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The day started with an early morning 90 minute drive to Siesta Keys Beach, Sarasota arriving at 7:15 am for check-in, number marking, and pre-race meeting. I did a quick 5-min warm up to get used to the salt water, as my last salt water swim was in Waikiki-1993. My goal was to enjoy the swim and keep my stroke smooth all the way.

It was a beach running start in waves according to event and age (as under or over 50). When the men's 3K 50+ wave started, I went in on the side of the pack and let most of the group go as I stopped about mid waist to adjust my goggles. A triangle course, the first leg was against the surf and mild swells, and then a longer second leg, with the return leg parallel to the beach. With only five minutes between each wave the course quickly became crowded over three laps around. But by the middle of the second lap I had passed most the "pink" colored 50+ caps.

I ended up with the time of 47.29, a solid result for the 75-80% effort I made in the 3k, and 5th place is reasonable considering the 55-59 age group was competitive with 40.57 and 42.47 for 1st & 2nd. Results: ​http://goo.gl/YHp5D

Sat Jun 8th 2013
Pan Ams Day 2 for me

50 Fly
27.34
1st
Felt good, breathed twice,
hit my touch

http://www.usms.org/comp/panams13/realtime/
Next are:
Sun: Nothing
Mon: 50 BK
Tue: 200 IM
Wed: Go home

Yesterday was the third day of a great meet for me. Nationals have been somewhat difficult for me as of late (labral tear, elbow tear, insomnia, power outages, etc.) But this meet I was healthy, uninjured and got at least a semblance of shut eye. And it really paid off with 6 PRs, 3 NRs and near misses on 2 other NRs.

Day 3:

I felt pretty good during warm up, just some leg fatigue. By day three, when you're UW 15 meters for all your races, leg fatigue is inevitable.


100 back, 1:01.30, PR, Missed NR by .01:

I'm not gonna lie. I looked up at the time and was a little heartbroken. I would rather have swum a 1:01.5. My splits were good -- 29.3 & 31.9. But I didn't have the leg power on the second 50, especially the last 25, and that cost me. My turns were a little glidey (2 strokes before flipping) and my entry on my start could have been cleaner. I let myself be disappointed during my warm down and then shrugged it off. The time was still a PR and I have been the beneficiary of a .01 swing on other occasions. Plus, it will still be the AA time this year since Karlyn swam a 1:01.7 earlier this year. I knew swimming this on day 3 wouldn't be ideal, so I will have to figure out when and where to swim it rested. Certainly keeps me hungry! And I am encouraged since I still feel like my 100 training wasn't ideal this season.

Here's a vid that Stud took with a nice "dammit" at the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXsOI...ature=youtu.be



50 free, 24.67, PR/NR

I used to dislike the 50 free. But since it occurred to me that I could try SDK-ing on the start, I like it more and may start swimming it more often. I had a tad slow reaction time compared to my other swims. I took 11 kicks on the start and from the vid it looks like that took me to about 13 meters. Then, I took 9 rather than my usual 5-6 on the turn. My breakouts didn't look great (lack of access to blocks). My flutter kick/leg drive looked really solid until right at the end. I was thrilled with the time! I knew 1980 Olympian Sue Walsh had swum a 24.7 last month, so knew I had to improve on my Zones time of 24.86. Really happy with this for the final event of a 3 day meet. Ellen and Stud took vids. I think that is Teen Fort screaming at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiKcA...ature=youtu.be

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater


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Best event: 50 fly
Most Frustrating event: 100 back

Here's a couple other vids from the meet:

50 back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0X0F4sgMo

50 fly vid:
https://www.facebook.com/leslie.livi...40?ref=tn_tnmn
-- shows a total of 13 strokes and a glidey turn

100 IM vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7jNS...ature=youtu.be
-- no SDK on breast to free turn
-- did not need that breath inside the flags


Battle Plan:

I'm going to reboot for LCM Zones in late June. I'll be moving in late July, so July and August I will likely not be as laser focused on swimming. And I have to find a place to train in Pitt. As for next SCY season, I will not go to Santa Clara -- shallow outdoor pool. I may focus on the Harvard SCY meet and Colonies Zones SCY instead. Onward!

Teen Fort did not have a great meet. She didn't taper enough. But she ended with a great race in the 200 breast, taking the win in the final 5 yards. She hadn't swam that race since age 14. Funny, that her best race was the 200 breast and mine was the 50 fly! She did enjoy the experience and meeting lots of masters. I think she will talk up masters swimming in college next year and she may swim at LCM Nats at U of Md next summer.

Saturday night I went out for dinner with my team mate Nikki and her mother. We went to the Webergrill restaurant downtown Indianapolis and despite an hour wait the food was well worth the wait. For future reference and events in Indy I would recommend the restaurant.


I had a really solid nights sleep and woke around 6am. I went through my normal morning routine of reshaving, brewing and drinking coffee and taking my vitamins. I then headed down stairs and had a nice leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and a bagel. I headed off to the pool later than usual and caught the last 4 heats of the women's 500 at around 9am. My friend Katie Gilmore with Alexandria masters swam an incredible race and ended up taking second in a blazing quick time of 5.06.


Today was my off race day and I had zero expectations for placing. First up was the 100 back followed by the 50 free. I had not swum a fast 100 back since 1992 and despite the odd back swim in practice(which are not swum all out) I have not swum the race at all. The 50 was never my thing and I don't recall the last race 50 and I bet it may have been back in the 1980s.


I did my normal warmup of about 1600 but did back 100s instead of my normal pace 100 frees. I practiced my turns and even joined the start lane and did a practice back start. After getting out and drying off I heard the start of the relays and only then realized I had not done a back finish and did not know the number of strokes from the flags in. Oops! In the end it did not matter because I had a great race, hitting all my turns, and taking four strokes into the finish and hitting the final wall spot on. My splits were 28.x, 29.x for a final time of 58.4. I felt really energized at the end and felt like I could have done another 50 at that pace. I am now determined to do a 200 back at some point in the future. I can definitely say I have not done one of those in an even longer time frame.


