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.
