Training plan through the end of April

I've got my training mapped out through the end of April, when the Masters National Championship meet is held.  This week is only a half week for me, so it's an abberation from the schedule, but here's the normal weekly schedule.  A note--the organized practices vary in intensity, some being pretty easy, while others rachet up the intensity to a pretty high level.  There are four different coaches, and they all have their own type of practice they like to give us.  Practices on my own are generally more stretched out and focus on stroke work and technique, since the organized practices often focus more on yardage and free than stroke and the fine stuff.

• Monday: Two back to back morning practices, from 5:00-6:00 and 6:00-7:00.  Evening practice from 7:30-8:30.  If I only manage to make it to one morning practice, then I try to get in an hour long practice on my own before the 7:30-8:30 practice.  If I don't manage to get in for either practice, then I try to get in an hour and a half long practice on my own before the evening practice.
• Tuesday: One morning practice from 6:00-7:00 and an evening practice from 7:30-8:30.  Alternatively, I do the morning practice, then do an hour long evening practice on my own before spinning with my friend from 7:30-8:30.
• Wednesday: Two morning practices the same as Monday.  There is no scheduled evening practice, so depending on if I missed a morning practice, I'll do either an hour or hour and a half long practice on my own.  If I didn't spin on Tuesday night, then I'll try to spin on this night.  Since the spin class is earlier (5:30-6:15), I don't know if Wednesday night spin class is very achievable, given how long it takes to get home from work and then get to the gym (it can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half from the time I leave work till I get to the gym, on a good day).
• Thursday: Same schedule as Tuesday, sans potential spin class.
• Friday: Same as Wednesday, except the spin class is at 6:00, so it's more achievable.
• Saturday: Morning practice from 8:00-9:00.
• Sunday: Hopefully nothing except for any swim meets, since those run on Sundays.

On average (based on weeks past), that would come out to 10-11 practices a week, not counting meet weekends.  Of those 10-11 practices, (depending on what the coaches have in store for us), that would be 7 or 8 relatively high intensity practices and 3 or 4 lower intensity practices working on the finer points.  General ballpark for distance should be around 35,000 yards a week.  Obviously, it will vary based on the yardage the coaches have us do in their practices (I've been in practices where we've done as little as a 2600 and as much as a 4000) and how much I do in my own practices, but 35,000 should be a decent average.

Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:

• Resistance band training: I bought resistance bands this past weekend, so I'll be adding them in next week as part of a dryland training regimen either three or four times a week.
• Weights: On the non-dryland days, I'll start lifting weights again.  I've been out of the weight room since last April.  I think three times a week, Mondays/Wednesdays/Saturdays?  Not sure where they will fit into the overall workout plan yet.
• Stationary exercises: The other half of my dryland routine--pushups, crunches, squats, calf raises, pullups/chinups, stuff like that.  I need to work on my core, which is also something I haven't done since April of last year.
• Running: At some point in February (I haven't decided when yet), I'll add running into the mix.  Probably just run two or three times a week.  No clue on the distances, but when I stopped running last April, I was running 5 times a week for anywhere from 3-6 miles each time.
• Biking: In addition to the spin classes, I might add biking into the workout mix in February, probably about when I add in running.  I'm thinking once, maybe twice a week, most likely on Saturdays.

This whole workout plan will hold through the second week in April.  The third and fourth week in April will be taper weeks for Nationals, so I'll drop down to 6-9 practices a week at that point, but will train at full speed till then.  Overall, it's a pretty darn high intensity workout plan.  The cross training between the bike/spinning/swimming/running/dryland/weights should keep me pretty well balanced, while the hour long swim practices should help me keep the yardage up without getting the fatigue that two hour long practices produce.

Swim meet yesterday!

Had the first swim meet of 2012 yesterday in Annapolis.  The Maryland LMSC puts on the Carol Chidester Swim Series, which is a series of one a month meets that the LMSC offers at various pools throughout Maryland.  They're free to Maryland swimmers, and cost $15 for all non-MD swimmers.  Besides the drive, it's a pretty darn good deal!  I'm planning on the one they offer in March at the same pool, and possibly the February meet, once they say where it is.

Anyways, Dan (one of the other serious swimmers) and I were the only two from the team at the meet.  He's a flyer and freestyler, while I'm a flyer and backstroker.  I won't hold the freestyle against him... :-D

I swam the 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM, in that order.  I don't remember what my exact times were (I didn't write them down, and they won't release the results till later this week), but I dropped a decent amount of time in each event from what I did at the first meet, back in October.  I swam a second meet in December, but it was SCM, so the times aren't a straight comparison.  Anyways, I think I dropped about a second and a half in both 50s and a bit over three seconds in the 100 IM.

50 back: By far the best start I've had since I started swimming again.  On the finish, I realized that in the process of the start, I'd pulled the touch pad AND the velcro it was attached to off the top of the gutter where it was affixed.  Oops. Apparently I had a death grip on it...  Anyways, my turn was a shade longer than I'd have liked, but wasn't that bad.  Finish was likewise a bit long, but still within the ballpark.  I think I did right around a 30 flat, but will find out for sure when they send the results out.  Overall, I thought it was pretty good, though my stroke got kinda short during the last 15 yards or so.  I focused on the three main critiques from Saturday's video session--lifting my head before the breakout stroke, a stronger kick, and not over rotating my arms towards the 12:00 mark on entry.  I think I was successful with the head position and the kick (at least, the kick felt stronger to me), but I'm pretty sure I started to regress towards 12:00 on the hand entry towards the end of the race, just out of muscle memory, since I've been entering my hands there as long as I can remember.  Still, pretty good race, and I dropped time, so I don't have anything serious to complain about at this point!

50 fly: Had a great start and mostly good swim.  My mind blanked when I got past the flags at the turn, so while the turn itself was fine, my stroke tempo was off going into the turn.  Hmph.  Had a great tempo on the second 25 and didn't want to ruin it by breathing more than once, so I started to feel the oxygen deprivation going into the finish.  The finish, I can only imagine, looked extremely uncoordinated.  After my last full stroke into the wall, I was still about a half stroke out, so my brain said to take the half stroke...while my body said to just do a long finish.  The result was a bizarre mix of the two, so I kinda flopped into the wall.  It felt awkward as hell, so I can only imagine it looked about the same as it felt.  Went about a 28.1, which is around a second and a half faster than October, I think.  If I'd nailed the turn and had a good finish, most likely would have been under 28, easy.

