UMBC Meet recap

Today I had a meet at UMBC. This used to be an annual meet for me, but the last time I went was 2023. I signed up for the 100 IM, 50 free, and 200 IM, and also broke out a new in-season meet suit since I've lost enough weight and wore my last tech suit enough that it no longer qualifies as much more than a practice jammer.

100 IM

Not a great start, to be honest. I nailed all my starts in warmup, but kinda bombed this one and went super shallow. Usually I aim for 7 butterfly kicks before the breakout, this time I awkwardly surfaced on my 4th kick. I didn't slip or anything like that on the dive, just for whatever reason, I went very flat and shallow. 🤷

That messed up my stroke count on the first 25 and, despite adding an extra stroke that I thought would be enough, I stupidly initiated the turn a full stroke too far away from the wall.

Besides that snafu, the rest of the race felt great! The fly felt good, start and turn aside, and the other three strokes also felt good.

I went a 1:04.99, my 2nd fastest in-season time since 2020 pre-shutdown, and just barely off my fastest in-season time since 2020 of 1:04.97 in 2022. I think I would've comfortably cleared 1:04.97 with a better start and fly leg, and likely would've been pushing a low/mid 1:04. I'll take it, though!

50 free

This was simultaneously an great and awful race... 🤣

My goggles broke on the start (the knot had been slipping on the nosepiece for the past week, and despite retying it a couple times, it decided to give up the ghost here) and I swam the race blind. I could blurrily see the line on the bottom, so I was able to swim straight, but I couldn't see the wall at all. I tried to guess where the wall was at the turn based on my stroke count and almost completely whiffed. I hit fully straight legged with just the tips of my toes lightly grazing the wall, and got almost nothing out of the turn, doing my butterfly kicks from basically a dead stop.

It wasn't fully intentional, since I was kinda in panic mode over swimming it without goggles, but I took zero breaths down and just one back, which was my first time ever doing that as a masters swimmer, and possibly ever doing that even going back to my age group days. Prior to this season I usually took one down and two back, so it's a noticeable change.

Even with that atrocious turn (thankfully I guessed appropriately for the finish!), I went a 26.4, significantly faster than the 27.5 I went in my last in-season 50 in December 2024. I think I might've been able to break 26 with a clean turn, but that's a shoulda, coulda, woulda. The last time I went faster than a 26.4 in-season was all the way back in 2017, so I definitely will take it!

200 IM

I only had about 10 minutes between the 50 free and this race, enough time to grab my backup goggles, swim a 200 cool down, and stretch behind the blocks. I hadn't swum this race in season since 2023, so I felt rusty. Fly felt good and appropriately paced, but my pacing was way too slow on the back and breast, then I got back in the swing of things on free. That's on me with a poor race strategy, not really a lack of conditioning. Besides that, it was a clean race start to finish--good start, hit all my turns, my strokes felt fine, etc.

I went a 2:27 and change, thankfully faster than the 2:31 I went in 2023, but sloooow overall. If I'd swum the middle 100 correctly, I probably could've chopped 3-4 seconds off that time, but it is what it is.

I haven't trained for the 200 IM in a few years, so while this was a far cry from my old in-season range of ~2:18-2:23 when I actually trained for this event and raced it regularly, it wasn't awful, per se. Swimming it properly probably would've gotten me to right around the upper end of that range, so I'll chalk this up to me being rusty for this particular event.

Overall thoughts

In no particular order:

1) It was nice wearing a legitimate tech suit again! My last one was a legit tech suit when I got it, but after wearing it so often and losing so much weight, it wasn't doing much for me anymore. This new one, a Speedo LZR Pro 2.0, is good. Not great, as befits it's positioning as a mid tier tech suit, but quite sufficient for in-season purposes.

2) I was most surprised by the 50 free today. I've been struggling with top end speed for the past couple of seasons, so while no one will ever mistake me for an actual sprinter, a 26.4 is actually a pretty good in-season time for me. I only have 5 in-season times that have been faster than that, with 4 coming from 2012/2013 and 1 from 2017. With a better turn, this probably would've been one of my fastest in season times.

3) Bookends of the first 25 aside, I was quite happy with the 100 IM. I don't have *that* many in-season times that have been faster, though to be fair, most of the ones that have been faster were in the 1:02 range, so a noticeable gap. I plan to do this at least once more before the Nats entry deadline, so (presuming I fix the snafus I had in this particular race) I'm interested to see what I get to for a time.

