped a dolphin kick off that turn and started to feel the piano with about 12.5 yards to go. Didn't go vertical, though! I've had some real humdingers where I've gone almost completely vertical, so while that's an exceedlingly low bar, I'm happy to have kept it to a pretty close semblance of normal butterfly. Should've taken another stroke on the finish, though, which might have gotten me under that #4 time from 2012.
Looking at the splits, I don't think I took it out too fast. Digging into my body of work in the 100 fly over the years, I've typically taken it out between a 27 mid and a 28 mid, with some outliers on either end. I think this was me just not being used to doing sprint fly and the energy demands of that race vs the mid distance work we've focused on this season. With some tweaking of my race strategy and taking that extra stroke at the finish, I'm pretty sure I could've pulled out around a 1:01 flat. Either way, I'm happy with how it turned out! Below is a list of my shaved and tapered 100 flys dating back to 2012--it doesn't have any of my in season swims, just my championship swims, to try and compare like with like. In that comparison, it was my 3rd fastest opening 50 and 3rd fastest closing 50, so while not great, it certainly wasn't terrible. I think I could've gotten that 2nd 50 below a 33 with a better turn and finish. I wanted to break 1:01 in this race, so while I missed my goal time, I wasn't too far off.
200 free
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 43:29 mark on the video. I'm in lane 7 closer to the bottom of the screen.
I'm happy with the time overall, as that's a new Masters PR by half a second!
That said, the time doesn't tell the whole story. It was a pretty terrible race from a technical perspective--4 of my 7 turns were really bad and I double breathed going into more than half the turns due to inhaling water twice and being in pretty severe oxygen deprivation for much of the race and honestly not being sure I could even do underwaters at all off those affected turns without taking the extra breath going into the turn.
3 of the bad turns were in a row, at the 75, 100, and 125 turn, with the last bad turn at the 175. 3 of the 4 bad turns were really long, 1 of which was almost long enough for me to miss the wall, and I jammed one turn really badly. On top of that, I choked on water twice in the race, once from the wake from the guy next to me going into the 75 turn and I honestly don't know why I inhaled water the other time. After inhaling water the first time, I was running into oxygen deprivation underwater and shortened my kicks from 3 off the wall to 2 off the wall, and I'm almost positive that's what screwed up my stroke counts after that point.
Looking at the splits (see below for comparison to every other time I've swum it shaved and tapered dating back to 2013), even with the atrocious turns and general lack of oxygen on the back half of that race, I held it together better than it felt. Given my state of suffering from spiraling oxygen debt and just general state of pain, I thought the wheels would have fallen off, but the splits are quite reasonable for me. Going back to 2013, the only swim where I took it out close to that aggressively was back in 2019 at my former MPR swim, and I faded a bit harder in that race than I did here. What I find interesting is that while I took it out substantially faster than every other race but the 2019 one, I also closed it significantly faster than all but that race, too.
I think the parts are there for me to be able to finally break 2:00. I'd been hoping for a 1:59 in that race and definitely think I'd have had it in me if I hadn't screwed up the turns. Oh well, that's a forced error on my part, but all in all I can't complain about going a new masters PR! I definitely need to play around with this race more, I think for next season it's going to be my primary focus event and I'll plan to swim it at every meet that I can, so I can iron out all the bugs and nail down my exact pacing and technique stuff.
Saturday
100 IM
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 32:06 mark on the video. I'm in lane 6 in the middle of the heat.
Ya know, for this race being a textbook example of Murphy's law in action, I'm quite pleased in retrospect with the time. It was my 5th fastest time after swims of 1:00.59 in 2018, 1:01.42 in 2017, 1:01.56 in 2013, and 1:01.77 in 2012, and was the fastest I've gone in this event since 2018. From that perspective, this was a good race!
From a technique perspective, this was hot garbage. My back foot slipped on the start and I entered deep and twisted to one side, which threw off my kick and stroke count for the fly lap, my feet were too high on the fly-back turn and I went too deep pushing off on back which threw off the kick and stroke count for that lap, I jammed the back-breast turn due to my stroke count being off and as a result had a subpar underwater pullout due to just being pretty discombobulated, then I inhaled water on the breast-free turn and came up early in order to hack out the water and actually get some air. In short, except for me getting DQed, pretty much anything that could go wrong in that race did go wrong!