100 IM: Had a fantastic first 50!  Excellent start, great underwater work, strokes felt great, perfect timing on the fly/back turn, and pretty good timing on the back/breast turn.  At that point, I think I was at least a body length ahead of the rest of the pool.  And then I had a spectacular meltdown.  For some reason, I wasn't able to get a single full breath on breast, so I was getting very oxygen starved going into free.  Breathing issues continued throughout the free 25, so my muscles all locked up and pretty much shut down.  Technique went out the window and I slowed way down.  Ended up only touching out the guy in the lane next to me by about a tenth of a second.  Still won the heat and placed 7th overall in the event, but the second half of the race was PAINFUL!  Dropped about 3.5 seconds from the last time I swam the IM (I went around a 1:07 flat, I think), so that was good, but I imagine that I'd have been a few more seconds faster than that if I'd been able to breathe properly for the second 50.  No idea why I crashed and burned so spectacularly on the IM, but it was still a decent swim in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the meet!  It was great having Dan there--he's got a coaching background, I believe, and knows technique like it's second nature, so he was able to give feedback on my swims.  I tried to do the same for his swims, but his technique overall is a lot better than mine, so I didn't have much to tell him.

Anyways, at this point, all I'm concerned about is dropping time.  Once I'm in the ballpark of the times I've set as my goal times for 2012, then I'll start to work on the specifics at meets.  Still got a ways to go till then, so for now it's just dropping time that's important.  And from that point of view, this meet was a total success!

Underwater video session on Saturday

We had an underwater video session on Saturday, the second one I've gone to on the team--the first was about a month ago.  Since the first session, I've worked a lot on my technique, at least the stuff that the coaches had critiqued the first time.  One of the big differences was that I swam at a pretty loafing practice pace the first time around, while this time I swam at a decently fast pace.

Fly: The biggest critique I got the first time around was that I paused a bit at full extension and drove my head and chest too far down in the water (not that my head was moving up and down, just that I was pushing my whole upper body too far down).  This time around, swimming at a speed closer to race speed, that wasn't a problem.  However, it turns out that I bring my hands too close together at full extension, and am splashing a lot of water as I do so, causing unnecessary drag and resultingly not giving myself enough room for the underwater portion of the pull, so it is a pretty narrow pull, rather than the full keyhole I should be outlining.  In addition, my kick wasn't as strong as it could have been.

Back: Similarly to fly, my hands enter the water at the 12:00 position, rather than at 1:00 and 11:00 where they're supposed to enter.  There were two main critiques from the first video session, that my hands were cocked at about a 45 degree angle when pulling through the water and that I paused at the end of the pull before lifting them out of the water.  Neither of those were an issue this time.  Also similar to fly, my kick wasn't as strong as it should have been.  Oh, one other issue--when I started my breakout stroke just before broaching the water, I lifted my head slightly, breaking the plane of my body, which although just about half a second before I hit the surface, still produces a fair amount of drag.

Breast: Ugh, the coaches tore this one apart the first go-around.  The main critique was that I was REALLY diving my upper body down at full extension, so I had a pretty pronounced up and down motion in the water, rather than shooting forward with each stroke.  As an aside, that was an overcorrection on my part, since Mike (my coach up through highschool) always told me that I wasn't driving my chest down far enough at extension, so I guess I corrected that issue...and went to the opposite extreme.  Anyhoo, while I still press a bit too far down, I have more of a forward than up and down motion now, so it's within the tolerance limits now.  My kick is pretty narrow on the outward sweep of my feet, though.  I've got some small issues with hand placement during the pull, but the kick is the main issue.

Free: This was also all ripped up from the first video session.  I'd been dropping my elbows, pausing on my strokes (at least that particular issue was a result of loafing), and overrotating my body from side to side.  This time around, I didn't have a problem with the dropped elbows (in fact, I think this is the first time in my entire swimming career that I've had good underwater pull mechanics in free!), the too long strokes, or the overrotation.  However, when my left hand enters the water, I'm doing something funky with it, so it enters with a lot of bubbles, causing extra drag.  Not entirely sure what I'm doing with my hand, so I'll have to play around with it to see what I'm actually doing wrong.

Overall, while this one brought up some new issues to work on, I think this was a very productive video session, and I'm heartened by how many of the issues from the first session a month ago have been resolved!

No pain, no peaches...quite true!

When it comes to swimming and general fitness, I love pain.

Pain makes you feel alive.  That sudden hot poker sensation in your muscles, or that feeling of your muscles completely giving out while struggling during a high intensity set, gives you that sense that you're alive, that your body and brain are firing on all cylinders.

Over the last three weeks, I've been amping up my workout intensity and frequency, and it's been paying off.  All things considered, I'm feeling great out of the water and also feeling great in the water.  I've got more energy and feel more alert during the day (well, except for days when I don't get enough sleep).  That being said, I've got a long litany of ailments that I've been living with for the last month or so, since I started to up my workout intensity:

• Both Achilles tendons--I pulled them about two weeks ago, and they are still very tight and prone to excruciating cramps at rather inopportune times in the pool.  In addition, they are fairly sore.  I've been popping ibuprofen lately, which has mitigated the inflammation, but hasn't taken care of all of the cramping.  Popping pills and started adding bananas to my diet today, so hopefully that will help the cramping.
• Left ankle/top of the foot--I injured it at some point back in November, and up until this week, it was extremely painful to kick when I'd first get in the water.  The past week, though, it's only been painful once, and that wasn't for very long at all.  I'm cautiously optimistic that it's not an issue anymore.
• Calves--I've had a LOT of calf cramping the past few weeks.  Ibuprofen, tons of water, lots of stretching, and now bananas has helped a lot, but a few cramps still sneak in every now and then, like the Achilles tendon cramps, at the most inopportune times.
• Both knees--Both of my knees are wonky in breaststroke, although my left knee is decidedly the more wonky of the two.  Based on its symptoms, I believe I'm missing a large amount of the cartilage behind the kneecap.  It will flare up from time to time when swimming breast and make the kick rather painful.
• Hips--Quite tight during the day until I get my first practice in, then they're usually fine till the next morning.  Several days this past week, they've been horribly cramping when I get out of bed, so I hobble around like an octogenarian for a while before they loosen up enough for me to walk upright.
• Left elbow--Pulled a tendon in it a week and a half ago.  Practice that night was terrible, as it hurt like the dickens to apply any pressure on the elbow through its range of movement, so I had to forego swimming breast and had to do left arm straight arm fly/free/back.  Lots of ibuprofen has mostly taken care of it, but if I do more than a 50-100 of breast without popping ibuprofen beforehand, it starts to twinge again.
• Lats--These have been tight for quite a while now.  Yesterday I did a 3600 mostly IM practice before the scheduled evening practice, since I missed the morning practice.  Given my luck, I should have guessed that the coach would then have us do a practice with a heavy IM focus.  Due to the approximately 1000 fly I did over the two practices, my lats are currently extremely tight and sore.  While they've never been painful, per se, I can definitely feel them any time I extend my arms to initiate the pull in all four strokes and when I'm in streamline.
• Shoulders--I'm putting a lot of stress on them, and they are holding up admirably so far.  No pain, just a heaping helping of tightness.
• Triceps--See what I said about my lats.