4) I keep talking about in-season times. I think I've covered this before, but I'm a shave and taper animal and usually swim markedly faster at whatever my championship meet is than I do in-season. Take the 100 IM, for example. I went that 1:04.97 in-season in 2022, then went a 1:01.90 at Nats that season. Historically, that's been the case for most events I swim--I drop a significant chunk from my in-season times to my Nats/Zones time. I expect that trend will continue this season, but I'm not 100% sure. In seasons past, I hadn't effectively taken 2 years off like I did the past 2 seasons, I wasn't lifting like I have been this season, and I trained differently in the pool. This is a rebuilding year and I don't expect to see the full benefits of it until next season, so I'm just happy with whatever progress I make this season. Will I be able to take my 1:04.99 in the 100 IM from today down to a 1:01 at Nats in 2 months? I don't know, but historically that's certainly in the range of what I can expect.

5) For Nats, the only two events that I know for sure I will swim are the 100 back and 100 IM. I have cuts in the 100 back and 200 back (the only two cuts I have right now), but I haven't swum the 200 back yet this season to see how it goes. That event is on my docket for one of the meets that's in two weeks. I haven't decided for sure what else I'll swim at the double header of meets that weekend, but there are quite a few other events I haven't swum yet this season that I want to knock out in the 4 remaining meets I'll swim before Nats. I expect I'll likely only end up with ~4 events at Nats instead of my usual full 6 event lineup.

6) All in all, I'm feeling quite motivated by my swims at this meet. Lots and lots of errors to be sure, forced and otherwise, but I'm making noticeable progress both timewise and in getting back into racing form. I'm feeling more natural on the blocks and swimming an event, my times are coming down, and I'm picking up the racing muscle memory again.

Severna Park meet recap - 2/21/26

I had a meet yesterday and picked three events I haven't trained specifically for so far this season, the 100 fly, 100 free, and 100 breast. There was also the Plunge, the marquee event of the meet, but the less said about the utter travesty of it, the better.

This meet is held every year at a small community center pool. It's 6 lanes, old, and has a waist deep turn end. Not exactly made for top tier racing, but it's a fun meet and was a regular part of my annual meet schedule pre-covid.

I decided to "suit" up for this meet and will do so for the remainder of the meets this season. That said, the old meet suit I wore is a *bit* too large (I'm now down >55 lbs from my peak last spring!) and had about as much compression as a not very tight practice jammer, so I don't know if I really got anything out of wearing this suit.

100 fly

My fly endurance has felt decent lately, but I have done zero 100-specific fly training. I went into this event not having any real expectations besides hoping to go faster than the last time I swam this, a 1:10 from January 2024. The first 50 felt good, though I was about half a stroke long on both of the first two turns, and then I started to tighten up going into the third turn. I made the stupid decision to take an extra breath midway down on the third lap (in the 100 fly I aim for a 3/1 breathing pattern), and that mentally threw me completely off my breathing pattern after that and I couldn't get back into a good rhythm for the remainder of the race. I had also done a very heavy upper body weights workout on Thursday, and that particular piano hit me in full force on the last lap. Add in shallower underwaters off the first and third turn than I normally do, and it wasn't my cleanest race by a long shot.

Still, I went a 1:09 low, which was about a second faster than the 1:10 from 2 years ago, so I'll take it! Splits were a 31 mid and 38 low, so yeah, that piano was definitely present.

100 free

I went a 59 flat the last time I swam this, back in December, and I was hoping I'd be sub-58. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into gear on the first 25. Things clicked coming off the first turn and I was happy with how the rest of the race went.

28 low and 30 high splits for a few hundredths slower than I went in December. Not the sub-59 I was hoping for, but I was happy with everything but the lack of top end speed on the first 25. I'll take it!

100 breast

I've pretty much only done breast in the context of doing IM sets so far this season, so I had no real expectations going into this meet. This was my third 100 breast so far this season, after two years of not doing it at all. Breast is the stroke I've done the least of this season and 100 pacing is the least pacing I've done this season, so I've just rolled the dice each of the three times I've swum it so far.

Honestly, it felt pretty good! Neither of the previous 100s breast felt particularly good, but this felt solid throughout. I had to go way shallower than I normally do off the first and third turns, which definitely hampered my underwaters there, but the rest felt right on the money. 

Splits of 35 high and 39 low, for my fastest 100 breast since back in 2022 and almost a 1.5 second drop since my last time swimming this in December! Interestingly, my 2nd 50 in the 100 breast ever since covid has fluctuated between a 38 mid and 39 low, and almost all of the variance from one time to the next has been in the first 50. That single post-covid faster time in 2022 was almost exactly 2 seconds faster on the first 50 and another 39 low on the second 50. Plays into the overall theme I've seen so far this season of having a decent aerobic base but not really any top end speed.

Interesting analysis aside, I'll take it!