Looking at the splits in comparison to my other shaved and tapered 100 IMs dating back to 2012, it's a mixed bag. The first 50 was slow, which, given the struggles I had on the start and first two turns, I'm not at all surprised about, but the second 50 was actually not terrible. With better underwaters on breast and free I'd like to think I could've brought it back around the same split I brought back last year's overall slower IM (1:02.10 vs 1:01.90) home in, which would have put my time around a 1:01.4, right in the vicinity of my #2 time from 2017. Between the flags I'm pretty happy with how I swam, it was just the dumpster fire turns and start that I wasn't happy with for this race. Given my top end speed struggles all season, I'd had a goal time of 1:01.5, so I was in the ballpark!
Sunday
This was my hardest day on paper, with the 200 IM, 100 free, and 200 breast on tap, though going into it I expected Friday to be a harder day. The 200 IM doesn't kick me in the gut like it does for other people, the 100 free has never made a big impact on me in the grand scheme of things, and the 200 breast *usually* doesn't impact me nearly as much as, say, the 200 back does. That said, I'd been sleeping like utter crap due to the godawful AC in my hotel room alternating seemingly alternating between 22 degrees and 82 degrees at night and making it impossible for me to sleep for more than an hour or two at a stretch without waking up soaked in sweat or freezing my toes off, and several nights of crap sleep was definitely affecting me even before I got to the pool for warmup. I just felt tired overall, far more than I should've for the event lineup I'd swum on Friday and Saturday, and far more than I'd ever felt going into day 3 of Nats, even when I'd had a much heftier lineup, a la 2019 and the all-200 lineup.
200 IM
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 4:31:50 mark on the video. I'm in lane 8 towards the top of the heat.
This was...a disaster...plain and simple. I've had this momentary thing (truly momentary, as in it will happen for a half hour or so then go away for months at a time with no lasting effects) a few times over the past few seasons where the front of my right knee below my kneecap will become very weak and not be able to support any weight. When that happens, things such as climbing out of the pool or bending over on the block to assume the starting position become very dicey propositions and my right knee has legit buckled due to not being able to support weight when that's happened.
Welp, it happened while I was practicing starts in warmup before the 200 IM. I did 3 starts off the block and the first 2 were just fine and dandy, then on my 3rd and last start, it collapsed on me when I bent over for the start and I nearly took a header off the block. I spent the ~30 minutes between then and my race trying to stretch and roll out my knee, but pretty much to no avail.
Getting up on the block, it felt wonky, then when I bent over on the start, it buckled and thankfully the starter signaled the start then, otherwise I'd have likely gotten DQed for a false start. I basically fell off the block and that part below my kneecap hurt on every single kick all the way through the 125 of the race. I deliberately held back and didn't push the kick through that point and effectively wrote off the event before I even made it through the first 25. I didn't drive my kicks hard, I didn't push hard and try to explode off the wall, I didn't do the back-breast crossover turn even though I'd nailed the stroke count for it, and I kept my breast kick looser than normal to try and not put extra torque on my knee. The pain vanished after the 125 turn, though, and while I still didn't try to explode off the walls out of caution, I did kick hard on the surface.
On the plus side, though, even with all that garbage, I still went my 3rd fastest masters time after times of 2:14.87 in 2019 and 2:15.27 in 2017, so I dunno! I'd gone into this meet thinking a 2:13 was a reasonable goal time, so to be just 6 seconds off swimming with a bum knee, I can't complain *too* much about it. Here's the comparison with all my other shaved and tapered 200 IM swims.
I'm actually pretty surprised about my fly split--while it *should* have been around the 28 flat from 2019, it felt far slower than it actually was due to being gimpy. The back split looks about as slow as it felt--I dropped 2 butterfly kicks off both walls to baby my knee and it felt pretty wonky the entire 50. The breast split actually wasn't terrible! My 2017-2018 heyday of being able to actually sprint breast seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, but stripping out that 2017 split shockingly leaves this as my 2nd fastest one. I think I just muscled through the free and it surprisingly wasn't terrible, at my 3rd fastest closing split.
100 free
I was a man seeking redemption for this race! Ever since warm down after the 200 IM debacle, my right knee had been peachy keen and back to normal with no signs of weakness. I felt pumped up and ready to rumble!