In addition, I've added in spinning to my workout regimen, and am hoping to do that once or twice a week with Amanda, my friend from the team.  That'll focus the stress on my legs and hips, so at least it'll give my upper body a respite!

Given that I can remember aching all over in highschool after a really hard workout, I'm pretty happy that I'm so sore and tight, although I could do without the leg cramps.  I'm heading down to Charleston next weekend for a mini vacation, and I'm hoping to get a massage with my old masseuse, since I haven't gotten one in a good six months and could certainly use one!

Kick Happens

I've always been a kicker.

Kick and turns, those were by far my biggest strengths in the water in the past.  Turns are still up at the top of my list now, but my kick, while passable, hasn't felt comparatively as strong as it used to.  Saturday and yesterday I put it to the test.

Saturday I did a 2012 yard kick set to ring in the new year, and yesterday I did a 2300 kick set before the evening practice, much of it with fins.  I capped off last night's kick set with three 100s free kick with a board and no fins, to see where my sprint kick was at.

Uh, not very good at all.  Back on Tritons (my team throughout the time I lived in Louisville, before going off to college), my favorite test set was a 1000 kick for time.  My best time in it, and a team record, I believe, was a 14:36.  That averages out to roughly a 1:28 per hundred.  If I recall correctly, my best 100 kick free without fins time was a 1:18 or 1:19.  I think my best free kick time with fins was around a :57 or :58.

Given, my 3x100 sprint kick were after a 2000 kick set, but the kick set had been relatively low intensity, focusing on high yardage over high effort.  I did the 100s on 2:30.  Their times, in order, were a 1:32, 1:31, and 1:31.  I had been hoping for something in the mid 1:20s, so I was quite disappointed.

I’ll try to get to the pool tomorrow night after work, since there is no practice Wednesday evenings, and get in a kick set of a 1500 or so.  After I do a short warmup, I’ll jump straight in with 4x100 sprint kick free and back, to see how my times are before I do the main set.  Hopefully I can break the 1:30 barrier on all four.

I know I create substantially more drag in the water than I used to, given that I’m about 60 pounds heavier than I was in highschool, but having seen video of myself swimming a few weeks back, I didn’t notice that I was markedly lower in the water than I used to be.  If the drag isn’t the issue, then I’m just not comparatively good a kicker as I used to be.

So, in addition to the extra fly that I’ll be swimming in practice for the rest of the season, I’ll try to get in three or four evenings during the week and get some good kick sets in, since we generally don’t do much kick at practice.  Hopefully that will increase both my kick speed and endurance, which can do nothing but help my swim times!

New Years resolutions

Man, 2011 was quite a tumultuous exercise year!  Started really running, did an awesome mud run, moved to the DC area, stopped running and working out for five months, started swimming again after six years off, busted my left ankle...

Anyways, with 2012 now here with a bang, here are my physical fitness goals:

• Get back into top competition shape in the pool
• As part of that, I'm aiming to get back to or beat at least three of my old best times in the pool.  Doesn't matter what events (although I hope it's in fly and back), just three times.
• I aim to average 10-12 practices a week (at least during short course, not sure what the long course practice schedule is).  That would be doubles Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, singles Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, and at least two other practices from the evening practices offered on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday.  The ideal schedule would be all the morning practices (singles and doubles), Monday night, and Tuesday or Thursday night (if not both).
• Get up to that all fly practice by the end of April
• Provided my left ankle can handle it, start running again.  
• I don't know what I did to it, but sometime in November, I hurt the top of my foot/bottom of my ankle and it has hurt off and on since then.  It usually hurts like blazes for the first 300-400 of practice every time I get in the water.
• If I can get back into running, train for a mud run and a half marathon.
• Get back in the weight room.
• I was pretty active in the weight room and also did stationary exercises (pullups, pushups, crunches, and the like) up through this past spring, then I moved up here and haven't gotten back into it.
• Continue losing weight to my target of ~180.
• Even with how fitful my swimming regimen has been these past few months, I've still lost about 10 pounds from my peak.  Once I start working out again, it'll be harder to lose the weight, since I pack on muscle rather quickly, but as long as I hit that weight range by the end of the year, I'll be happy!
• Continue making good friends and strengthening existing friendships.
• Down in Charleston, I had plenty of friends at work who were workout companions who'd motivate me to workout (Jeff, Matt, Jennifer, Mark, Laura, Meredith, Brian, and all the others, if you're reading this, I'm referring to YOU!).
• Up here, I don't have that big network of friends, so I've had to make them in the process of my own training.  So far, that's just been in the pool.  A BIG kudos goes to the friends I've made in the pool who've motivated and encouraged me to push myself and get back into it: Drew, Katie, Dan, Amanda, Michelle, Jon, Francisco, Jennifer, and all the others.
• The folks I've mentioned have been my main source of motivation and helped make 2011 one of the best years I've had in quite a while, so I hope to continue to strengthen those friendships while creating new ones!

Bring it on, 2012!

Mental fortitude

It's amazing how much my mental swimming game has changed since highschool.  Back then, I was more or less equally opportunistic regarding all four strokes, although I liked swimming back the most in practice, followed closely by fly.  Free was just something I did a lot of--didn't have feelings for it either way.  And breast, well, it was just there.

Fast forward to the present, six and a half years later.  Back is still my favorite stroke to swim in practice, but I've come to really NOT like swimming a lot of free.  I know a big part of my anti-free attitude is because I'm in a pretty rough transition period regarding my technique, but my patience for swimming it doesn't extend much past a 200 at a time.