After the back, I took a nice long warm down which felt good. I got out wrestled my speedo fastskin3 on and then spent about 45 minutes stretching and focusing for the 50. I had entered on the only 50 time I have done since joining masters which was back in January and at 25.14, was over a second slower than my first 50 of yesterday's 100, and even slower than the first 50 of my 200. I felt with a good start and turn I could do a 23.x. I concentrated on taking a good track start and I got off the block really strong with a good breakout. I was half way down the pool and shock and horror I breathed. It was not intentional, but I breathed. I hit the turn really well, had a good streamline, kicked and the next thing I knew I had taken a second breath. I could not believe I had breathed. When I finished I was really upset at myself. I turned looked up and saw my time was 22.61. I had a moment of joy followed by that feeling of I could have gone even quicker. My time placed me 3rd, which I never ever would have imagined possible.


This meet exceeded my wildest expectations and my first place in the 1000 and third place in the 50 has to be one of the weirdest medal combos. I ended the meet with two golds, two bronzes, a fifth and an eighth. I would like to thank all the forumites for there support and encouragement since joining masters swimming. I am even more motivated to continue this fun masters journey. The most inspiring part of the week for me was seeing the 90 year old Vladimir Ouchaya's 20 minute plus 400 IM followed by a great 30 minute discussion with him about his life and how he quite smoking and took up swimming, competes regularly in his 90th year and has no intention of retiring any time soon. Swimming really is a life sport and my congratulations goes out to everyone who participated this week.

Had a fantastic time at the form/stalker dinner last night, meeting lots of new folk. One of them (same age) actually has a son the same year same college as Fort Son. Small world. Had a semi decent nights sleep for a traveling insomniac. The only am emergency was that Teen Fort lost a contact in the am and hadn't brought any replacements. Ack. I've learned the hard way to pack extras after swimming a one eyed day at Zones one year. In any event, I had a great day two and am so excited I fear I wont fall asleep.

50 fly, 25.70, NR/PR

I really thought that I would not swim faster than Zones where I had perfect walls. In fact, I had a wager on it. But I decided to use my nose clip for the first time in fly and took an extra kick on the second length. That and a little more rest allowed me to shave off .2. I did have a slight glide at the turn. The ever witty Ellen took a vid (thx!) and I counted 13 strokes. I didn't quite take the whole 30 meters UW, but was fairly close. Comparing vids, I can see my DPS has improved in fly since Greensboro; it felt long and powerful. Very happy about that swim.


100 IM, 1:02.3, PR

I hadn't swum the 100 IM in SCY in 2 years and never at nationals, so was a tad nervous. But very caffeinated! I missed the NR by .2 and it was all in my breast to free turn. I glided in and then, brain fart, didn't SDK off the wall. Maybe my legs where telling my brain they were done. I wanted at least a body length lead at the 50, and went out n 27.7 (12 + 12 SDK). Fast, but it didn't feel excessive. Did not have a particularly speedy evil leg, and lost some ground there to a real evilstroker. But my free leg was fairly solid and I pulled away a bit at the end. So psyched about the time! A PR by 2 seconds.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Really hoping for some sleep tonight. Tomorrow 100 back and 50 free. It could be the first nationals ever where I don't scratch an event. . The speedy Water Rat beat me to it!

I went for a stretch swim last night and came back to the hotel tired. I decided to have a early dinner at the hotel and go to bed early. I had a good nights sleep but woke this morning with a sore throat and some sniffles. I don't know if I have a cold or allergies and i don't feel sick.

Today was not such a good day and my 500 was disappointing. I took the race out ok on the first 200 and then just did not have anything left. I have been working on bringing my 500 home and it just did not happen today. No excuses it was just not my day in the 500. I ended up going 5.02 and finished 3rd in my age group. I honestly think I have a lot more in the 500 and I will train even harder for this one.

There was about an hour gap between the end of the 500 and my heat of the 100. I took a long warm down after the 500 and tried getting myself in a good frame of mind for the 100. I had a good start but my first turn was not very good, but despite this I kept pushing hard and brought my second 50 home. I had hoped to go under 50 , but touched in 50.20. I think this is another race that could have been better and I think my seed time was probably a handicap. If I had been in the fastest heat I think I could have gone quicker, but I can't change what I did and this was a solid swim. My time placed me 5th in my age group.

Tomorrow is a fun day swimming off events. First up is the 100 back which I have not done since 1992 and then I have the 50 free. I will do a no breather on the 50 free and see what I can do. I have had an awesome time so far and plan on finishing the meet with some fun racing and a smile on my face.

Yes it is! It is sprinters day 1!

50 back, 27.04, NR

Great first event for me. My first event at Nats isn't always my best, so I was glad to see this time. Execution was good except I was too close to the wall on my turn. It didn't effect me materially, but might have made the .05 difference in getting under 27. Still extremely pleased. This event is clearly my baby with a 4.5 winning margin. I felt like I had a fast reaction time. But that doesn't seem to be listed in the results. I did really jam my finger on the finish, which required ice and 4 ibuprofen.


50 evil, 32.80, PR, 2nd

Really pleased with the time, but my execution was iffy. I dove in and took my bloody time taking my dolphin kick. And I had to short stroke both walls. I pulled ahead on the UW off the wall, but Kim Crouch tracked me down, out touching me by .02. I've never beaten her in yards. My turnover looked slow on the vid too (in complete contrast to my other strokes). Breaststroke is the most aggravating, unsightly, frustrating, bizarre stroke. And hence I am completely happy with my fake evil time!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Day 1 is in the books and went very well. Teen Fort won her 50 evil so we are mommy daughter national champs. Now off to forum dinner!

