2026 Spring Nats recap...woohoo!

Teaser intro: all in all, I think this was my 2nd best Nats overall since 2018, which was hands down my best Nats!

Setting the stage

I certainly have made no bones about my struggles with training over the past couple of seasons due to injuries, burnout, life getting in the way of things (losing my dad in early 2023 really threw me off my rhythm for a loooooong time in the pool, but that's a whole 'nother topic in and of itself), and didn't enter this season with much of anything in the way of goals.

The 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons were mostly a lost cause, I basically just piddled around without seriously training due to the aforementioned factors and lost a lot of my mojo in the pool. I also struggled more than usual with my weight since I wasn't seriously training, and peaked at just a bit under 220 around Memorial Day of 2025.

Starting the '25-26 season, I decided to get my butt back in gear. I started training seriously again, worked seriously on my weight, and with the assistance of an excellent personal trainer, started lifting weights again in November for the first time in over a decade. Fast forward to today and I've dropped approximately 60 lbs (my weight is now in the 155-160 range), putting me at a weight I've never swum at, since my Masters lightest prior to this was around 180, and my teenage weight was in the 135-140 range.

While I got back into serious training in the pool this season, I still haven't ramped up to the full training intensity that I had pre-2023 malaise. I finally worked my way back up to a consistent 4-5 practices a week, but the volume hasn't consistently reached the heights it used to hit. I got back into the swing of racing again, with 8 meets under my belt this season pre-Nats, more than I swam combined for the '23-25 seasons. While I got my racing mojo back, heading into Nats my top end speed wasn't at all there in any of the strokes--I was fairly happy with my 100 and 200 speeds, but my 50 speeds were pretty atrocious and a severe dropoff from what they used to be, though that dates back to pre-covid, with there being a distinct dropoff from my pre-2020 sprint times across the board, not something related to the 2023 malaise.

Anywho, that all leads up to Nats! I went into the meet pretty much just hoping to not swim shitty times. Out of my whole lineup (50-100-200 back, 50 free, and 100 IM), the 200 back was the only one I came into the meet with a notional goal time for, and that was just a sub-2:20, since I went a 2:22 at Zones a few weeks ago and had thought I had too much left in the tank after that race. Everything else was a roll of the dice, and as long as I made at least incremental progress over what I'd done for my best time in each of those events this season pre-Nats, I was gonna be happy. I thought the 50s, especially, would be crapshoots, since my sprinting ability fell off a cliff in general post-covid, but I was gonna be happy with some minor time drops from Zones across the board.

Day 1

200 back

This was my primary focus event for the meet. At Zones, my splits had been 34-36-36-36 for a 2:22, and I had too much left in the tank after finishing that race. I spent the majority of my race pace training in the weeks between Zones and Nats focused specifically on ironing out my middle 100 splitting, figuring out what 35 feels like both from a tempo and stroke count perspective instead of 36s.

It worked! I went 32-34-35-35 for a 2:17.4! That was my 3rd fastest Masters 200 back behind a 2:16.6 in 2018 and 2:12.9 in 2013. That 2018 performance was at what was hands down my best Nats, and the 2013 performance was from a season where I *only* trained for the three backstroke events the entire season. Both of those faster performances came at the end of seasons where I was coming off at least a 2 season block of heavy training, so for me to even be in the ballpark of them here was quite a relief and handily under the 2:20 milestone that was my goal here!

As far as the race goes, it was clean except for the start and the 150 turn. Both of my feet slipped straight down the touchpad on the start and I got just about zero push off the start itself, but I was able to pick up enough speed on the initial underwaters to mostly make up for it (you can see in the race video below that I come up at the back of the pack off the start...which isn't at all the norm!). Going into the 150 turn, on the flip stroke I got a full mouthful of water, so I dropped from 5 to 4 butterfly kicks on that turn since I had no air, but beyond that I nailed this race! Hit my 5 dolphin kick target on every other turn, hit my stroke counts, and hit my target paces. I think I could've given that 2:16 from 2018 a run for its money with a clean start and 150 turn, but I really don't have anything to complain about besides that. This was an unqualified success and a hell of a way to kick off my meet!