My appetite for fly has increased, as well.  While I used to enjoy swimming fly, and thought that long/big fly sets were no biggie, I never truly just enjoyed swimming it.  That's changing.  As I'm forcing myself swim more fly in practice (see my previous post for the reason why), I'm coming to enjoy swimming it in practice.  Admittedly, in the week since I started swimming more fly at practice, I have yet to do more than several fly 50s back to back.  For instance, last night's practice had a main set that was several rounds of a set of 25s, 50s, and 75s.  I did most of the 25s fly, the 50s fly/back, and the 75s fly/back/fly.  While I don't have near the endurance in fly that I do in back or free yet, I've come to enjoy swimming fly more than free.  And in practice, at least, my fly speed when I do short sprints isn't too far off my free speed.  I just feel more relaxed when I do fly (shoulder endurance notwithstanding) at this point than when I do free.  Fly is also quite a bit less of a mental effort than free, since the fly technique feels quite natural at this point, versus the free technique that still requires a fair amount of active thinking.  Quite peculiar.

While I don't yet have the mental fortitude to be blase about doing long distances fly, I am inching and squinching my way there.  Just a month or two ago, my shoulders would hurt after doing more than a few 25s fly and I kinda dreaded doing those distances.  Now I look forward to the short distances and don't have any shoulder fatigue unless I'm doing either longer distances or a bunch of short distance sprints.  By the time the next meet rolls around on January 15th in Annapolis, I should be at the point where a 100 fly is a piece of cake, and by the first meet in February (Feb. 11-12 in Richmond), the 200 should also be a welcome event.
If this continues, it bodes well for my becoming a full time flyer and part time backstroker!

Almost halfway through the shortcourse season...time to focus!

With the current season (we've got three seasons--"long course" in the summer, then two short course seasons, one in the fall and one in the spring) ending on Friday, I'm starting to map out what I will focus on for the next season, which starts on January 2nd.

Over the past couple of months, I've gotten comfortable in the water again, but haven't really focused on any one or two things to concentrate on.  I'm picking that now, so I'll have January-April to focus on the areas I pick, so by the time Nats rolls around at the end of April, I should be doing quite well in those things.

The #1 thing I'm focusing on (started last week) is butterfly.  Of all four strokes, it by far feels the best.  Besides trying to get Nats cuts in it, I've got another, personal, goal.  By the time April rolls around, I want to have done one practice all fly.  In highschool, I had a bet (no clue what the bet was about) with one of my coaches about doing a 2.5 hour Saturday practice all fly, admittedly with fins.  I did do the whole thing fly, so I figure if I was able to do somewhere around a 9000 then, give or take, I should be able to get myself in shape to do roughly a 3500 or so by April.
So, towards that goal, I've set myself a training regimen.  At each practice, I'm aiming to do at least a 400 fly throughout the practice.  And at one practice a week, I'll do an extra 175 yards.  That will build each week, so week one (this week) will have one practice where I'll do a total of 575 yards fly.  Week two (first week in January) will have one practice where I'll do a total of 750 yards fly.  So on and so forth.  In addition, every two weeks I'll increase the base fly amount.  So the first two weeks will have a 400 fly as the base amount at practice, the next two will have a 500, then 600, and on and on.  By the end of April, that will be a 2800 fly during that one practice and a base amount of an 1100 fly (if my math is correct).  I should have a high enough fly endurance at that point that fitting in another 500-700 or so shouldn't be an issue for the all-fly practice.

The #2 thing I'm focusing on is backstroke, getting my technique down.  As I mentioned in my post on the video session a week and a half ago, I've got some technique issues I need to iron out.  I'm trying to get back to being a flyer and backstroker, something I was the last year and a half or so in highschool.

The #3 thing I'm focusing on is my breaststroke.  I know, I know, I'm not a breaststroker by a long shot!  That being said, I would like to get back into the IM scene, and that has historically been by far my weakest leg of the IM.  All I'm working on is breast technique, so it's quite a bit less of a time consuming issue than my fly or back.

Anyways, with the first foci, I should be able to greatly improve my fly, hopefully surpassing the progress I made in it in highschool.  With backstroke, I just want to get back to where I had been, or at least in the general vicinity.  And with breast, I just want it to not suck as terribly as it currently does.

Results of underwater camera session

This past Saturday at practice, we had an underwater video session.  Due to the large number of us doing it, we didn't get to do any turns, though.  We ended up doing 6x25s, four IM order and then two choice.  The first four were filmed from the side of the pool and the last two were filmed head on from the end of the lane.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to swim fast during them.  Pretty big mistake on my part, since my fast swim is quite different than my practice pace swim for free, and to a lesser extent, fly.  I think my back and breast are more or less the same no matter what speed I swim.

Anyways, I'd been looking forward to this for quite a while, since the last time I had been filmed was in 2004 or 2005, and I know my strokes have changed since then.

Fly (from the side): Overall, it looked pretty good, although the coach (Drew, the head coach) said I was pressing down a bit too much with my head and chest.  I disagree with that assessment, but everything else about the stroke was good.

Back (from the side): Drew said it was overall pretty good, although there are two areas to work on.  The first is my hand position when I'm pulling--I bend my wrist forward, like I'm trying to really scoop the water.  I should keep my hand in a flat plane with my wrist, not bending it at nearly a 90 degree angle.  The other issue is the end of the pull and beginning of the over-water recovery.  Drew wants me to pop my arm out of the water much quicker than I do already.  When I swim at a race pace, my arms move quite a bit faster than at practice pace, so that might mitigate that issue.  However, my arm speed has always been one of my problem areas with backstroke--I can remember Scott and Mike harping on me to spin them faster.

Breast (from the side):  Ooh boy, this one was messy.  Breaststroke has been just about at the bottom of my priority list for swimming technique for years (at least since the early 2000s), so it was no surprise when Drew basically tore it apart.  Mike and Scott, in highschool, had worked on me pressing my chest down into the water in order to raise my hips and legs closer to the surface.  I had a terrible body position in highschool when swimming breast, and always swam at an angle in the water, leading to breast being a much more physically taxing stroke than it needed to be.  Well, driving my chest down is no longer something I need to work on...now I go to almost the opposite extreme.  Now I push down too far with my chest and arms, diving my arms down a bit at full extension.  On the plus side, my hips and legs are up towards the surface, right where they're supposed to be.  I also don't sweep my arms out wide enough on the pull, and lead a bit with my elbows as I sweep them in before extending.  I have no idea if my technique changes any when I swim fast.  Sigh.  ...And breast goes right back to the bottom of my technique priority list!

