State Meet: Post Meet Write Up

Looking like a super hero in my borrowed tech suit.

No, that is not a Rice Crispy treat behind my back, why do you ask? ;)

Apparently I'm terrible at keeping up with a blog these days. I'd like to be able to blame Twitter, but I never update there either, hehe.

My last post here was my entry times for State, and then I never followed up on that meet. The meet itself was April 9-11, and I swam on the 10th and 11th. Those dates mark one month after being hired for the job I'm now working, and my life was in a lot of upheaval back then. As such, even though I had a lot going on in my head about the meet, I never got to write it down.

I think possibly my favorite parts of the meet were the three relays I swam on. When some of us were talking about doing the meet, my friend Kristi said we should do a medley relay together. Courtney said she'd only want to do the free leg, and Kristi said she'd take fly, so, given what was left, I volunteered for back. Interestingly, a new girl - Sara - had joined our team just that day of practice, and she was planning to do the meet, so we got her to take the breaststroke leg.

I was horrified that I was going to ruin the relay with my terrible backstroking, but we started practicing the exchanges, and I learned how to do a backstroke start (and figured out if I wear a nose clip I can swim backstroke WAY faster, since I don't have to worry about getting water up my nose), and it turned out to be awesome! Our relay got DQ'd at the meet (Sara did her breaststroke pullout incorrectly), but none of us cared because it was SO FUN. I'm pretty sure I'd never gotten anywhere close to a :43 mid backstroke 50 before and I was over the MOON about it. It was a great first race of the meet for me.

The rest of that day I had 50 free (improved my time by just over 4 seconds since Loveland, -4.27), 100 IM (-1.67 seconds), my first individual 50 back in competition (three seconds slower than the relay, but I think I got 5th in my age group), and then another relay - 200 mixed freestyle. Which was tons of fun, again! Sara and I got to swim with a couple of our fast guys, and we had a great time with it. I swear, I will never, ever say no to being on a relay. Wee!

Sunday actually started with another relay, 200 mixed medley. This time they had me swim the anchor, and I was nervous as hell. But! My friend Leigh Ann loaned me one of her tech suits (an older Speedo) and I felt so amazing in it. I'm pretty sure I'm not a good enough swimmer to really notice a difference, but it made me feel awesome, like a super hero. The fabric is so thin, you sort of feel naked in it, except for the part where it's compressing your body and pulling on your shoulders. It fit so well that I was worried I was going to rip it during a flip turn or something, but it flexed and moved and I can't even describe how cool it felt in the water, how perfect my streamline seemed. And when I got out, it was like being hit by a cold breeze, the way it held water against my skin. It's too bad they're illegal now, because it was sort of intoxicating, wearing it. I'd love to get to do it again. I wonder if those new kneeskin suits that are legal feel anywhere near as sweet at that speed suit. Not that I have the $375 to get one, but at least it's cheaper than the full length ones.

Anyway, long story short, that 50 free felt like my fastest race EVER. The annoying thing is that, somehow, they didn't get my split. Nate (the butterflier on the relay) may not have touched the timing pad hard enough or something (even though there are lane judges who are supposed to record the splits with stop watches), but our splits got smooshed together as 1:01.28. The closest I can get to estimating my split is to take his individual 50 fly time (27.19) and subtract it from our combined split to get 34.09, which is one 1ooth slower than my split on the 200 mixed free from the night before. It felt SO much faster, though. I just wish I knew for sure what I went.

After that, 50 breast (-4.09), 100 free (-2.14), and 50 fly (-4.69 - which amazed me because, even though the DU pool felt really fast, I was so dead tired by the time I swam my 50 fly that I felt like an inchworm on the second 25, not hardly moving at all on each stroke). I was definitely ready for the meet to be over, though I totally would have swam the last 200 free relay, if they'd been able to get me on one. I finished the meet with a huge bruise on my right shin from climbing in and out of the warmup and competition pool, and I was truly sick of warming down from things, hehe. The pool at DU is awesome, though, and we had swanky timing pads and I felt like a legitimate competitive swimmer. I'm really happy with how I did, getting ribbons in every individual event I swam in except 50 fly, and dropping at least a second and a half off every event I did in Loveland.

Here are the final results:

200 Medley Relay (2:52.58 // my split 43.63)

50 Free (34.94)

100 IM (1:38.16 // splits 47.93 / 50.23)

50 Back (46.20)

200 Mixed Free Relay (2:04.74 // my split 34.08)

200 Mixed Medley Relay (2:26.47 // my split ~34.09)

50 Breast (48.31)

100 Free (1:16.38 // splits 37.75 / 38.63)

50 Fly (46.37)

I'm really excited for the meet my team hosts in October, The Pumpkin Plunge! I'm thinking of adding 100 back to my event list for this one, and maybe I'll lose my mind and signup for the 200 IM too. We'll see. ;)

There are a few other things I want to blog about here - the 2.4 mile open water event I did yesterday, plans for the future, discussions about being healthier - but I think I'll put those into their own entries.

Sate Meet

Apparently I'm easily convinced to do such things, as I'm now swimming in the State swim meet on April 10-11 in Denver (at DU). I'm swimming the same events as the Sweetheart meet plus 50 back, so I can complete the Sprint Squad events (50 free, 50 back, 50 fly, 50 breast and 100 IM). Here are my seeds (events in swim order):

50 free - :39.21

100 IM - 1:39.83

50 back - 1:00.00

50 breast - :52.40

100 free - 1:18.52

50 fly - :51.06

So, basically what I swam in Loveland, and a huge guess on the 50 back, since I suck ass at it. My goal for this one is NO GOGGLE FAIL. That would make me happy. Also, to not embarrass myself in front of lots of people. Haha.