Race video: My 200 back - starts at 2:31.45 - I'm at the bottom of the screen

50 back on the mixed 200 medley relay

After that great 200 back, all pressure was off me for the rest of the meet! At Zones, I'd gone a 29.6 and 29.7 on my two 50s back there, the faster one on the relay, the slightly slower one on my individual 50. I just wanted to be faster than that here, but didn't particularly care how much faster I was.

29.06! Didn't slip on the start, though my tempo was a hair slower than I wanted on the first 25. Fixed that on the 2nd 25, and except for being about a half stroke long on the finish, this was a great race. This was my 6th fastest masters 50 back and my fastest since 2018. No complaints!

Race video: Our 200 medley relay - starts at 7:13:00 - we're lane 7

Day 2

50 breast on the men's 200 medley relay

I had no expectations for this one. I LOVE doing relays and will happily swim any leg on any relay at any time, but I've done zero breaststroke training outside of very brief IM training this season, and have done zero sprint breaststroke training at all in the past few seasons. I did the 50 breast twice this season and was a 33 and change in both (well, one was SCY and the other was a 33 and change converted from SCM to SCY). 

I had a funky start--I dunno if I slipped, or if I just had a janky step forward with my back foot, or what, but I went off the block and entered the water at an angle, and had to course correct during the pullout to stay in the lane. Still, I went a 31.17, which somehow managed to be my lifetime PR 50 breast relay split! My LPR flat start 50 breast is a 31.49 from 2019, and I honestly think I could've given that a run for its money here at Nats. I know I get more speed off my relay start than my flat start, but to go more than 2 seconds faster here than my fastest flat start of the season...your guess is as good as mine! I'm not gonna complain, but this one definitely came out of left field.

Race video: Our men's 200 medley relay - starts around 1:45:00 - we're lane 10

50 free

Ok, after that 50 breast, clearly the 50 free wanted to to assert its primacy... 😂

Since covid, I've managed to break a flat start 26 a whopping one time...at Zones a few weeks ago, when I went a 25.7. Here I went a 24.84 for a new MPR, breaking my old MPR of 24.92 from WAY back in 2012! I've been working this season on getting into a 0 down, 1 back breathing pattern in the 50, instead of my habitual 1 down, 2 back breathing pattern, and have hit that the past few times I've swum the 50. Nailed it here and it was a solid race start to finish, though I felt like I didn't need to actually take that single breath on the way back.

Race video: My 50 free - starts around 3:02:56 - I'm in lane 9

100 back

I was hyper fixated on keeping my feet planted on the wall and not slipping on the start...and while I was successful at not slipping, I went super deep on the start. Also went deep on the first turn when my feet hit higher on the wall than anticipated, so with the combination of the two, I was going into oxygen debt going into the back half of the race. Still, held it together pretty well with 29.7 and 31.8 splits for a 1:01.6, my 3rd fastest masters time behind a low 1:01 and a 1:00 from 2018 and 2013, respectively. Going into this race I just wanted to be sub-1:03 after going a 1:04.7 at Zones a few weeks ago, so mission accomplished!

Race video: My 100 back - starts around 4:15:00 - I'm in lane 4

50 free on the men's 200 free relay

I did something I've never done before, my very first no-breather 50 free! That is, I've done it during practice from a push before, but I've never raced a no-breather 50 free before.

Besides a ridiculously slow changeover (we didn't practice any relay changeovers before this meet and I was guessing on how people were gonna finish on every race...and I'm very conservative with my changeovers in general, though this one was especially slow), I swam this probably about the best I've ever swum a 50. I went a 24.40, which is a new MPR relay split, bettering my previous MPR from all the way back in 2013.