Free (from the side): Ooh boy, this was another fun one, and was the one I most wanted feedback from.  Up through highschool, I had horrendous free technique.  On the recovery of the stroke, my arms were mostly straight, they'd cross over the center line of my body when I'd pull underneath, and I led with my elbows.  About the only thing I had going for me was that I had great body rotation and kept my ear on my shoulder when I would take a breath.  Mike and Scott started to really work on my free technique a few months before I stopped swimming in 2005, but that wasn't enough to erase 13 years of bad technique.  Starting to swim again this year, my mind remembered the technique I was supposed to be utilizing, but my mind constantly fights a (more or less losing) battle with muscle memory that wants to go right back to what I used to do.  Anyways, there were some good signs from the video.  You couldn't see it underwater, but I now have a high elbow recovery, which helps with my hand placement when my hands enter the water.  My hands don't cross over the center line and I mostly don't lead with my elbows anymore, although from time to time muscle memory wins the mental struggle and I have a bad pull.
All that stuff being great to see, the biggest bone that Drew picked with my free is also the one that is a total nonissue when I swim fast.  At slower speeds, I over rotate and spend too much time on my side on each stroke, pausing a split second before I start the pull.  I also don't pop my hands out of the water at the end of the pull.  Neither is an issue at race speed.  I really wish I'd swum at race speed so that I could've gotten an analysis of the technique that actually matters.

Back (head on): Same issues from above, but the hand/wrist thing was more evident.  In addition, since we didn't have flags over the part of the pool we were swimming in, I tilted my head back to see how close I was to the wall.  For some reason, everyone in the reviewing room thought that was hilarious and said there are easier ways to see where the wall is.  No idea what that would be, since I've done the head tilt thing as long as I can remember.

Free (head on): Same as above.

Underwater work off walls: I got great marks for my underwater work when I pushed off the walls, being held up as the example for how to do proper dolphin kicks and the breastroke pullout.

Overall, the video session was of mixed utility, although it was quite nice to see how my strokes have changed in the last six years!

The long and tortuous road to Nationals

First off, let me clarify the Nationals I'm talking about--these are Masters (USMS) Nationals, not USA Swimming Nationals.  Muuuuuch different qualification standards.  Off the top of my head, I'd say the Nationals cuts are roughly equivalent to A or B State cuts for USA Swimming.  I'd have to check the other cuts to make sure, but they sound about right...at least for how those cuts were back in 2005.

Anyways, my goal is to make several Nats cuts this season.  The eligibility period goes through mid April, and Nationals is April 26-29th.

That gives me seven more meets to try and get cuts between now and then.  I've got two meets a month I can go to January-March, and then one meet in April before Nats.  Should be plenty of time to get a few cuts.

Based on my swimming performance at the two meets I've swum at so far, butterfly seems to be my best shot.  I age up into the next age group (25-29) a few weeks before Nats, so I gotta try and get those cuts rather than the ones in my current 19-24 age group, which are slower.  Anyways, here are the cuts for the two age groups for the events I have even a passing interest in, and my current times.  I've highlighted the cuts I think I have a decent chance of making by April:

Event	19-24 Cut	25-29 Cut	Current Times
50 Free	24.79	24.33	Low 26
100 Free	54.90	53.83	NT
200 Free	1:58.58	1:56.06	NT
50 Back	29.03	28.22	31.62
100 Back	1:03.12	1:01.53	1:07.14
200 Back	2:15.87	2:11.39	NT
50 Breast	32.23	31.04	NT
100 Breast	1:11.09	1:07.53	NT
200 Breast	2:36.42	2:26.59	NT
50 Fly	27.02	26.78	28.03
100 Fly	1:00.28	59.09	1:08.69
200 Fly	2:21.06	2:12.19	NT
100 IM	1:02.89	1:00.77	1:10.21
200 IM	2:15.88	2:11.51	NT
400 IM	5:08.98	4:51.49	NT

Here's my breakdown of each of the highlighted events:

• 50 free: Freestyle is decidedly not my stroke, but this is about a third of a second slower than my old time, so it is conceivably achievable.  Didn't have a very good race at the one meet I've swum the 50 at, so I don't know how realistic that goal is at this point.
• 100 free: This one is a pretty lofty goal--my best time in the 100 free was a 52.80, and I think that was a fluke, as I never went below a mid 53 besides that time, with the majority of my times being low 54s.  One of the coaches is working with me on my free technique, so who knows where that will take me.  It's already a good bit different than it was in highschool.
• 50 back: I'm a bit put off by my back.  The technique feels decent, although I don't have quite the leg endurance that I used to, but my times just aren't there so far (and neither 50 back I've swum so far was a very good swim).  If I can get back to my old speed by April, this should be a piece of cake.
• 100 back: Same as the 50.  Not sure what's going on with my back, and I haven't had great races the two times I've swum it, issues with the turns and start.
• 200 back: Kick endurance is a bigger deal for this.  At this point, since I haven't swum it in a meet yet, I have no idea where I stand with it.  I'd say this is probably a lofty goal to achieve by April, at least with how everything stands now.
• 50 fly: So far, fly has been the most impressive success for me.  It was the stroke I was improving the most in when I stopped swimming in 2005, and it appears that I still have the technique and form.  I dropped 1.3 seconds in the 50 at this past meet from the one the month before, so this should be a cakewalk to get the cut by April.
• 100 fly: Only swum it once so far and had a terrible race strategy that time, in addition to not being smart about warming up beforehand.  This should be pretty easy to get by April.
• 200 fly: Haven't swum it yet.  My big concern is that we rarely do more than a 100 or so of stroke at a time in practice, so I'm going to really have to work to get my fly endurance up.  At this point, it's a lofty goal.
• 400 IM: IF I can get my stroke endurances up, this should be achievable.  My old time was somewhere around 15-20 seconds faster than this, so if I can get my fly and back times down to around there, I should be good for this one.

Of these cuts, I think the 50 fly is a sure thing.  100 fly should be fairly achievable, if I can get my race strategy down pat.  Back is the biggest question right now, as my speed just isn't there.  Not too concerned about free or the IM, as neither is my focus.

To get these cuts, I've got three big areas of focus/concern. 