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 6:25:00 mark on the video. I'm in lane 3 towards the bottom of the heat.
This was my 3rd fastest Masters time after a 54.65 in 2017 and a 54.80 in 2019. I think I'd have had a great shot at taking down at least the 2019 swim here, but my feet slipped on the 3rd turn and I ended up going deep on that underwater and needing to surface at a sharp angle, which then resulted in my stroke count for the finish being about half a stroke off.
Honestly, though, I have nothing really to complain about with this race. I split it well, I nailed my race strategy, and with the exception of that slip on the last turn, everything went exactly how I wanted it to. The only and only race at this meet where that was the case! :-D
Here's the split comparison with my other shaved and tapered 100s. The key difference between this one and my two faster swims was the first 50, and that I think was a key indicator of my wilful lack of sprint training this season. Looking back at my 200 free from day 1, I took that out in a 27.06 vs this 26.35, yet I hammered it a hell of a lot harder on this first 50 than I did on that one. I struggled all season to be able to find that top gear, and I can see that here. Given how much harder I swam this first 50 than taking out my 200, I'd have liked to be a 26.0 or maybe even a high 25. I'm happy with how I closed, though! Minus the kerfuffle on the 3rd turn and longish finish, I likely could have dipped under 2019's 28.57. I didn't have a set goal time for this race, since my top end speed was better in both 2017 and 2019, but I'd wanted to get back into the 54s. So close!
Again, nothing really to complain about with this race, I'm quite happy with how it turned out!
200 breast
Yikes! I've never had a 200 breast that's just completely fallen apart on me like this... 😬
Those are the splits and video link for the race. If the race video didn't sync to the right location for my race, it starts at about the 7:49:15 mark on the video. I'm in lane 8 towards the bottom of the heat.
I honestly have no idea what happened with this one. I felt great through the 125, felt calm and controlled, and then my lungs pretty much spontaneously combusted on the underwater off the 125 turn and the wheels just fell off from there. The last 50 was the most painful last 50 I can recall ever swimming in a 200 breast. I dunno if it was mental fatigue from a series of not-great swims, the lack of quality sleep catching up to me all of a sudden, my breaststroke suddenly not being there, something else, or a combination of any or all of the above. 🤷
The splits aren't pretty and the split comparison isn't pretty, either. This swim has the distinction of having both the slowest opening 100 and slowest closing 100 out of any of my shaved and tapered swims, even dating back to 2016 when I was in much worse swimming shape and wasn't able to hit the breast times in practice that I've been able to consistently hit this season. Given how much slower I took it out than normal, I definitely don't think this was a case of me going out too fast and then crashing and burning, so I dunno what was the problem with this race. Given what I was putting up in practice, I'd thought I had a legit shot at hitting a 2:30.
Overall thoughts
Ya know, this definitely wasn't the Nats that I'd hoped for or expected, but all in all I'm fairly pleased with it. I had a few standout swims, and even the suboptimal swims...except for the 200 breast...gave me solid feedback on things to work on. Again, except for the 200 breast, I turned out solid times across the board. Only one PR, but the other 4 swims were all respectable.
One thing I definitely didn't like about this pool, since they renovated it at some point between when we last swam here in 2015 and this year, is the wall surfacing. It is stainless steel and whatever coating they have on it does nothing to prevent it from being as slick as uncoated stainless steel. My feet moved around on every single turn at the far end of the pool, and while I didn't outright lose traction and have my feet slip out from the right position on every turn, it is disconcerting to feel some slipping back and forth every single time they make contact with that wall. Given that's a world class pool, it boggles my mind that that is the wall coating they went with, and slipping on the turn end was a constant theme of conversation between people I knew at the meet and people I overheard warming up and cooling down. I've swum in other Myrtha pools and none of them are anywhere near as slick as this one, so it just mystifies me that this one is so slippery.
Long course Nats and next short course season
Now that short course Nats is over and done with, it's time to start thinking about long course Nats in Richmond in August! I don't know what my exact event lineup will be, but I'm planning on no IMs and no breast. 50 fly is a go, 100 and 200 frees are a go, 100 and 200 back are a go, and maybe even the 400 free. Depending on what my speed training looks like this summer, I might do the 50s again like I did last year, or I might just stick with the 100+ for free and back. I think I'm going to take a break from breast for a season or two, since I've been swimming it regularly since 2017. My back felt pretty good this season on the irregular occasions I swam it, so I think it might be time to put the work back in to get it up to par, since it's been quite a while since I focused on it.