I was pretty tired last night after the 1000 and when a rain storm came through around 6.30pm I decided to grab food at the hotel and have an early nights sleep. I fell asleep around 7.30pm and had a solid nights sleep waking at around 5.30am. I had a leisurely hour getting ready for the second day at the pool and ate breakfast around 7am and then took the 3-4 block walk to the pool.

Today had the 400 IM'ers starting followed by a break and short warmup before the rest of the days events. Long story short I had a lot of time this morning to do my 1600 yd warmup and then a shorter 1000 yd loosen up before my 200. Yesterday after my 1000 I had a pretty long talk with my coach and he asked me to trust him and take the 200 out in 24 on the first 50, and 52 at 100 and he felt I could bring it home swimming from the front. The 200 is my least favorite event. Over the years I have swum both slow and fast races in this one and on all occasions it just hurts. Typically my legs feel filled up with lead by about 150 and the last 50 is just brutal. Today was no different, but as my coach said I had enough to bring it home and I won in 1.49.47, touching out Morton Anderson who was reeling me in on the last 50. My splits were spot on what I was asked to swim and with some more fast endurance training I think I can drop significantly in this event.

It took me 30 minutes to loosen up after my race, but this one felt great. I have a tough day tomorrow doubling in the 500 and the 100. The 500 is my favorite event and based on today I think I can have a great 100. The key tomorrow will be getting a good long loosen up after the 500. I believe on the time line I will have about an hour between races and I am glad the 500 is first. I am ranked 4 in the 500 and there is a professional triathlete who is ranked first but has no times in the usms database. The 100 I am in the second fastest heat.

I am tired but I plan on heading back to the pool for another stretch and then will decide if I go to bed early or meet up for the forum dinner.

I had a great nights sleep last night and woke feeling excited. I had some butterflies fluttering even before I left the hotel room, which for me is a really good thing. I did the 10 minute walk to the pool from my hotel which was very pleasant and arrived at the pool at around 6.45am. I swam in lane 4 and realized after about 100 that three of the people in my lane were on the Alexandria Masters team I train with when I am in Washington DC. It was great briefly catching up with Katie Gilmore who is going to do the 1650 later today. I did about a 1600 yd warmup and then got out and dried off before heading back to the hotel for a light oatmeal breakfast. I quickly repacked my competition bag with my meet suit and headed back to the pool.

I was in the last heat of the 1000 so had tonnes of time when I got back to the pool. I hate sitting around at meets so kept moving and about 45 minutes before my race did another warmup swim in the diving well. Indy is such a great facility for swimming with the two competition pools and the diving well, plus two other 25 yd pools for warmup/warm down. After my second warmup I again dried off and put on my competition suit and then basically stretched and stayed busy until my heat. I had checked out the heats for my competition and new the next fastest guy was in lane 1 in the heat before me. He posted a 10.39 which is a good time, but it was beatable.

I was pretty relaxed before the start, but could not get some condensation out of my goggles which was annoying. As the gun went off and I hit the water, the strap on my goggles moved significantly down my head, and as I went down the first length I was expecting my goggles to fill with water. Luckily my worst fear did not come true and my goggles stuck. After about 400 I started to feel pretty tired, but focused on long and strong strokes. After 700 I really started to hurt and the final 150 was pretty brutal. I noticed a few guys on the other side of the pool, but being in lane 8 it was hard to really see where I was and where they were. I think I overtook a couple guys on the second 500 but wish I was closer to the middle of the pool.

After finishing I looked up and swore I saw my time was 10.48, and I was really upset. Nicky who was my counter congratulated me and said I did great and that my time was 10.21. I double checked with the time keeper and she confirmed my time. I guess I had looked at the wrong lane. I had won my age group. I am a National Champion masters swimmer. I am so excited. I had hoped to swim faster than 10.20 but at this point I don't care. It gives me plenty of room to improve and train to improve, but I won!

I am going to head back over to the pool to catch the 1650 swims.

I promised a few people I would blog my week at Nationals so thought I would start with a quick preamble post the day before the meet.


I am currently sitting at DFW waiting for my flight to Indianapolis. As of this week I have been back in the pool 8 months and when I got back in I never thought I would be traveling to Indianapolis to compete at Nationals. I have trained hard for this meet and feel like I have had a good taper keeping my yardage up yet mixing in some good quality work. I am nervous that I have not really raced in a long time, yet excited at the prospect of some good races.


Practice was short this morning with a quick 2300 yard workout after which two of my team mates who unfortunately are not swimming this week and my coach took me out for breakfast. It was great fun and its nice to have team mates i swim with who are so supportive. After breakfast I headed back to the house to start my shave down. I did not think much about hair or lack of before I started and ended up an egg head! My shave down took about an hour and I had no major razor burn or cuts and I am feel pretty good right now.


My flight leaves Dallas around 3.40pm and arrives at around 6.30pm. I hope to have time to swing by the pool for a short swim but if not I will grab dinner and try to go to bed early. Warmup tomorrow is 6.30am so with Indy being East Coast time zone I will have an early start. I had hoped to swim all the free events but the meet does not let you swim both the 1650 and the 1000. I swim the 1000 tomorrow morning, the 200 on Friday, the 500 and 100 on Saturday and the 50 and 100 back on Sunday. The 1000 and the 500 are deck seeded so I won't know my heat or lane until just before I swim. The 1000 is swum slowest to fastest with all ages and both men and women swimming together. I am ranked #9 overall so could be in the second to last heat or the last heat if anyone drops out. The meet timeline looks like i will be swimming around 10.30am. I am really looking forward to swimming the 1000 and it will give me a pretty good idea how my taper worked out and how the rest of the meet will go. I think my base is pretty good and think the middle and lone distance events should be strong, but based on some speed I seem to have picked up during the taper I may surprise myself it he shorter races.