1) My starts need some work.  We've only done starts once in practice (at least of the practices I've been to), so I really only get to try them in warmup at meets.  Given how long it's been since I was competing and swimming at a high level, about six and a half years, my starts aren't very good.  My reaction time is slow, and my form on dives isn't very good.  My backstroke start is just bleh.
2) Stroke endurance.  As I mentioned above, we generally don't do more than a 100 stroke at a time in practice.  Well, we might do some choice work during warmup or something, but we normally don't do much distance stroke speed work.  I've gotta figure out a way to increase my stroke content in practice, otherwise I'm afraid I'll never build up the endurance I need for the 200 fly and 200 back.
3) Practice intensity.  Lately I've been swimming in the fast lane at practice.  Most of the time I swim last in the lane, or second to last or something, but it's been great for getting me to push myself.  I've seen a big improvements in the intervals I can hold in practice from doing so, at least in freestyle.  If I can continue to stay in those lanes, push myself, and keep up the high number of practices, I should continue to notch big improvements in my times from meet to meet.

I've got five weeks till the next meet (and then two more weeks till the meet after that), so time to get cracking!

The aftermath

Had a great meet yesterday!

The meet was off to a very slow start--10 minutes before the meet began, they discovered the bulkhead was set in the wrong position...and that the starter left the starting equipment at home, so he had to go back and get it...and they didn't print enough heat sheets for everyone...

So, the meet finally kicked off an hour and a half late.

In order, I swam the 50 fly, 100 back, 100 fly, and 50 back.  I had about an hour and twenty minute break between the 100 back and 100 fly.

50 fly: My entered time was a short course meters conversion of my time at the last meet, which was a short course yards meet.  I was entered as a 32.70 and went a 31.28.  That converts to right around a 28.00 in yards, I think.  I had a terrrrrrible start--blanked out at the beep and froze for split second, then pretty much just fell off the block.  Not my best start ever.  And I was a bit less than half a pull too far from the wall at the turn, so it ended up a longer turn than I'd have liked.  If I'd nailed the start and turn, I might have been able to hit around a 30.2.  Still, not half bad at all!  That's my goal (at least, that time converted to SCY) for the next meet, in January!

100 back: Relatively decent start (back starts have never been my strong suit), but my turns at the 25 and 75 (the bulkhead end of the pool) were long.  Entered as a 1.17.99 and went a 1.14.97.  That would convert to a 1.07.17 in SCY.  Still QUITE a bit off my old time, but substantially better than my time at the last meet.  My splits for the two 50s were only 4 seconds apart, so my pacing was pretty good.  However, I still gotta get my overall backstroke speed up, since I should be a good deal faster.

100 fly: I messed this one up pretty badly.  I had almost an hour and a half between the 100 back and this one, but didn't think to warm up beforehand, so my shoulders and back were pretty tight by the time I dove in.  Anyways, I took the first 50 out in waaaaay too slow of a pace (more like a steady 200 fly pace rather than 100 fly sprint pace) and then my lats and back tightened up pretty badly when I tried to sprint the second 50 to correct for the first lackadaisical 50.  Needless to say, it was not my most stellar 100 fly I've swum... :-)  On the plus side, I had a pretty good start and nailed all my turns, although I glided into the finish.  My splits were 7 seconds apart, so my pacing wasn't very good.  Took it out about two and a half seconds slower than I should have and then locked up.  I think this is the first time I've swum a 100 fly without doing drill as a Masters swimmer.  I did a 1:16.69, which translates to around a 1:08.7 SCY.  Not terribly shabby for a first swim, but definitely gives me a goal to improve upon!  In addition, with how tight my lats were for this swim, I think I'm going to have to dive back into my pullup/chinup/pushup routine, which I've neglected since the spring.  Those exercises will bulk up my lats and the fronts of my shoulders, so that should help out a bit.

50 back: This was only 12 minutes after the 100 fly and I had a pretty significant lactic acid buildup by this point, due to not being able to warm down as much as I'd have liked.  Decent start (didn't have any issues with slipping on the pads in either back start this time, as opposed to the last meet), but went a bit deep.  Good turn, but misjudged the finish, so I glided a bit.  Went a 35.29, which was faster than my entered time of 35.39, but it was only about half a second faster than the first 50 in my 100 back.  Not as fast as it could have been, but better than last time.

Takeaways:  My backstroke still needs work.  I'm getting my pacing down a bit better, but my overall speed needs work--I'm further off my old speed in backstroke than I am in fly or free.  We used to get filmed with an underwater camera from time to time back in highschool, so I know how my backstroke looked back then.  We've got and underwater filming session this coming Saturday at practice, so I'll compare my backstroke now to how it had been, to see if my stroke is the culprit, or if I just am not a backstroker anymore.  My 50 fly was pretty darn good, turn and start aside.  Since we rarely do more than a 50 or 75 of fly at a time in practice, I'll have to figure out how to get in more endurance work on fly, since my 100 wasn't all that hot.  On a side note, either my Aquablade jammers stretched out (in length) since the last time I wore them, or my thighs have shrunk in length.  I don't remember having to adjust the length of them that much when I used to wear them in highschool.

Overall, I had a blast at the meet!

Edit: I just looked up the USMS National Qualifying Times.  The meet is in late April (after my birthday), so I'll be aging up then and swimming in the 25-29 age group (if I make any cuts, of course). Per the cuts for that age group, going by my converted times from this meet, I'm 3.49 seconds off in the 50 back, 5.64 seconds off the 100 back, 9.6 seconds off the 100 fly, and 1.25 seconds off the 50 fly. 
If I were to go by the 18-24 age group cuts, I'd be 2.59 seconds off the 50 back, 4.05 seconds off the 100 back, 8.41 seconds off the 100 fly, and 1.01 seconds off the 50 fly.

Of these times, I think the fly times are the most achievable.  Should be able to get the 50 fly, and if I can get my pacing for the 100 fly down, should be able to get that too.  The jury's out on my backstroke.

If my understanding of the rules is correct, if I make a Nationals cut, I can swim up to three events I don't have a cut for, in addition to whatever I have a cut in.

Swimming progress...slowly and painfully improving!

In general (excepting last week, what with vacation around Thanksgiving), I've been doing much better at practices.  I've been averaging from a minimum of 4 practices a week up to 9 practices in a week.  I'm hoping to hit my stride around 7-9 practices a week (there are 12 I can possibly make in any given week).