Race video: Our men's 200 free relay - starts around 6:45:15 - we're in lane 9 - I'm 3rd

Day 3

50 free on mixed 200 free relay

I anchored this relay and went a 24.43, just a hair off my MPR from the previous day and also under my previous MPR from 2013. My goal was to do another no-breather, but I entered the water at a wonky angle (after yet another super slow changeover) and the entry smacked most of my air out, to the point where I had to take a breath on the way back. I think if I hadn't taken that breath, I'd have set a new MPR! Best of all, I managed to run down the guy next to me. :-D That is a RARE thing for me to do on a free relay, so I'll take it whenever it happens!

Race video: Our mixed 200 free relay - starts around 1:45:20 - we're in lane 3 - I'm the anchor

50 back

Not a great start--while I didn't slip, I didn't get much of an arch on the start and had to really work hard the first few kicks to get the right angle down so I could get deep enough, and in the result spent more effort going down than out, which is readily apparent on the race video. Probably lost at least a couple tenths there...but went a 28.66 for my 3rd fastest masters time, just a hair off my 2nd fastest time of 28.65 from 2018 and not that far off my MPR of 28.21 from 2013! And it was a full second faster than my faster of the two 50s back I did at Zones. Besides probably the first 10 yards of the race, I nailed it--no issues with my turnover, hit my breakouts right where I wanted them, wasn't long on the turn or finish, it was all a clean race except for the initial underwater.

Race video: My 50 back - starts around 3:35:05 - I'm in lane 7

100 IM

Last race of the meet! I thought I'd be more tired going into this than I was, but I felt fine. My delts were tight, but I wasn't gassed at all. I realized midway through the first 25 that I hadn't actually done a single 25 of race pace fly, not just during warmup at the meet, but at all during my taper, and didn't know what my stroke count was! :-D

I had to take breaths on the last two strokes of fly going into the turn to figure out where the wall was, but nailed the rest of the race right on plan. I went a 1:01.06, my 2nd fastest masters time behind my MPR of 1:00.58 from 2018. I tried to hold off the guy next to me, but he just got me on the finish. I truly left it all in the pool and don't think I had a single iota of extra energy after that race. My goal was just sub-1:02 after going a 1:02.9 at Zones...nothing like going out with a bang!

Race video: My 100 IM - starts around 4:42:00 - I'm in lane 3

Miscellaneous thoughts and takeaways from the meet

• I held up WAY better here than I did at Zones a few weeks ago. To be fair, I did more relays at Zones than here, and that meet was over two days instead of three, but I fell off that cliff pretty hard at Zones while I kept it going full steam ahead here. Part of that was the extra rest with the extended schedule here, but a bit part was that I was far better fueled here than at Zones, and I wasn't coming off just a few practices over the three preceding weeks.
• This was the first Nats where I can recall they've had reaction times listed for starts. From seeing race videos, I've always been able to tell that I've typically been one of the quicker ones off the block or wall on my start, but I finally got to quantify that here. Some of my backstroke reaction times are a bit suspect (.31 reaction time for my 50 back is BLAZING fast!), but the rest all seemed to be on the faster end of within reason, which matches up with my perception.
• I've gotta learn how to use the block for a backstroke start, and that's my main technique goal for next season! I never learned how to consistently use it successfully as an age grouper, and have never put in the effort to learn how to do a block start as a masters swimmer--I've tried here and there, but by and large all I've succeeded in doing is doing great back flops, slower and far more painful than my normal gutter start. My teammates razzed me after each backstroke race here that I start like an 8 & under, and they've got a point! :-D
• I have absolutely no clue where my sprinting mojo came from for this meet, but I'll take it! I could understand if my sprinting had steadily gotten better all season and peaked here at Nats, but it didn't. It stayed mostly status quo up through Zones, so I have no idea where these (comparatively) huge sprinting time drops came from, especially since I didn't train sprinting at all this season. More on that in a bit.
• This Nats firmly slots in right behind 2018 as my 2nd best Nats of all time. I didn't have a single bad or even just ok race here--while I *only* came out with one LPR and two MPRs, and in the sprints of all races, every single other race was a top tier race for me, and 2018 was the only other Nats that really falls into that bucket. 2013 was great for backstroke, but I'd only been doing masters for two years then and that's *all* I trained for that season...and that was 13 years ago. My order now goes 2018>2026>>2019>>2013, then the rest are all in a jumble after 2013.
• I'm very impressed with the results of this season overall. Nats was naturally the high point of the season, but between what I did in the pool, what I did in the weight room, and what I did in terms of losing weight, next season is looking to be something special if I can continue on this trajectory. Pre-covid, I shaved my head for every Nats (I don't wear a cap), but since then I haven't shaved my head since I haven't been in the full swing of things for whatever reason each season. I explicitly chose not to shave my head for this Nats because since this was my rebuilding season, I thought I wouldn't swim NEARLY as well as I actually did. Presuming I keep my trajectory going, looks like shaving my head's back on the menu for Nats next year!

