2022 USMS Summer Nationals recap

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.