I'm generally improving a fair amount in practices, although sometimes it feels like I'm going backwards.  In our larger practices, there are five lanes of swimmers: fast lane, either another fast lane or a slightly slower lane (depending on how many are at practice), a medium lane, and then two consecutively slower lanes.  When I started out a few months ago, I stuck solely to the middle lane, and it was fairly challenging at times.  Now I stick to either the second fastest lane or one of the fast lanes in the big practices.  That is, when I'm only doing one practice at a session.  On the days when I do the back to back practices, I'll swim in one of the faster lanes for the first session and then move down a lane for the second session, since I still don't have the endurance to make the intervals in a fast lane for a 2 hour practice.

We don't do much stroke work on intervals that really matter--that is, when we do stroke/IM work, we often do sprints on really easy intervals, so I can't guage how much I've improved in those strokes.

However, my freestyle speed has improved in practice pretty substantially.  When I first started out, quite embarrasingly, a 1:30 pace for multiple 100s free was a chore if we were doing it towards the end of practice.  Lately, though, I've been able to do 1:20 intervals pretty easily, although some practices kick me hard enough in the butt to make me struggle a bit towards the end of practice to make that pace for more than a 100 or two.  Still a far cry from my previous swimming days, but hey, I'll take what I can get!

I have no clue how my backstroke is--it never felt out of whack, and doesn't feel much different now than it did a month or two ago.  Don't swim much breastroke and have no interest in it, so I don't pay attention at all to how I do in that stroke.

Butterfly is quite interesting.  Apparently I'm a MUCH more efficient butterflier when I swim at speed than when I swim at my normal semi-loafing practice pace.  Two weeks ago we did a big IM set that involved a bunch of 200 IMs, the first round just making the easy interval, the next round sprinting.  We did that twice through.  By the end of the first, easy round, my shoulders were killing me on fly.  But when we switched to sprinting, I had no shoulder fatigue at all.  Given, after four sprinted 200 IMs, I was pretty darn tired anyways, but I thought it was interesting that I went from struggling to do a 50 fly at an easy pace to more or less effortlessly sprinting a 50 fly within the space of about 3 minutes.

________________________________________________________________________

I've got my second swim meet this Sunday.  With the exception of Thanksgiving week, I've had almost a month of pretty regular practices to prepare for the meet, so I'm expecting a much better performance than the last meet.

I was only allowed to enter in four events, so I entered in the 50/100 back and 50/100 fly.  This is a 25M meet, rather than 25Y, so it should be interesting to see how my times compare with the last meet (I swam the 50/100 back and 50 fly in that meet).  Given how terrible my backstroke times were at that meet, it is possible that, if my backstroke has improved due to my increased practicing, I could potentially go around the same times in the two back events this time.

After this meet, I've got two meets in January to train for.  Should be a fun two months of swimming!

First meet in 6.5 years!

I had my first meet yesterday, the first time I've swum competitively in 6.5 years.  Going into it, I was rather handicapped by my work schedule--over the last month, I've only managed to get in about 5-6 practices, the majority of which came in this past week.  On a good note, my work schedule should be smooth over the next month or so, so I should be able to get a lot more practices in.

Anyways, it felt fantastic to be back at a swim meet!  That is, as a swimmer and not a coach (I coached a summer league team in Charleston for two years from 2008-2009).  Going into the meet, I was the most nervous I can remember ever being for a swim meet.

Here were my worries going into the meet:

• I haven't done a start off a block since 2005 (all strokes)
• I've had nagging issues with my left shoulder being much weaker than my right shoulder while swimming butterfly in practice
• We haven't done true sprints in practice, so I haven't swum race speed in quite a while
• My total lack of preparation for the meet--getting in a handful of practices the week before the meet is NOT sufficient
• My kick is not what it used to be--kick and turns were always my strongest parts in swimming
• Would I even still have the competitive instinct?
• My endurance has gone way down, due to the lack of practices issue

The meet, at the George Mason University pool, was a sprint meet, with the longest events being the 200 free and 200 IM.  I entered in the 100 IM, 100 back, 50 fly, 50 back, 50 free, and all four 25s (not a sanctioned race, just a fun thing they do at this meet).  I knew my endurance wasn't very good, so I stayed away from the other 100s and the 200s.  Here's how the events went (not necessarily in the order I swam them):

• 100 IM: Terrible start.  Good reaction time, but weird blocks and I went waaaaaay too deep.  Having only gotten in two block starts during warmup probably didn't help too much.  The fly felt great, back was so-so, I died on breast, and free was terrible.  The pool has a TON of lines on the bottom of the pool, so that totally screwed up my sense of pool position when swimming fly and free.  Overall, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be.
• 50 fly: Went too deep off the start, but besides that it felt very good.  My time was off from what I was hoping, but the race itself felt fantastic
• 100 back: Absolutely terrible--very slick pad on the wall, so I back flopped...and went really deep.  Messed up my stroke count on the 50-75 turn and on the finish, so I glided a bit longer than I should have on both.  Legs totally died at the 75.  Coming off the wall felt really good, though (with the exception of the aforementioned long turn).  However, my time was really bad.  I  mean, REALLY bad.  All things considered, that was a big surprise given how the race felt.
• 50 back: Another terrible start.  By this point in the meet I was starting to wear down and wasn't spinning my arms fast enough.  Slow race, although my turn felt good.
• 50 free:  Besides the start, I thought this was a pretty good race.  Besides the 50 fly, this was my strongest race.
• 25 fly: Finally got the start right (although it was a tad deeper than I'd have liked) and had a good race.
• 25 back: Another poor start, although I didn't do the back flop.  Glided a bit too long into the wall.
• 25 breast: Actually felt really good, and had a good start.
• 25 free: A little deep on the start but not too bad overall.