Looking ahead to next season

• I've got a bit of a conundrum--I'm drawn to the 200s as my events of choice, with the 100s being a natural step down for if I want to do some sprinting. That said, with the 50s coming out of nowhere at this meet, I've gotta decide if I want to try training for them next season.
• Backstroke is definitely still on the menu for next season--I think if I can continue my progression from this season, I should be able to get close to those 2013 times next season in the 50, 100, and 200.
• Breast has felt good this season in the limited training I did for it, just my speed wasn't there until I randomly went that 31.1 LPR on the relay. I'd like to add at least the 100 into my lineup for next season, TBD on the 50 and 200.
• 100 IM will stay on the menu, the 200 IM will be added. I think I could've done a very solid 200 at Nats (I would've liked to have been somewhere around my 2:17 200 back time in it), I am looking forward to seeing where it goes next season.
• The only two times I swam the 200 free this season were both disasters--the first was at a random in season meet when I swam with a pulled bicep, and the second was that epic meltdown on the 800 free relay at Zones, when I ended up swimming 2 SECONDS SLOWER than my 200 back at Nats. I might swim it a couple times in season, but I dunno if it's gonna make the cut for Nats next year. 100 and 50 free are on the menu for sure.
• I'd like to add the 50, 100, and 200 fly back into my training regimen, though TBD which make the cut for my Nats lineup next year. I last did the 200 fly back in 2020, so it's time to see if I can find my mojo for it again.
• If I can stay healthy and maintain my trajectory, I plan to add the 500 and 400 IM as in-season events in the latter half of next season. I have no intention of swimming them at Nats, but if I can maintain my trajectory they should be good Zones candidates.
• Times aside, the key takeaway from this Nats is that I've found my mojo again after being in the doldrums, definitely since 2023, and honestly since covid overall! That puts me in a very different mental state looking forward to next season and the next 11+ months of training.

Bonus section - behind the blocks music!

I've historically fixated on 1-3 songs each Nats as my behind the blocks pump-me-up song(s) that I'll listen to a few times in a row before each race. Typically they change from one Nats to the next, and over the years I've gone from Linkin Park, to Zac Brown Band, to Disturbed, to Skillet, and so on. This time around, I broadened the scope a bit. Instead of having just one or two songs, I had a short playlist where I'd listen to a handful of songs on shuffle, with one song always as the final song I'd listen to before the race:

• Without You - Air Supply
• What It Sounds Like - HUNTR/X
• Three Six Five - Shinedown
• Atlas Falls - Shinedown
• Monsters - Shinedown
• Atlas Falls - Shinedown
• Timber - Pitbull and Kesha
• You're the One - Rev Theory
• Battle Cry - Skillet
• Unstoppable - Sia (this was the final song I'd listen to before each race)

I also had a much longer curated playlist that I'd listen to between events, but that was my behind the blocks playlist for this Nats. It'll probably look quite different next Nats!

Zones recap and look forward to Nationals!

We had Zones this past weekend at George Mason, the first time it's been back there since 2019. I entered the same individual event lineup I'll do at Nats, plus a full slate of relays. 

I'd been out of the water for most of the three weeks prior to Zones--work travel, then spring break, so I had all of three swims under my belt in that timeframe going into the meet. Rested, sure, but also the normal rustiness you get anytime you're out of the water for that amount of time.