I need to run since my flight boards in about 10mins, but will blog tomorrow after the 1000.

I had a really great time at the Commissioner’s Cup meet on Sunday. It was a well attended event, with around 175 swimmers, but with 10 lanes things went pretty quickly and the meet took maybe 3.5 hours total. The 500 at the end and the 200s grouped all at the beginning accounted for a big chunk of that, so after the opening relay my 4 individual events (all 50s) came and went quickly. The 25y competition course was set up starting in the shallower end of the pool, which, with the adjustable floor lowered all the way, was about 2m deep. One odd thing—the adjustable part of the pool bottom ended about 15y out, and at the end of it there was a white plastic scalloped border—I assume this serves to cushion the adjustable floor when it meets up with the permanent tiling. But besides being functional the scallops were cute too—it looked like the pool was wearing a frilly lace garter across its middle, and swimming across it made me smile every time.

The meet was deck seeded, but psych sheets were distributed so that we could check that our entries were correct. I dutifully flipped through it to make sure I was in the events I’d entered—yep, there was my name in the 50 fly list—but wait! There was a 28.39 by my name. That wasn’t right at all—I’ve broken 30 once or twice, but not recently, and I had padded my seed times pretty well for this meet. I flipped to the 50 free--25.37? That was faster than I’d ever gone too--I knew I hadn’t put that down. My other seed times were equally off. As I went up to the computer table to straighten things out I was trying to puzzle out what had happened—things weren’t off just by a digit, or even two.

As it turned out, everyone’s seed times had been treated as though they were meters times, then converted to yards by mistake. So swimmers would end up seeded where they should be, just the times would be off. There’s always something quirky with the heat sheets or seeding at this meet; this year’s glitch turned out to be pretty innocuous.

That mystery solved, I warmed up, went off the block s a few times, and gathered with my team to get relay assignments for the meet’s big event—the Commisionner’s Trophy Relay. The parks department goes all out for this, bringing in huge trophies for the top 6 teams (1 for each swimmer), plus t-shirts and a big photo session for each relay team. It’s not an official masters events, so any 4 swimmers who meet the criteria (2 men, 2 women, total ages equaling 160 or more) can enter, regardless of official team affiliation. And since it’s deck entries, there’s always last-minute finagling during warm-ups to try to pull together teams, with women over 40 being in high demand. This year I was very glad to be affiliated with TNYA, and have a coach on-deck taking care of all the relay decisions and entries so that I wasn’t part of that zooiness.

I had heard that one of my open-water buddies was putting a team together to go after the event record, a 1:40-mid. I knew we didn’t have a shot at them, so I was rooting for them to get the record. They didn’t disappoint, swimming a 1:40-low, the class of the field by far. My team came in third (1:49) with a strong finish from our anchor swimmer, who passed one team in the final 5 yards and came very close to catching another. They didn’t post individual splits, so I have no idea what I went, but I enjoyed swimming with my teammates and cheering them on in a close race—gotta love relays!

The rest of the meet was individual events, and I spent most of my time behind the blocks waiting to swim, or in the warmup pool. I had about 10 minutes between my first two 50s, then a 40-minute gap, then about 5 minutes between my last 2. My times were relatively slow (in IM order: 33.03, 33.48, 38.00, and 29.01), and if I had been really focusing on doing everything I could to swim fast at this meet I would have been disappointed by these results. But since I’ve kind of been taking an extended break from working very hard in the water, these seemed about right. And I was reminded how very much I enjoy just getting up on the blocks and racing, no matter the result—the experience was just plain fun.

So while I swam times in yards that would once have been good metric times for me (and no, they didn’t give the results the same treatment they gave the seeds times), I actually ended up feeling better about swimming after this meet than I have in a while. It confirmed to me that pool racing is something that I find worth doing, and that I would like to be better at. It also made me feel more connected to the pool swimming community again—it was gratifying to see so many familiar faces and chat with so many meet buddies from over the years. The one thing I regretted about the meet going so fast is that I didn’t get to watch more of other people’s races.

As for my events, what kept me from going faster on Sunday? A little bit of everything. I expected to tie up at the end of my 50s, as the little sprinting I’d done in practices had been just 25s or less. But that only happened in fly, where my arms had a hard time getting out of the water those last 15 yards. On the other strokes I felt almost good at the finish. I think that means I need to work on those lactate-production type sprinty sets more so that I can generate enough energy in the first place to put myself into some distress by the end. I could feel that my turnover in breast and back wasn’t as fast as it should be for 50s. And my execution on starts/turns/breakouts will be sharper the more race-pace stuff I do. So basically—there’s a lot of room for improvement here.

One of the things I had forgotten that I like so much about meet swimming—or maybe I never realized it before I became so immersed in open water stuff—is the sense of order and predictability. I just feel a certain competence when I’m at meets, because I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing at any given moment. From the basics of being behind the blocks when I’m supposed to be and following starting commands to more complicated things like swimming races the way I’ve planned or getting in a good warmup in a crowded pool, the script has pretty much already been written. The challenge comes from executing mostly-predictable and replicable things well, rather than trying to figure out what I should be doing at any given moment. That I’m drawn to (rather than bored by) that sort of challenge is the kind of personality quirk that has made being a newbie diver a much more comfortable experience than being a newbie polo-player ever was. And it’s one of my perennial challenges in open-water. As many of those events as I did over the past couple of years, I never got to the point where I was confident that I was doing things "right,” or always knew what that might mean—which says both something about the nature of ow swimming and about my own insecurities and need for predictability. At Sunday’s meet I felt I had found my way home again, and was reassured to find it familiar and comforting after what seemed like a long absence.

(That said, I’m not giving up on open-water, just trying to understand some of my reactions to it a little better. In fact, I just signed up for my first open-water event of the season, the 2 Bridges 5K swim on June 1. I’m willing to give up some predictability, sometimes, for the joys of swimming without walls in beautiful locales.)