For short course next year, while I'm definitely in the hypothetical range right now since the summer is going to play a big part in informing what I do in the fall and spring, I'm contemplating taking more of a speed focus and working on the 50/100/200 free, the 50/100 fly, and 50/100 (and maybe the 200) back. The 50s will require that I find that elusive top gear that I couldn't find at all this season, so I'll need to somehow get that sorted out if I want to swim satisfactory 50s next year.
Albatross Open is often the only SCM meet I do every year, and usually is my last in season meet before championship season (championship season is usually Zones in early April and Nationals in late April, though I only shave and taper for the latter; for unknown reasons to me, there was no Zones this year). This was my first Albatross Open, and first SCM meet, since 2018.
I'm not a fan of SCM in general, in the context that it's just one meet a season and I don't swim SCM in practice, nothing against SCM in principle. For those who aren't familiar with SCM, the key problem for me is that the flags are set at 5m from the wall instead of 5y from the wall as for SCY. It's not a huge difference just looking at the numbers, but it comes out to about a ~.75 stroke difference for backstroke, on top of the general stroke count difference going from SCY to SCM. When you spend all season dialing in your stroke counts for 25y and then randomly have a meet that's in SCM with different stroke counts across the board, it's a pain in the butt!
Anyways, I swam 3 events, the 100 free, 100 back, and 50 fly. Those aren't my normal lineup for this meet, but I looked at this meet this year as my final chance to pick my last two events for Nationals. The potential options for those last two events coming into the meet: 50/100/200 back, 50 fly, 100 free, and 100 IM. The 100 back was going to serve as a proxy for both the 100 and 200 back, while the 100 free and 50 fly were 1:1 comparisons for their respective events.
100 free
I swam this last at Tropical Splash in January and that was an utter dumpster fire of a race with me almost completely missing the wall at the 75 and losing all momentum as a result, resulting in a correspondingly abysmally slow time.
Didn't have that issue this time around! The only problem I had in this race was unintentionally starting my flip too early at the 3rd turn and having to stretch it way out mid-flip, which ended up being a slow turn, though I was able to stretch it out long enough that I hit the wall in the right position and got a good push, unlike at Tropical Splash. I also switched from a 4-2 breathing pattern to a 2-2 breathing pattern midway down the 3rd lap instead of just on the 4th lap due to inhaling a bit of wake and needing to breathe earlier than anticipated, but otherwise a very solid race.
This was my 2nd fastest masters time after a 1:01.9 in 2017. The last time I swam this, in 2018, I went a 1:04.6, so I'm happy that this swim was trending in the right direction. Depending on which swim conversion calculator I use, 1:02.77 converts to SCY in the 56.4-56.5 range, which is actually a bit faster than my fastest in season time of 54.8!
My top end speed isn't there yet, but historically that's the case until I start tapering when I've been training for 200s as I have been this season, vs when I train for the sprints, so I'm not worried right now, especially with having gone an excellent time even with a somewhat flawed race.
100 back
Unlike the 100 free, this one was a straight up dumpster fire. In warmup I'd had a devil of a time trying to nail down my SCM stroke count and was very hit or miss. That continued here.
On the start, both feet slipped straight down off the pad and I got zero push off the wall. The underwaters are my strength in back and are a comparative advantage against most people I race against, especially on the start, yet I came up dead last by almost a body length compared to everyone I could see. Adding insult to injury, I blew the first two turns and started my turn at the right point for a SCY race, not a SCM race...early enough that I should have been DQed on both turns because I finished the pulldown well before I initiated the flip due to just badly misjudging how far away I was. That was a lot of just dead time in the water gliding into the wall, which torpedoed my speed. At least I finally got it figured out for the last turn and nailed it there, so the race wasn't a *total* s-show.