Saturday events

200 medley relay (50 BK)

29.6 leading this off, which was my first time dipping back below 30 since 2018. Not a bad time to kick off my meet! I went deeper than I wanted to on the start and couldn't get into the right gear for the first 25, but the second 25 was right on the money. I've had issues the past few seasons finding the "sprint" gear, so it was nice seeing it come together here even if it took me half the race to hit it. Prior to this race, my fastest this season was a 30.4 from January, which was the only time I'd dipped below 31 since 2022.

200 back

2:22.9, my fastest since 2024 and just a bit off my shaved/tapered/suited 2:22.5 from Zones that year. I definitely left a few seconds in the pool in this race--I didn't push it nearly hard enough until the last 50 and probably easily left at least 2 seconds there. I've swum this event a LOT over the years and when my conditioning is where it is right now, I know exactly how much the 3rd and 4th 50s should hurt, and I didn't hit close to that on this swim. The 4th 50 hurt, sure, but nowhere near as much as it should. I need to spend time in practice over the next two weeks before I head to Nats dialing in what actually is that pace I should hit in the middle of the 200. I've been training to hit 36 in practice, and hit 36 on the final three 50s exactly as planned, but given how much I had left in the tank at the end, I'm thinking I need to aim for 35s or maybe even 34s on the ambitious end. Work to do in practice!

50 back

29.7 on this one. I'd gone into this hoping to go faster than I went leading off the relay...but had the opposite problem I did in the relay--I pushed too hard on the first 25 and wasted time spinning. I got into the right rhythm on the second 25, but it wasn't enough to counteract my fruitless spinning on the first 25. Oh well, two 50s BK around the same time, both comfortably under 30, is nothing to scoff at with where I'm at right now!

Sunday events

Saturday was a pretty light lineup, while Sunday went to the opposite extreme. This was 100% on me, since I'm the one who created all the relays, but I ended up being last person needed to swim a particular relay, so I overloaded on relays instead of having our team swim fewer relays...and paid the price.

100 IM

My triceps were super tight from Saturday, but besides that I felt pretty good going into this. 1:02.9, a season best by 2 seconds and my fastest since Nats in 2023 where I went a 1:02.7! I had an awful start where I pretty much went straight down off the edge of the block and got zero air time, but the rest felt good. I think I could've pushed the FL a bit harder, but the other three strokes all felt right how I wanted them to. Honestly, I was just hoping to break 1:04, so going a 1:02.9 was great!

400 medley relay (100 BK)

I think I had about 15 minutes or so between the 100 IM and this one, which wasn't enough for a full recovery. 1:05.7, which was a season best by .8. Probably had another second in me if I hadn't swum the 100 IM before this, but beyond not being at 100%, this was a solid race start to finish.

200 free relay (50 FR)

Roughly 10 minutes between the medley relay and this one, and I was toast. BK kills my legs and swimming this right after a 100 BK plus not having enough time to recover from either it or the IM...I was on the struggle bus. I split a grand 27.2 and my breathing pattern went out of the window. I mean, not *awful* in the grand scheme of things, but I should've been able to break 26 with an ideal setup.

800 free relay (200 FR)

Boy, if I thought I was on the struggle bus going into the last relay, it was even worse for this one! Another ~10 minutes between the relays but I was completely gassed. My legs were gone, my upper body was gone, and I was feeling lightheaded just getting onto the block. I ended up squeaking out a 2:19 and change, which is slower than 200s I've done from a push in practice and only a couple seconds faster than 200s pull that I've done in practice...and a WHOLE 3 seconds faster than my 200 back from the day before. My conditioning at this point is demonstrably better than it's been in at least the last 3 years, but I definitely found the limits of it here. Even my worst 200 FLs over the years have been less painful than this 200 FR, which is certainly something I did not expect to say before starting this session. Like I said earlier, though, this was 100% on me since I was the dumbass who put our relays together and thought that swimming 4 events back to back would be fine and wouldn't backfire spectacularly. 😂

400 free relay (100 FR)

Thankfully, I had about 1.5 hours to recover and refuel after the morning debacle before this race. I definitely wasn't back to 100%, but I wasn't running on fumes anymore. Charitably, I'd say I was running at about 75% for this one, though my triceps and hips were now both super tight. I went a 58.6, which is a season best by .4 and my fastest since 2024. I'd like to think a 56 would've been in the cards if I swam this fresh, but shoulda coulda woulda...