I thought I would take a rest day after the meet, but I woke up this morning early, and felt excited about going to the pool, so I headed up to Riverbank. I was lucky to find one of my swim buddies there to share a set with. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 IM d/s by 25)

6 x 150: 3 @ 3:00, 3 @ 2:50, 3 @ 2:40, 3 @ 2:30, descending each set of 3 [I did fr/bk/fr sandwiches for the first 3, then FR for the rest. My fastest 150 was 2:10 (on the 3^rd set), the last set of 3 were 2:20-2:20-2:18.]

400 IM, kick/swim by 50, easy and stretched out

400 warmdown + play

Afterwards I had a nice stretching session on the playground overlooking the GWB. I’m looking forward to doing that more often now that the weather is warming up.

I came in a bit late this am (getting the house ready for an open house). That meant I had to warm up in the rec pool with no backstroke flags. Not ideal and perhaps contributed to some misadventures in my 100 back.

400 Mixed Medley Relay, 3:57, 100 back split, 1:02.11

We grabbed first place overall and will definitely end up high in the TT rankings. We also had two swimmers who had just swum the 100 IM, and were pretty tired. My 100 back was fraught with turn problems. They seem to be due to my stroke count from the flags changing from prior years. I'm wondering if doing a fair amount of backstroke with agility paddles has helped my pull? I've customarily taken 3 strokes and flipped. I did this on the first 25 and my feet went entirely over the gutter, no push off. A huge collective groan from my team on the side. I just started SDK-ing like mad. The second turn I took two strokes and was too far from the wall. The third turn I took 2 1/2 strokes and that worked best. But who can plan on that? I may have to work on taking 2 long hard strokes before flipping. Any other advice? That must have cost me .5+ seconds. If I had had only a decent turn, I would have had a PR; my prior best was 1:01.99 with the floaty suits. So, I was pleased with the time considering the execution problems. It's actually .3 faster than I went at Nationals last year, though I had a terrible day on day one last year for various reasons. I am hopeful I can take a second off that swim with a full taper. My splits were 29.7/32.4. I swam it 50 easy speed, 25 build, 25 sprint. I will stick to that pacing strategy at nationals. I did put in a split request for this event as well.


100 fly, 1:00.8, PR

I had a lot of rest after 100 back, which I was grateful for as that is an exhausting leg dominant event. I planned to swim the race 75 easy speed + 25 whatever I have left. The last 5 strokes were horribly painful and piano-ish. But I was thrilled thrilled with the time. I haven't swum a decent 100 fly in SCY since 2010 (1:01.3). Splits were 28.0/32.7. I can't really get these any closer without training more for this event. This is only .5 off the NR. That .5 was lost in the last 5 strokes for sure. Still, this was the end of a two day meet. I was very happy with it. It helped to have friends cheering at the end of my lane. I'm hopeful it will hold up well against nationals times. And I'm glad I got it off my plate for the season!


Women's 200 medley relay, backstroke lead off, 27.3

We finished first overall! I only had about 20 minutes after the 100 fly for this race. I did have time for maybe a 250 warm down. I thought my legs would be beyond fried for the 50 back. But they didn't feel too bad. I did feel a bit ragged the last 10 yards. But this is a great time for my 7th event over two days.


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Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with my Zones meet. This is the best one I've had in years. I usually do a more gradual rest going into a non-taper meet than I did last week. But 4 days of drastic rest really helped zap the fatigue and produce some great times.

I may start using my nose clip for all my 50s.

Feeling quite bushed at the moment. Will just do a recovery workout tomorrow.

I was exceedingly glad I rested hard the last 4 days. I had a lackluster start, but from then on it was fast.

100 free, 58.4, Zones Record

This was a mediocre swim. I wasn't jazzed up to really really crank it with a relay soon after. I had a great start (9 SDKs) and took it out very conservatively given my concern with my 100 conditioning (28.0). Unfortunately, I only got a toe on my second wall, which stopped me dead in the water. Mollie said she say me stop dead/look splayed and wondered what happened as she zoomed by. This mistake demotivated me for my second 50, though I finished in 30.3. That botched turn cost me a good second, I'm sure. Definitely slower than my SCM 100 free from Dec. I've been frequently flipping too far from the wall in practice and I think this carried over to the meet. I've also never had fantastic flip turns since I race free infrequently. This is an item I really need to focus on. Mollie did point out to me that this time was a Zones Record, which did make me feel better.


Mixed 200 medley relay, 50 back lead off, 27.29

Our medley relay won overall with a 1:42. Our flyer went 22.0. Teen Fort split a 30 in evil and was happy. I was super pleased with my 27.29 leadoff, which is only .03 off my NR. I had a very good start. My only flaws were a bobble in my streamline on the second 25 and I was a bit too shallow (Yes, I hyper-analyze all technique aspects of my races.) I took fewer kicks on the second 25 since I was perilously close to a DQ on the second length at the Albatross meet. I did put in a split request on this swim in case anything goes awry at Nats.


50 fly, 25.90, NR



I had almost a 2.5 hour break until this event and two cups of java. I didn't even bother to get back in the pool to re-warm up. I knew it would be a tight race with Fall, Susan and Margaret (who all went sub 27). Fall and Susan didn't have a ton of rest after their 100 back. I was excited to swim, felt energized and just had a great feeling about the race before I swam. I wanted to win; I was dialed in. When I set the NR last spring of 26.3, I wondered if I would ever go faster. But I only took 7-8 SDKs off the wall at Greensboro. At the Albatross meet in March (where I re-set my SCM WR), I opted for 10-11 SDKs off the second wall and I did the same here. That is definitely faster for me, and I'll stick with that. I also hit my walls absolutely perfectly -- so very rare. But I was still shocked when I looked at the timing board. Just over the moon about this swim. It is actually faster than the 45-49 record done in a tech suit. This swim will be hard to ever replicate. I was a little surprised to go so fast in my third swim of the day. But I was rested and I always swim faster in the afternoon, which is when I work out.