All that said, this was my 4th fastest out of 6 SCM 100 backs, so not a terrible time in the grand scheme of things, but not a great time (my times have ranged from a mid 1:10 to a high 1:13). I think the start and first two turns added up to at least a 1.5 second deficit, which would've pushed this to around my 2nd fastest time, which really isn't bad. If anything, it speaks to my speed having increased on the surface compared to the past, if I can have atrocious walls and start and still be in the running compared to my historical times without such egregious user error issues.
50 fly
I was pretty happy with this time! I really haven't spent any time this season on top end speed, and have spent zero time on top end fly speed, so I just threw this out there as a what the hell swim.
I couldn't turn it into high gear on the first lap and got stuck on the wall on the turn--I hit the wall at the appropriate arm length away, but misjudged it a bit and was diving down into the wall because I thought I was further away than I actually was; as a result, while I hit at the right arm length, my feet were up and my upper body was down and it took subjectively FOREVER to complete the turn. Pretty sure I've had faster turns in my 200 fly! On the 2nd lap, I think I found that high gear I couldn't find on the 1st lap, but my pull, kick, and body motion all felt out of sync.
Still, I'll take it! I'd only swum this twice before in SCM, both times way back in the '11-12 season when I trained just for sprint fly, and this split the difference between the times for those two swims. Depending on the conversion calculator, this time converts to a 27.6-27.7 for SCY. The last time I was faster than that in season was way back in the fall of 2012, when I went a 26.4. I've got quite a few 50s fly that are in the mid-26 to mid-27 range, but they are all from Zones when I've already started my speed focus leading up to Nationals and am at the beginning stages of my taper, so this is an excellent time even with the absurdly slow turn.
Overall thoughts and Nationals stuff
This was definitely an up and down meet. Issues galore (admittedly, mostly user error) with my 100 back and, to a lesser extent, the 50 fly, but all in all I'm happy with all three events warts and all.
100 free: Good signs all around. It made up for the utter debacle that was the 100 free at Tropical Splash, so it made it in as my 5th event for Nats.
100 back: Shit show of a race, but promising signs for my over water speed, especially in conjunction with my pretty good 50 back from Annapolis 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, I'd have to devote a substantial amount of time and energy to ironing out the flaws in my backstroke over the next few weeks before Nats to be comfortable putting up a clean race in any of the three backstrokes, time that could be better spent on my other events/strokes, so no backstroke at Nats outside the IMs. Next year I might bring it back.
50 fly: Surprisingly solid, but not solid enough to make the cut for Nats. Excellent sign for my 100 fly there, though!
With those decisions, that brought my Nationals lineup out to the 100 fly and 200 free on Day 1, 100 IM on Day 2, and the 200 IM, 100 free, and 200 breast on Day 3. The 100 IM is potentially a throwaway event, since it was ridiculously slow at Tropical Splash but I've put up separate solid races of the individual strokes and had a good 200 IM at Annapolis, so I *should* be able to put up a solid 100 IM at Nats.
My dives were excellent yesterday. From what I could see peripherally, I was the first off the blocks and got just about the furthest distance on both dives, even with their postage stamp size blocks, so I'm quite happy with that! I'm hoping that at Nats with their large wedged blocks, I'll continue to keep my start as a strength point.
The results from the Annapolis meet last weekend got sent out and my splits in the 200 IM were interesting, so I thought I'd do a quick analysis comparing it to several other 200 IMs I've swum, primarily my 2019 Tropical Splash race, which was my last in-season 200 IM prior to this one, and was the leadup to my MPR at 2019 Nats. I'll also do an analysis on my troubling 100 breast splits.
Here are the splits from this and several other 200 IMs, all ones that went around the same time plus my two fastest Masters 200 IMs, from Zones 2017 and Nats 2019. The splits from this meet are on the left, with the rest of the splits going slowest to fastest left to right.
Meet
2022 Annapolis
2021 Nats
2013 Zones
2017 Tropical Splash
2012 Zones
2019 Tropical Splash
2017 Zones
2019 Nats
Fly
29.84
30.03
29.28
29.41
27.89
30.17
29.34
28.05
Back
35.54
35.77
34.66
34.78
35.26
35.99
35.01
34.57
Breast
41.86
42.59
42.06
41.54
42.11
40.38
38.75
40.03
Free
32.82
34.06
34.25
34.21
34.36
33.00
32.17
32.22
Total Time
2:20.06
2:22.45
2:20.25
2:19.94
2:19.62
2:19.54
2:15.27
2:14.87
Analysis of the splits:
Fly: Meh, it's ok. I consciously didn't push it that hard on the fly and think I probably had a 28 mid/low in me if I'd pushed it. That said, it's within the range of my normal post-2012 splits. Of note, it compares well to my 2019 Tropical Splash split of 30.17, so I hope come Nats I'll be able to drop it below a 28.05.
