AMYMSA Masters Swim Meet at Sewickley. I admit I didn’t write a report on my last swim meet because I didn’t have fast swim times. But today I have better news. I set two personal bests and came fairly close to two other personal bests. EVENT #2: 100 yard Freestyle (1:05.59) I didn’t have high expectations for today’s swims because I have been away from the pool for 12 days due to vacation and illness (I am better now, thank you). At the same time, I was in a good mood and felt ready to perform. In this swim I had a good dive and my stroke felt powerful. I think I started breathing soon after surfacing but I kept my head centered and not too far out of the water. I concentrated on kicking hard because that was the advice Shannan called over to me before my swim. She is good for that sort of thing! Around yard 85, I lost rigidness to my core and started fishtailing. I fixed that with a renewed effort to streamline and reduce head movements as I breathed. My friends noticed my stroke was more controlled than typical; that is, I showed less of the inefficient flailing movement in my torso than usual. This propelled me to set a new personal best, beating my old record by 0.35 seconds, and beating my friend Dan by 0.01 second. I trust Dan will beat me the next time. EVENT #5: 100 yard Breaststroke (1:23.15) I recovered nicely and was ready to go. I had a nice dive and pullout at the start, but one of the three next turns was too close to the surface. I concentrated on my arms during this swim, since my coach recently told me I wasn’t pulling enough water with them. But this meant I wasn’t paying much attention to my torso and legs, so I think I could have sprung forward with my torso more on each stroke. My finish was 0.31 seconds faster than my previous personal best. EVENT #6: 50 yard Freestyle (0:29.14) I had plenty of time to rest since the last event but my arms didn’t seem as strong on this swim. I kicked hard and beat my lane neighbors to the wall. My turn was not unusually bad, but I failed to employ some of the things I recently learned from my coach. My nearest two competitors thus got ahead of me after the turn. I didn’t feel the need to breathe during the first 25 yards, but I took 3-4 breaths on the way back. Why did I not follow my preplanned strategy of 1 breath in the first 25 and 2 breaths in the last 25? I was mostly doing a shoulder-driven stroke for the entire 50 yards. I am pleased I was able to maintain that for so long, but I don’t think I was kicking as hard as I should have. I hit the touchpad with enthusiasm and jammed my finger in the process. My time was 0.16 seconds slower than my personal best. EVENT #9: 200 IM (2:51.51) I didn’t feel prepared for this event since I was unable to swim it in the days before the meet. My dive and underwater dolphin kicks were flawless (at least, for me). My fly stroke can still be improved, but I did well today. With maybe one or two exceptions, I had no double-kicks, which plagued me last time. I was in 2nd place in my heat at the end of the fly. My fly-back turn was very good, and it sent me more underwater than usual. My arms during the backstroke felt tired but my friends tell me I was still ahead of Dan at this point (backstroke is Dan’s least favorite stroke), and 3rd in my heat. My back-breast turn was a disaster and I could have been disqualified for almost flipping onto my stomach. I somewhat stopped myself from rolling completely over, but it was an obvious error. I sped up my breaststroke to make up for any lost time. My friends were cheering VERY loudly at this point. I was in lane 6, so they had full access! With every stroke, I heard them pleading for me to go faster. I learned later that I was still ahead of Dan at this point—in fact, I was in 2nd place in the heat—and I had the chance to beat Dan again. Well, I didn’t beat him. He turned on the afterburners and made up a lot of time during his freestyle segment. My gas pedal was already on the floor so I didn’t have anything more to give. I made a good showing, but I know my last 50 yards were too slow (I lost time to all 5 of my competitors). I finished 0.56 seconds slower than my personal best, but it was probably one of the most fun swims I’ve had in a long time.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 03:42:43 +0000
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