Womens 200 free relay, 24.86 leadoff, PR/NR

Our free relay won too! I was very surprised by my time (put in a split request) because I was feeling tired. 4 events is pretty rare for me. I've been working on taking more SDKs on free too. I took 9-10 off the start; in the past I've done 4-5. My old PR in this event is from 2009 with a tech suit. I've beaten every other 50 tech suit time, but not this one. Adding SDKs was the ticket! I was almost startled when the wall came up so quickly. I will say that I took a good long look at the wall this time. Still felt like my flip turn was subpar. This is under the NR on the books of 24.91, but I saw a spanking new 50 year old swam a 24.80 in a Colorado meet. So I will need to go faster at Nationals. I really wish it wasn't the last event of a 3 day meet.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thrilled with my day! And pretty pleased that my speed held up so well over 4 events. Feeling very tired now and am clad in compression gear. The couch beckons.

Sun Apr 7th
Zones Day 3

RESULTS

Event 35 Men 45-49 50 Yard Butterfly
1 Varozza, Mike J 45 Longhorn Aquatic 25.00 23.84 20
2 Heber, Scott 46 Dallas Aquatic M 24.75 23.97 17
3 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 Longhorn Aquatic 24.34 24.27 16


Event 37 Men 45-49 100 Yard Backstroke
1 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 Longhorn Aquatic 54.99 55.16 20
28.12 55.16 (27.04)
my splits are correct, I cruised the 1st 50 too much, built the 3rd 25 then sprinted the 4th


Event 43 Men 45-49 200 Yard IM
1 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 Longhorn Aquatic 2:03.59 2:03.98 20
27.32 1:00.14 (32.82) 1:35.60 (35.46) 2:03.98 (28.38)
So so IM OK


Event 45 Men 45+ 200 Yard Medley Relay
1 Longhorn Aquatic-43 'A' 1:37.50 1:39.18 40
1) Rasmussen, Anders M M49 2) Guthrie, David M M52
3) Varozza, Mike J M45 4) Stinchcombe, Maxwell B M56
25.35 52.28 (26.93) 1:15.72 (23.44) 1:39.18 (23.46)
this event happened about 10 minutes after the 200 IM, not much recovery time

Then the 1000 Free was next shortly after the relay,
not much time to recover
I just cruised it and went 10:58.??
but it still hurt, David Alley went 10:39 & dick worrell went 10:50

Event 50 Men 45-49 1000 Yard Freestyle

1 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 TXLA-43 10:58.65
29.63 1:01.47
1:34.14 2:07.08
2:40.02 3:13.22
3:46.41 4:19.75 2:12.67
4:53.28 5:26.93
6:00.68 6:34.55 2:14.80
7:08.29 7:41.92
8:15.22 8:48.36 2:13.81
9:21.51 9:54.43
10:27.15 10:58.65 2:10.29 5:31.72

1 Worrel, Dick 59 TXLA-43 10:50.19
30.92 1:03.58 1:36.55 2:09.71
2:42.54 3:15.47 3:48.19 4:20.70
4:53.27 5:25.97 5:58.67 6:31.44
7:04.02 7:37.05 8:09.67 8:42.09
9:14.55 9:47.04 10:19.25 10:50.19

1 Alley, David W 38 TXLA-43 10:31.52
27.78 57.76 1:28.88 2:00.08
2:31.94 3:03.84 3:36.23 4:08.48
4:41.03 5:13.31 5:45.51 6:17.73
6:50.25 7:22.51 7:54.53 8:26.57
8:58.61 9:30.54 10:02.07 10:31.52

Fri Apr 5th
Zones Day 1

RESULTS


Event 1 Men 45-49 400 Yard IM

I Did not know the heats were mixed & seated fastest to slowest.
I thought I had 30 min before my race then suddenly found out I had 4 minutes to get my new suit on & show up at the blocks.
I was tying my suit & putting on my cap as others in my heat were on the blocks.

2 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 Longhorn Aquatic 4:24.24
26.87 58.60 (31.73)
1:32.15 (33.55) 2:05.26 (33.11)
2:42.48 (37.22) 3:20.97 (38.49)
3:53.66 (32.69) 4:24.24 (30.58)

My swim was better than last year, but I kinda wussed out on BR & FR, never really turned on my kick till the last 25 & oh geez did it hurt. Sometime I need to 6 beat kick the whole last 100.
pretty sure if I was more warmed up or psyched I can go faster. On BR I tried a low stroke count with more gliding.

I got 2nd, Congrats to Ross Davis, 46 Woodlands Master Who won with a 4:20.00
26.96 57.36 (30.40)
1:29.59 (32.23) 2:01.57 (31.98)
2:38.54 (36.97) 3:17.10 (38.56)
3:48.94 (31.84) 4:20.00 (31.06

Also congrats to my training partner Jim Sauer who almost broke Mike Manns 55 - 59 NR
4:28.69 4/10/2010 MICHAEL MANN
Mike raced in a faster suit.