Back: I dropped a few butterfly kicks off both walls due to not enough oxygen, so I'm not surprised it's firmly average. I'd like to think I'd have had a high 34 with better underwaters and more oxygen, but it again tracks well compared to my 2019 TS split.
Breast: Yeah, I expected this one to be slow. The majority of my breast speed comes from my underwater pullout and I shortened that way down (I think almost 2 body lengths less than normal off both walls) due to the whole lack of oxygen thing. Frankly, I expected this split to be closer to 43 seconds given how much I shortened the underwaters, so I'll count it as a win!
Free: Surprisingly good! Again, really short underwaters, but that's my 3rd fastest closing split after my two fastest shaved/tapered swims at 2017 Zones and 2019 Nats, and is faster than my 2019 TS closing split, so I'll definitely take it. That's a great sign of my conditioning and I'd be very happy if I'm able to close in the :31 range at Nats.
All in all, it was a surprisingly well split race given the water inhalation and corresponding lack of underwaters. Breast was the key leg that was slower than 2019 TS, which makes sense since that's the one that is most affected by my underwaters, but the rest was better split than that race. If I'd been able to replicate my breast split from that meet here, I'd have been a 2:18.5, which would have been an in season PR, and honestly wouldn't have been out of the question given my other splits.
My goal time for the 200 IM at Nats is a 2:13, and if I can have a drop at Nats similar to my drop from 2019 TS to 2019 Nats, I think that's within reach! 😁
For the 100 breast, the splits were nowhere near as promising as the splits for the 200 IM. Here's an analysis of the splits, with the splits from this meet on the left, the splits for the first 100 of my 200 at Tropical Splash in January, and then going down to my fastest in season splits on the right.
Meet
2022 Annapolis
2022 Tropical Splash 200
2022 Severna Park
2015 Sprint Classic
2018 Tropical Splash
2021 Spring Nats
2017 Sprint Classic
2019 Annapolis
1st 50
33.85
36.02
34.12
33.33
33.79
32.22
32.44
32.27
2nd 50
39.15
39.34
39.00
39.51
38.79
38.88
38.13
37.65
Total Time
1:13.00
1:15.36
1:13.12
1:12.84
1:12.58
1:11.10
1:10.57
1:09.92
Two key comparisons, to Severna Park last month (which was an utter dumpster fire of a race) and to the first 100 of my 200 at Tropical Splash in January:
Severna Park: Annapolis *felt* like a much faster race. No goggle issues, no bottoming out in the 2.5' turn end on the underwaters, and my stroke just felt faster, yet the race was just a smidge faster. I really don't know why!
Tropical Splash: The fact that my cruise 2nd 50 of my 200 at TS, and while not wearing a tech suit, is nearly the same speed as the 2nd 50 of my sprint 100 is concerning. I didn't swim that 2nd 50 too fast at TS, I paced it appropriately (in season I tend to split between :3-:40 on that 2nd 50), which means it's just a bit faster than cruise tempo. I guess I really do have some sort of a breakdown between my cruise tempo and my sprint tempo, cuz I took 8 and 9 strokes per lap on the 2nd 50 at Annapolis vs 6 and 7 at Tropical Splash, yet nearly went the same time.
The rest of the compared races: With the exception of 2019 Annapolis' 2nd 50, my 2nd 50 wasn't *that* far out of ordinary in comparison, but my 1st 50 was quite a bit off the mark.
I really don't know what's going on with my sprint breast, but suffice it to say I don't have "it" this year. The 2nd 50 at this meet wasn't too terrible, but I just flat out don't have the speed to go out. Heck, in 2019 at this same meet, my opening splits in the *200* breast were 33.58 and 37.94, so clearly something is wrong this year. On the flip side, I'm quite happy with the 2:39 I swam in the 200 at Tropical Splash, so it seems the problem is with my sprint speed, not my 200 endurance.