Thoughts in light of the season overall

The 100 breast was surprising, I did not expect it to be that fast (relatively speaking) or feel that good. I don't think I'll get down to a Nats cut in it this season, but I want to try this again at least one more time this season in a pool that's not shallow. This meet and the last meet were both in less than ideal pools, so I want to get at least one more 100 breast in this season in a normal pool before the Nats entry deadline in April. I'm about 5 seconds off from the Nats cut right now and think I've got at least another 2-3 seconds in me in a pool where I'm not handicapped on two of the turns. I'm gonna start adding actual BR training in practice beyond just IM training.

My dives continued to feel great at this meet! I'm getting good power off the blocks and, despite often saying mostly tongue in cheek that I don't have a single fast twitch muscle in my body, my reaction time consistently gets me off the block first. My personal trainer has had me doing pylometrics once a week in my weight room regimen, and it's paying off.

100 fly is out as a focus event for Nats, I think. I've got a roughly 8 second gap between what I went yesterday and the Nats cut, and I don't think I have 8 seconds in me to drop in the next 2 months. It still might be a bonus event for me at Nats, but it won't be a focus event.

I decided to buy a new tech suit for the remainder of my in-season meets before Nats. There should be 5 more that I can hit up before Nats, though the last two are after the Nats entry deadline. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think I got anything out of the tech suit I wore yesterday, which fit me when I was ~40 pounds heavier than I am now. I figure this new suit should serve me well for the next 5 meets, then I'll get a new suit specifically for Nats.

I have cuts in the 100 and 200 back already, so I want to try and get one more cut before Nats, so I can swim a full lineup of 6 events at Nats. I'm currently about 4 seconds off in the 100 IM and 5 in the 100 breast, and think those are my best bets for potentially making a cut, even if both are iffy at best. I don't think any other cuts are in range this season.

Now, looking forward to next year, I'll age up to the 40-44 age group and cuts are currently significantly easier than in the 35-39 age group for most of the events I care about. Realistically speaking, if cuts next year for the 40-44 age group stay around what they're at this year, I'd likely be looking at 9 cuts going into the meet, with 2 more cuts on the bubble.

Meet double header + ruminations

I had a meet double header this past weekend, my team's Tropical Splash on Saturday, then a meet in Annapolis on Sunday. This was my first time doing two back to back days of racing since Zones in 2024, which was the only double header I did that season, since I didn't go to Nats that year.

I signed up for a fairly aggressive lineup for Tropical Splash when I entered the meet in early December--100 back, 100 free, 100 fly, 100 IM, and the 200 medley and free relays. At the time I entered the meet, I'd intended to be back in full training mode by the time the meet rolled around and would suit up for it as a pseudo midseason time check meet.

I took two weeks off over the Christmas break and then had an old back injury pop it's head back up 1.5 weeks ago, to the point that I got all of a whopping ~3000 yards or so in practice over the past 4 weeks leading up to the meet. The back issue had been bad enough that as of the Wednesday before the meet, I couldn't do flip turns or butterfly kick in the water. 

After lots of stretching, very liberal use of a theragun, and a long massage focusing specifically on the back issue, I was able to successfully do flip turns and butterfly kick again on Thursday.

Going into the Saturday meet, I figured I would play each race by ear, and wouldn't bother suiting up for a meet I might not end up doing at all if my back flared up again. I ended up scratching the 100 fly and 100 free as game time decisions, but swam the 100 back, 100 IM, and both relays. Most importantly, my back was mostly pain free! I decided to race in the jean speedos instead of a tech suit, and rotated through the three I have as the meet went on. 🤣

Tropical Splash

100 back

Eh, not a great race, not a terrible race. Took a while to get my tempo up and moving off the start, but it was solid once I got there. My left foot started cramping really bad off the last turn and I'm not sure how much propulsion it was actually contributing during the last lap, but I survived. The scoreboard didn't show my time, but the timer had me at a 1:07 mid, which is about a second off the time I swam in the same race at this pool about 5 weeks ago. I was happy with it! My back was twinging on the start and first turn, but subsided after that. I really had no expectations for this besides thinking that I'd be happy sub-1:10, all things considered.

200 medley relay

I swam the breast leg on the relay. No clue what my split was, and my sprint BR will *always* feel weird, but it felt fine. 🤷

200 free relay

I led this one off with a high 26, my fastest in about 2 years. It felt fine overall, but time aside I was more happy that I did something I have only done a handful of times as a masters swimmer! I successfully did a 1 down, 1 back breathing pattern for the race, something I can count on one hand having been able to pull off instead of my normal 1 down, 2 back breathing pattern. If I actually raced this more than once or twice a season, I'd work towards a 0 down, 1 back breathing pattern, but I'm happy with checking off the 1-1 breathing pattern here.

100 IM

Solid, all in all. Fly felt good but I was about half a stroke long going into the turn. Couldn't get my tempo up on back, but nailed the crossover turn just about perfectly and made up noticeable ground on the teammates on either side of me on that transition. Breast felt like...something...and I didn't start to die till the last 5-10 yards on the free. I was a 1:07 low, only about half a second off the time I went at this meet in December. Not too shabby!