1 Sauer, Jim 55 Longhorn Aquatic 4:29.05 20
28.39 1:00.25 (31.86)
1:35.43 (35.18) 2:09.67 (34.24)
2:47.93 (38.26) 3:27.04 (39.11)
3:58.58 (31.54) 4:29.05 (30.47)

For some odd reason I entered both the 400 IM & 1650
Was fairly certain I was going to scratch the 1650
But like a dumb a$$ I checked in & decided to swim it

So I got up to race

1 Rasmussen, Anders M 49 Longhorn Aquatic 18:19.13 20
29.74 1:01.63 (31.89)
1:34.43 (32.80) 2:07.95 (33.52)
2:41.65 (33.70) 3:15.54 (33.89)
3:49.69 (34.15) 4:23.64 (33.95)
4:57.70 (34.06) 5:32.30 (34.60)
6:06.82 (34.52) 6:41.08 (34.26)
7:14.85 (33.77) 7:48.68 (33.83)
8:22.56 (33.88) 8:56.59 (34.03)
9:30.35 (33.76) 10:04.03 (33.68)
10:37.90 (33.87) 11:11.34 (33.44) 5:39.04
11:44.84 (33.50) 12:17.96 (33.12)
12:51.34 (33.38) 13:24.46 (33.12)
13:57.63 (33.17) 14:30.62 (32.99)
15:03.29 (32.67) 15:36.09 (32.80)
16:09.05 (32.96) 16:41.97 (32.92) 5:30.63
17:14.77 (32.80) 17:47.38 (32.61) 18:19.13 (31.75)

I felt fairly fatigued from 4 IM & wanted to get out right away, from the pool not out fast on my race, I swam it safe & steady & picked it up some in the last 5.
I was in lane 5, David Alley was in lane 4 & went out in 5:11 at the 500, Dick Worrell was in lane 6, I was ahead of him at first then passed me & never caught him. I thought about sprinting the last 150 or 100 or 50 but didn't.pretty sure I coulda gone much faster in either if I just picked one race.

It was a dumb double & a hard way to begin a 3 day meet.

Jimby, Teen Fort and I journeyed to MD for the annual Albatross SCM meet yesterday. This is my 7th year in a row competing in this meet, and I still love it. I swam better than expected on what is very short rest for me. I just lifted last Saturday.

50 back, 30.65

I debuted my new start and felt like I had a fantastic one --- the best part of the race. Had a solid turn and took 16-17 kicks on the second 25. I was told I was perilously close to the 15 m mark. But then my body completely shut down the last 10 meters and I staggered to the wall. It was a close race with the speedy Susan Williams who almost tracked me down at the finish. I surely would have been under my WR of 30.58 with a better last 10 meters. I was a little freaked out by the fade; that has never happened to me before in a 50 back. At first I thought it was just the lack of sprint conditioning from the prolonged Feb. malaise. But I also wonder if the lack of hypoxic training and double shooters played a role. I was UW the full 30 meters and maybe that took a toll. That's what Teen Fort thought. In any event, I was obviously very very pleased with the time.


50 breast, 37.5? DQ

I was not recovered for this event with only 30 minutes rest after the 50 back. But I had to give Teen Fort the pleasure of whooping her mommy. I did beat her to the 15 m mark on the start, which was all I was going for. :-) I had major glides at the turn and finish, probably should have short stroked them. I was DQ'd for a one handed touch on the turn. I thought I got my finger tips on the wall before pulling back my left arm to turn, but the official thought otherwise. No big deal. It was a very solid time for me with those glides, but I'll hopefully swim it again before the end of the year.


50 fly, 29.25, WR:

I had almost two hours of rest before my 50 fly, which I was very happy about. The final heat of the 50 fly was the fastest I've ever participated in with Erika Braun, Ruth Jones, Susan Williams and Margaret Conze. As Margaret said before the race, it was going to be "a scramble to the finish." We were all under :30. I had a great start. The race went technically well except that I took a breath at the flags with 2 strokes to go. I'm sure I didn't really need that breath, but maybe it helped me spot the wall. The only thing I did differently from the last time I swam this race (tapered 29.5 at this meet last year) was that I spent more time UW on the second 25 with an extra 3-4 kicks. Jim said the whole race looked strong, especially my second 25. My time didn't show up on the electronic timing board and, even thought the timers had me at 29.2, I didn't get excited About the WR until I saw the official time sheet. 41 year old Erika Braun also set a world record in my heat with a 28.1. She was on fire at this meet with a WR in the 50 free as well. Take home lesson for me: it's worth concentrating on more dolphin kicks off the turn on the 50 fly and 50 free.


50 free, NS

This was about 25 minutes after the 50 fly. I passed. No desire to do another race and was all tuckered out.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a super well run and fun meet as usual. Jimby swam very well despite being "gravely ill." (He actually really is a bit sick this time.) Teen Fort swam well. It was great to see all my PV buddies. I plan on going to Mason for a recovery swim later today.

After yesterday's practice and a really long couple of weeks I was not looking forward to this meet at all. The warm up started at 8.30am and the meet began at 9.30am. I left the house around 7.30am and got there with plenty of time to spare before warmups. My wife and kids came to see my races, which got underway at about 10.30am. After making national qualifying times in the 50,100 and 200 at the Bryan meet in January I decided to signed up for the 500 and the 1000. This is a tough meet because there is n additional warmup/warm down facilities. A couple of my team mates also signed up for the meet and they did awesome which made it especially fun. After my experience with lactic acid build up yesterday when going all out I made a more conscious decision to pace my events today. I had hoped to be swimming much quicker at this point in my training calendar but at some level I don't have much control over this.

To my pleasant surprise I was ranked 3rd in the 500 and had two young guys to race. One of the young guys went off really quick and at 200 I saw him at least 3-5 yds ahead, and I started to reel him in. At the 400 I knew I had him and with 50 to go pulled a couple body lengths ahead. Despite my time of 5.13 not being what I had wanted ii enjoyed racing and really enjoyed seeing the guy gasping for breath at the end as I hopped out of the pool

The 1000 was a different story and I was ranked almost 2 minutes faster than the next person. I again held back early and again pretty much felt like I even split the race. The timing pad did not stop the clock when i finished but the girl behind my lane told me I went 10.59, which is considerably slower than I went in training a few weeks back, but I was almost 150 ahead of the next swimmer and it felt good to get out without feeling like rigormortis had set in(like yesterday).