Loveland Sweetheart Meet: Post Meet Write Up

Firstly, I had a GREAT time at the meet last Saturday. I was so nervous the night before I slept poorly (not to mention my sinuses were rebelling and making breathing a challenge), and was really anxious all morning. I got to the pool a bit before warmups were supposed to start and signed in, then found two of my teammates and chatted until we went to warmup together.

The pool was nice, smaller than the one I normally swim in, and warmer too, but not bad. I felt better once I saw it, because it was no longer such an ominous thought about what it would be like there. Warmup felt good, and we got out and talked and hung out until Rachel and I had our first race (100 IM).

My friend Alix and my boyfriend, Jeff, are very awesome and not only came to watch and recorded my stats, but they also critiqued and gave me suggestions for my next race, or the next time I swim a meet. Jeff sent me a note from his iPhone, so I'm going to copy and paste all the meet data on each event, and then write up my notes as well.

100 IM - Heat 1
Lane 3
2nd place
Time: 1:39.83

This was literally the first event of the meet, so I had no idea what the start tone sounded like or anything. I've watched meets before, but never at this level (the last one I went to was the Santa Clara Grand Prix, where I was watching Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swim). Apparently it works exactly the same way. I got up on the block and I was freaked out of my mind. The tone went off and I dove in and when I surfaced to start my fly, I swear the building was silent, and I couldn't see ANYONE else in the water. I was totally sure I'd false started, but I didn't stop swimming because I wasn't certain. Turns out I was just out ahead of everyone else in my heat, and lead all the way through the breaststroke leg, getting beat out by about six tenths on the freestyle. I think I could have done better if I worked on my turns more, because my backstroke to breaststroke transition is terrible, and I even kicked the wall really hard with my left heel in this meet, which stunned me on my push off a little. I also need to work on my underwaters on ALL my strokes, because I generally don't do any at all.

The race felt AWESOME, though. I had so much adrenaline going into it that I hardly remember the first two lengths, and by the time I got to breaststroke I was hurting like crazy, swimming out of my mind. I loved how it felt, and I can't wait to swim this race again.

50 Fly - Heat 1
Lane 7
4th place
Time: 51.06

Oh butterfly, I love you so much, but you are so cruel to me. The second half of the second lap was excruciating, and my stroke completely fell apart. I did swim it faster than expected, but I have a lot of work to do on my fly. I want to make 50 fly a staple for me in meets, and I'd love to work on trying to get below :50 as my next goal.

100 Freestyle - Heat 2
Lane 1
3rd place
Time: 1:18.52

This race felt great. I seeded it at 1:30, which is what I've been swimming it without a dive in practice. I think I swam this faster than usual, though, and it felt awesome all the way. I could have done better on my first turn, and of course underwater dolphin kick, so I think I can totally improve. I definitely want to do this race again.

50 Freestyle - Heat 1
Lane 4
2nd place
Time: 39.21

I totally should have won this heat in this distance. I know I can swim faster than :39 low off a dive, but when I hit the water, both sides of my goggles filled up with water and I was swimming blind. I tried to turn where I thought the wall was (based on the fuzzy T bar on the bottom of the pool), but missed the wall entirely and killed my momentum. I suppose it's good that I finally had goggle fail, since things had gone so well the previous three races went perfectly in that regard. I'm looking forward to giving this race another shot.

50 Breaststroke - Heat 2
Lane 2
4th place
Time: 52.40 (DQ'd)

This was my fail race. I was talking in the stands with Alix, and she was telling me I really needed to work on my pull downs, and got me to promise to do them in this race. Well, when I dove in, I was thinking so hard about the pull down, and worrying about my goggles, that I did one fly stroke off the dive. I have NO idea what the heck I was thinking (or maybe I just wasn't?), but that DQ'd me. Still, the time wasn't bad, and the lane watcher ladies said my breaststroke looked pretty good. This is another one I can't wait to try again, to see what I can really do with it.

All-in-all, despite the DQ and goggle fail, I feel like this meet was a success. It gave me an idea of what swim meets are like as a swimmer, and I have a lot of stuff I can work on before the next one. I can't wait to do it again!

Loveland Sweetheart Meet

Wow, so I haven't updated this thing since last August. Most of that has to do with being able to post my workouts to my Fitness Log over at USMS, and I don't feel like duplicating the entries over here (and I've been too busy to post workout reactions and such anyway).

Anyway, I thought I'd dust this blog off for competition type posts, since tri season is about to start, and I'm going to swim in my first meet this weekend.

Yup, I'm swimming a meet on Saturday. And I'm scared out of my mind, even though I've already told myself that no one is going to judge me on how poorly I swim (well, except the lane judges - I'm not going to be shocked if I get DQ'd in something like the IM because I have no idea what I'm doing) and I don't care if I come in dead last in everything. If I can manage to a) not break myself doing racing starts, and b) not vomit on myself from nerves, I'll consider the whole thing a huge win.

So, this is what I'm swimming:

50 free (seed :40)
50 fly (seed :55)
50 breast (seed 1:00)
100 free (seed 1:30)
100 IM (seed 1:50)

The only things I feel okay with my seed time on are the free races. The other three are massive guesses, since I don't sprint those that often. I swam some 50 breast this morning on around :55, so we'll just pretend I can do that in competition. The IM might be optimistic, as well as the fly. I guess we'll find out!

I will make myself write a post-op entry once I do this thing, so I can record my times and my reactions and stuff. Aaaah, I'm going to swim in a meet! Aaaah!