100 back

1:04.7, a season best by 1.8 and my fastest since the shaved/tapered 2024 Zones. For being ~15 minutes after the 400 free relay, I honestly did better than I expected. I crashed and burned on the last 25, which tells me I actually swam it hard enough, but hit everything else pretty much exactly as planned. In an alternate universe where this wasn't event #6 of the day, I'd like to think a 1:03 or maybe even a high 1:02 could've been in the cards, but I really have nothing to complain about with this time, especially in light of my ridiculous 100% self-imposed event lineup.

50 free

My final event of the day and the meet, I went a 25.7. I had plenty of time to recover and refuel after the 100 back and felt better than I expected going into it. I'd resolved the hip tightness issue, but the tricep tightness had spread to my shoulders and upper back. 25.7 is a season best by .7 and my fastest since all the way back in 2018. Like the 50 back leading off the 200 medley relay, I had some trouble getting into the right gear on the first 25, but nailed it on the second 25. Unlike the 50 on the 200 free relay earlier in the session, I hit my 0-1 breathing pattern, too, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Overall thoughts about Zones

Being mostly out of the water for 3 weeks prior to the meet is not exactly ideal, but overall I swam better than I expected given that. The 4 back to back event epic meltdown on Sunday aside, I don't think there's a single event I'm unhappy with. My conditioning is in a far better state than it's been since at least the 2023 season, maybe even the 2022 season. I still think my top end speed isn't quite back to what it used to be across the board, but I can confidently say I shouldn't have any issues with energy, endurance, or conditioning in general when it comes to my event lineup at Nats. The standouts were the 100 IM and 200 back. I was legitimately surprised with my time in the 100 IM, I thought that would be more of a Nats time. For the 200 back, the time was pretty good in the grand scheme of things, but I was thrilled with how much I had left in the tank while going that time. Sure, it means I didn't push it hard enough in this particular race, but the last time I went around that time in 2024, it was a much tougher race than this one was.

Looking ahead to Nats

I'm swimming the same individual event lineup (50, 100, 200 BK, 100 IM, and 50 FR), but it'll be spread over three days instead of two, and there aren't nearly as many relays, plus the time between events is way longer than it was at Zones (~2000 swimmers vs ~350 swimmers), so I don't anticipate any epic meltdowns as long as I stay smart with refueling and recovering.

There are three key things I'm going to work on in practice over the next two weeks before I drive down for Nats:

• Working on 200 BK pacing. As I mentioned earlier, I've been training to hit :36 and nailed that at Zones, but had too much left in the tank. I'm going to work to get that pace in practice down to :35 and maybe even try for :34. In short, gotta stop being a wuss and embrace the pain!
• Play around with my front half of the 100 IM. As I mentioned earlier, I probably could've pushed the fly leg a bit more on the 100 IM, and I want to play around with the number of dolphin kicks I do on back. To hit the timing for the back-breast crossover turn (I can technically do the crossover turn on either side, but I'm way more comfortable doing it with my right hand), I have to do an even number of dolphin kicks. I did 8 the last two times I swam the 100 IM this season, and will play around in practice with bumping that up to 10 to see if I can do it successfully without paying for it later. My dolphin kicks are faster than my swim, so it's a balancing act of maximizing the underwater work while ameliorating the amount of oxygen debt it puts me in for the BR pullout.
• Figuring out the right armspeed for the first 25 of the 50 BK and 50 FR. I struggled with that this meet, going either too fast or too slow, so I gotta see if I can dial it in so I'm not vacillating between the two extremes at Nats.

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.