200 free
I went a 2:04.24, which is my second fastest in season time!
My main goal at this meet was to just swim a better race than at Tropical Splash two weeks ago (I'd completely screwed up the pacing there and took it out way too slow, going about 2.5 seconds slower than here), and it worked! Splits haven't been published yet, but it sure felt like I pushed the 2nd and 3rd 50s harder than last time.
Still not a clean race, I jammed a couple turns and had some breathing pattern snafus, but I'm quite happy with that time! This is a, uh, less than desirable pool for fast racing--6 lanes and only about 3 feet deep at the turn end, so for me to go a 2nd fastest in season time (the only one faster was at a much nicer, much faster pool at a kids meet in 2019) in that condition is excellent!
100 fly
I went a 1:03.99, which is my 4th fastest in season time, and 2nd fastest since all the way back in 2017.
This race was a comedy of errors! I was glued to the lane rope despite my best efforts for about half the race and whacked my arm on the rope at least 6 times, I had really long turns at the 25 and 75, and completely misjudged my breakout depth off the 50 turn and surfaced in full streamline thinking I had another kick to go before breaking out. On the plus side, I didn't die, I didn't go vertical, and I kept my 2 up/1 down breathing pattern throughout! I'd like to think I'd have been a 1:02 or maybe even a 1:01 without that cavalcade of errors, but still, it was quite a good time all things considered.
I haven't trained much fly in practice this season, only doing fly when explicitly instructed to as part of a set, and it's flip flopped from one day to the next as to whether it feels good or feels terrible, so I didn't really have much in the way of expectations for this race ahead of time. I figured I'd be anywhere from 1:03 to 1:10, so I hit that! There was about a 30 minute break between the 200 free and this race, but I felt 100% fine. I typically prefer 45+ minutes turnarounds to be optimal, but I saw no side effects for this race.
100 breast
I went a 1:13.12, which is...slow...
My goggles came off on the start and I swam the race mostly blind. I could see relatively well above the water, but tried to limit how much my eyes were open underwater on the pullouts since the chemicals made my eyes blaze. As a result, I managed to scrape the bottom on both the 25 and 75 turns since the depth at that end was only about 3', and I habitually go deep on my pullouts. There's also just something that feels deeply wrong about trying to force my stroke at faster than 200 pace, so it also just felt weird throughout.
Probably would have been a 1:12, maybe even a 1:11 if I'd been able to keep myself from bottoming out on those two turns, but I dunno. I took my 200 breast out in a 1:15 two weeks ago, so to go a 1:13 here is...yeah, not great.
Overall thoughts
Two out of three ain't bad! I'm quite happy with the 200 free and 100 fly. That 100 breast will just join the ranks of races I never want to speak of or think about again, but the other two were quite promising.
I definitely felt better at racing than at Tropical Splash, so it seems like the rust is coming off. I've got two more meets to shake off more rust before Nats, so I'm cautiously optimistic about geting back to more or less full top tier racing form by Nats.
Another plus was that my starts felt excellent for all three races! My starts felt rusty at TS, but that was not the case here. I don't remember if they had them at this pool the last time I swam here in 2019, but they have the foot wedges on the blocks now, and I felt dialed in with them yesterday. I was the quickest off the blocks on all three races and felt like I got good distance and speed off of them. When they're firing on all cylinders my starts are one of my strong suits, so I was happy to have three great ones in a row!
With this meet, my Nationals lineup is now 50% solidified. The 200 free, 200 breast, and 100 fly are definitely on the docket, but the remaining three events are TBD. I'll be spreading out the remaining options between the next two meets, so by the first weekend in April, right before the Nats entry deadline, I'll know what my lineup will be.
