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.
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