What I got out of the meet:

• What the hell happened to my backstroke?!  I used to be a backstroker first and foremost (and a butterflier second).  Even accounting for how much slower all my times were than they used to be, my backstroke times were WAY off the mark.  That's going to need to be my biggest area of focus over the next month or so before the next meet.
• Apparently shoulder problems in practice do not equate to shoulder problems at a meet, at least in regards to fly!  While my body rhythm wasn't 100% in sync (I'd occasionally have a stroke/kick that were a bit off), fly overall felt VERY good.  It is reminiscent of the year and a half I swam in highschool, when practically overnight I became a butterflier--prior to that I had been terrible at it, but one day at practice it just clicked and I started training for fly then.  Maybe I will become primarily a butterflier now?  Obviously I only swam a 50 of it, but I didn't have the endurance drain that I did while swimming backstroke.
• I have got to work on my starts.  Of the practices I've been to, we've never used the blocks, so I'll have to see if I can get some practice in on them.
• I need to practice, practice, practice, and for good measure, practice some more.  With my easier work schedule for the next month or so, I'm going to try and get in at least seven practices a week.
• Racing with longer hair than I used to have, not to mention facial hair, is odd.  Not sure if I like it.  I'll at least get more frequent haircuts, but the facial hair might disappear at the monthly meets.
• 59 is not too old to be a pretty darn good swimmer.  There was a guy there who would have beat me in every event he swam when I was back in my prime.  Oldest guy at the meet was 86, I think, and he was able to swim all four strokes with pretty good technique.
• It is a small, small world.  I got there pretty early to the meet before many people had gotten there (the bleachers were pretty empty).  A guy came in and sat down next to me about 15 minutes later and after we swam warmup, asked me about my Citadel tattoo.  Turns out he's the older brother of a fellow 2009 grad from The Citadel, a guy who was in Tango Company, across the battalion from my company, Oscar Company.  What are the chances of that ?

Overall, I am ecstatic to be back in the world of competitive swimming!  Ever since I started coaching in 2008, I've really missed it and am quite happy to be back where I belong.  Really looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, losing weight, and dropping time!

Motivational/Philosophical quotes on pain

As I try to juggle an increasingly hectic work schedule and my workout/swimming plans, one thing is pretty constant.  That is pain.

Not just the physical pain that comes with using muscles in the pool that have seen very little use in the last six years, or the pain of being out of shape and struggling to get back into shape.  But also pain of the mind, from wrestling with the figurative problem child at work, from putting in long hours with little in the way of tangible results.  The physical pain is quite refreshing, the mental pain not so much.

Several of the folks who read this blog know that I'm a HUGE fan of Jim Butcher and his novels, the main series of which is the Dresden Files.  Here are four excellent philosophical and ridiculously motivating quotes from the series regarding pain, which help me put my pain in perspective.

Quote 1:

"Pain used as a weapon is one thing. Personal pain, the kind that comes from just living our lives, is something else. Pain isn’t a lot of fun, at least not for most folks, but it is utterly unique to life. Pain-physical, emotional, and otherwise-is the shadow cast by everything you want out of life, the alternative to the result you were hoping for, and the inevitable creator of strength. From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before. Pain is there to tell us when we’ve done something badly-it’s a teacher, a guide, one that is always there to both warn us of our limitations and challenge us to overcome them. For something no one likes, pain does us a whole hell of a lot of good."

Quote 2:

"...We still hadn't learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.
Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind - graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.
And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realized that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last - and yet will remain with you for life.
Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another." 

Quote 3:

"Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it."


Quote 4:

"Pain is a byproduct of life. That’s the truth. Life sometimes sucks. That’s true for everyone. But if you don’t face the pain and the suck, you don’t ever get the other things either. Laughter. Joy. Love. Pain passes, but those things are worth fighting for. Worth dying for."     

Work, weather, and the attempted attainment of records...

So, the past two weeks have not been very accomodative of my workout plans.

Work has been a beast, and I'm putting in some serious overtime.  Due to my early mornings and/or late nights at work, I made it to two practices last week.  This week has been more of the same, with evening storms in the mix, too, preventing me from being able to practice even when I was able to get off work in time!  Grr!

This week I'm looking at two practices - I did Monday evening and will get tomorrow morning's practice.  I'm drawing a blank on how much yardage I did on Monday, but last Saturday's practice was a 3700.  I expect tomorrow's practice to be similar in length.

I'm feeling a lot better in the water.  My left shoulder is still weak (again, I have no idea why it's weaker than my right), but it isn't hurting as much when I swim--still don't do more than a 25 of fly when doing IM sets, so I'll just do fly drill for the rest of the fly portion.  Hopefully over the next couple weeks I'll be able to swim all the fly without doing any one arm drills.  My kick is slowly coming back, and last Saturday's hour and a half practice left me tired without being sore or painful.  I hope tomorrow's practice is similar in how I cope with it.

Tomorrow's practice is the last of long course season (although all of the pools we practice at are 25Y/M, the season is technically long course).  Short course starts on Monday, and with it, we switch to indoor pools.  Hopefully that will help take care of the weather issue that has been keeping me out of the pool this week!  This project at work is supposed to wind down next week (that being said, the completion date has been pushed back three times already, so I'm not exactly holding my breath), so I'm really hoping that the work side of things will start to let me swim more practices, too!

The first meet is October 15th, and it's a sprint meet.  I'm planning on attending it if I don't have to work that weekend.  The first full meet is the weekend of October 30th, and I'll definitely be attending it.

Doing some research, provided I can get back to near what my old speeds were, I have a chance of setting 8 team records for the 18-24 age group.  It has historically been a very small group for the team, and I think I'm the first person in that age group in several years, at least of those who will compete.  The records that are up for grabs are:

• 50 back (current record is a 29.31)
• 100 back (I get this one by default, since no one has swum it)
• 200 back (ditto)
• 50 fly (current record is a 24.81--this would be the hardest for me, since I think that was a bit faster than the fastest 50 fly I ever swam)
• 100 fly (current record is a 57.69--this is a bit slower than my old time, so it is "theoretically" in reach)
• 200 fly (by default)
• 200 IM (current record is a 2:06.18--in the general vicinity of my old time, if memory serves me)
• 400 IM (current record is a 4:44.78--almost 10 seconds slower than my old time, so that puts this one within reach)

There are a lot of factors that will need to come into play for me to get any of those records but the ones I get by default.  I gotta get my shoulders up to speed--as it stands right now, any record that includes swimming fly is out of the question until my shoulders can stand it.  I've gotta pick my speed up--I'm nowhere near those speeds right now, but given time between now and April, it is a possibility.  In regards to the 400 IM, I don't even know if I want to swim a distance that long anymore!  It was a pain in the butt back in the day, and now I won't have a coach forcing me to swim it...or the 500...or the 1000.

My long term goal in terms of competition/records/Nationals cuts is to get back up to speed in back and fly.  Those are the two strokes I had the most success at back in the day, so I hope that they are still my strengths now.  I'm a lot stronger, physically speaking, than I was back then, so hopefully I can put that extra strength and muscle to use in the water.