Best of all, across that event lineup, after the early twinges in the 100 back, my back was painfree the whole meet.

Annapolis meet

I signed up for just the stroke 50s for this meet. I don't train for sprinting, so I figured this would effectively be a throwaway meet, but a good gauge of where my top end speed is right now. At least, that was my rationale before my unintended nearly 4 week break from swimming. My initial intention was to swim this meet unsuited after swimming TS suited, but after swimming painfree at TS, I flipped that around and suited up. Side note--shockingly, losing 50 pounds affects how well a tech suit fits! 🤣 I wore a tech suit that I've worn for 3 meets before. Sure, it's naturally stretched out a bit from being previously worn, but it wasn't nearly as compressive as I would expect a good tech suit to be. Better than wearing a practice speedo, for sure, but at least 1-2 sizes too large at this point to be truly effective as a tech suit.

50 back

Boy, this was a comedy of errors! One of my feet slipped on the start and I entered at an awkward angle, simultaneously causing my goggles to completely fill up and causing me to go too deep. I swam the race blind and relied on my stroke count for the first 25...but my stroke count was close to two full strokes off due to the jacked up start. I was loooooong on the turn and barely grazed the wall with the tips of my toes. I mentally adjusted my stroke count for the second 25 and was much better on the finish, but was a touch longer than preferable. All that said, I went a 30 mid, which is the fastest I've been in it since 2022, and my stroke felt good throughout. I have no doubt I'd have been sub-30 sans abominable start and turn,  it it is what it is. I'll take it!

50 fly

Man, I could not mentally get my breathing patter right for this! The entire race was one giant brain fart from a breathing pattern perspective, haha. I usually do a 3 down/1 up bp for the 50 fly, but didn't hit that cycle once the entire race. I normally breathe the 2nd to last stroke going into the turn, then the 4th to last stroke going into the finish, but this time I breathed the 3rd to last stroke going into the turn and didn't adjust my stroke properly, and hit the wall mid stroke. Going into the turn, I didn't breathe for the last 7 strokes and tightened up a bit going into the finish. Breathing derpiness aside, it felt solid. I was a 28 mid, a full 1.5 seconds faster than in December, and my fastest in season 50 fly since all the way back in 2020. That's more an indictment of my fly top end speed having fallen off a cliff (pre-2020 my in-season 50 flys were usually in the low-mid 27 range) than it is of my prowess at this meet, but I will happily take it.

50 breast

I had zero expectations going into this. The last time I trained for anything shorter than the 200 breast was all the way back in 2018, and the last time I trained for breast *at all* was 2019. Couldn't quite find that top sprint gear in this race and my turnover was slower than it should be for a 50, but I went a 33 mid. That's my fastest time since 2019 (and a full second faster than my 2nd fastest time since 2019, from a late season meet in 2024), albeit my in-season 50s breasts in 2019 and prior to that season were in the 31-32 range. Still, quite refreshing!

Ruminations

I've obviously got a lot of work cut out for me over the next three months till Nats in Greensboro, but I'm honestly quite pleased with where I was this weekend even after the back issue and nearly a month out of the pool. Losing 50 pounds from last spring (217 last May to 167 this past Friday) is definitely helping, as is being back in the weight room for the first time in years, and working with a personal trainer who specializes in training athletes who've had injuries.

I don't remember if I've posted about it here on this blog at some point over the years, but I've had micro tears in the labrums in both shoulders. In swimming, I've mostly compensated for it and haven't noticed any real decrease in my strength in the pool...but in my first season with the trainer a couple months ago, I struggled with a set of 3x8 with *5* lbs on the overhead press machine! Fast forward to today and I did 3x12 with 30lb dumbbells, and I've got quite a ways to go! That's a microcosm of how a good few muscle groups have gone in the weight room. Pitiful ability to lift/pull/press a weight with a specific muscle group as a result of some sort of injury, and now I'm up to putting up ok weight with that same muscle group, and lots more room to improve. She knows I'm a swimmer, and while she isn't a swimmer herself, she's focusing on functional strength gains that will benefit me in the water, not just to be a gym-bro.

Taking all that into account, I wouldn't be surprised if this season I don't get back up to my old normal of having enough Nats cuts that I can swim whatever I want at Nats (you can swim three events without a cut there, but need cuts for all additional events you swim up to the six event max...up through 2023, I typically held ~11 cuts season to season), but I expect to get enough cuts over the next two months of racing that I can swim a decent lineup at Nats.

Looking forward to next season, if I can hit my target weight (150-160), maintain a swim practice tempo, and maintain the great work and progress in the weight room, I full expect to return to that norm of Nats cuts allowing me to swim pretty much whatever I want to at Nats.