To my surprise when I checked the event rankings so far on the season both times rank me #1 or #2 in these event(depending on my official times). I am off to Saudi Arabia in the morning so it will be interesting to see if I can swim when I am there. Fingers crossed.

At 1:00 AM this morning, I decided my meet was done. I couldn't sleep because I could only minimize pain. It just hurt no matter what position I was in. It was about time for more ibuprofen so I took it and tried my best to get comfortable. I did sleep because sometime around 4:30 Dave sneaked out of the room to head to Starbucks. I had planned to catch him on the way out so I could ride along and apply some heat to my back from the heated seats in his car. Woke up at 6:00 AM about the time he was getting back in. Everything was painful. Getting out of bed, putting clothes on, going to be bathroom... it all hurt.

About 7:00 Roger came to the room and we discussed the situation. I've gone to practice Monday mornings before after hurting my back playing soccer. However, that didn't involve swimming @ meet speeds and diving into the pool. And I've never tried swimming with this much pain before. We decided it would be taken one step at a time. First, I'd see if I could get into a racing suit. Then, I'd test things out. Light swimming, followed by some easy flip turns and then hard swimming. I planned to start the 500 from the wall for fear I'd hurt my back worse. They had a physical therapist and a massage table available. I was going to give that a try. Finally, I'd take my next dose of Ibuprofen at 9:00 AM about 40 minutes before the 500 start. If it wasn't meant to happen, I'd just scratch races until I felt I was ready. Roger led a prayer for my healing. At this point, I felt like I needed a miracle just to get into my suit.

We got to the pool at about 8:30. The heated seats in Dave's car did feel great but getting out of his car didn't. We got our stuff settled in and I went to the locker room for my first test: the swim suit. I got it on surprisingly easily even though I was very ginger about my movements. I jumped into the pool and it felt amazing. All the weight was off my back and the pain just washed away. Took a few strokes and everything was working. Did some easy laps w/ flip turns and absolutely no pain. Did some breaststroke and no pain. Did some strokes of fly and... ok that hurt a little. But I only had 50 fly left and that was at the end of the day. After 1000 yards or so, I got the courage up to go off the blocks once they opened up a lane. I was unable to start like I normally do but I could reach down and grab the block in something that resembled a track start. I pushed off, hit the water perfect and had a smooth entry with no pain. Great! I was already doing things I hadn't planned on doing. I got out of the pool and the pain was back... but not as bad as it was earlier. Took my ibuprofen and headed over to Roger's Christian devotional. Got more prayers from my back. After that, I headed over to the physical therapist. That was 10 minutes I was not wanting to end. Back still hurt but at least I was more relaxed. Back in the pool for some speed tests. I was a bit slower than I wanted to be. Did a couple 50s @ 500 pace and a 100 @ 500 pace. The 100 was a 1:08-1:09. I was looking for 1:07. Did some more easy stuff and got ready to race.

500 Free
Seed time: 5:37.54
Meet time: 5:39.09
Splits: 1:06.52, 1:08.78, 1:08.65, 1:08.79, 1:06.35

Start was good even with my awkward stance. It didn't take long for the swimmers around me to start pulling away. I wanted to go with them badly but at this point finishing was a victory in itself. For the first time today, my arms hurt worse than my back. It was a good feeling. I got out of the pool and suddenly felt 100% better. Did a couple hundred cool down and got ready for 200 Br.

200 Br
Seed time: 2:34.13
Meet time: 2:34.24
Splits: 35.59, 39.62, 39.45, 39.58

This start was much better and I was flexible enough to do a normal track start. I might have chased a faster swimmer in the lane next to me a bit too much on the first 50 but held a consistent pace throughout. I really didn't think about it too much. I was still hoping to just finish. Holding my time from last year was a bonus as far as I was concerned. No cool down or warm up for 200 back.

At this point, I had 200 back and 200 IM left. I knew I could finish the day since the backstroke start would have little risk of injury. I could gut out the 200 IM if something went wrong and I hurt my back again on that dive. It was all downhill and I was determined to finish this meet.

200 Back
Seed time: 3:00
Meet time: 2:41.39
Splits: 40.44, 40.52, 41.01, 39.42

Turned out that ekw was in my heat, two lanes over. My plans to cruise this event were suddenly cut short. This was the swimming equivalent to challenging people to drag races in a stock ford pinto but I was going to try. I didn't do too bad but Ellen beat me anyway. Next year! Even worse, I lost by a second to the person closest to me in the high point trophy race. And he and I both were in the 200 IM. I didn't know the exact point difference but I knew it would be really close if I didn't win the 200 IM. He was seeded 5 seconds ahead of me and one heat after mine. I decide that if I was going to lose, I'd make sure he had to do a lot better than his seed time to beat me. Obviously, I was feeling better much better as my priorities had changed from managing pain to racing for points.

200 IM
Seed time: 2:35
Meet time: 2:22.58!
Splits: 31.06, 40.87, 38.48, 32.17

Great finish for the weekend! It was fast enough by about 12 seconds for high point. I thought I had a 2:25 in me but didn't think 2:22 was possible. Took an easy 200 IM cool down.

So, I finished the brute squad meet. 1650, 200 fly, 200 free, 400 IM, 500 free, 200 br, 200 bk, 200 IM. It was fun despite my challenges. The one thing I missed was swimming more breaststroke events. It felt weird to watch waves of 50 and 100 br heats to pass by without me getting ready to join one. Not sure if I'll do this again but I enjoyed every race. I had the strength to compete in them and recovered sufficiently to get ready for the next.

As usual, the meet was well run. AMS always puts on a top-notch even in a really fast pool. Great to meet all the forumites that were at the meet. Seeing all of you and your achievements despite your own struggles was awesome. Thanks to my teammates that encouraged and prayed for me throughout the weekend. I couldn't find a better team. Look forward to next year!

Events for today:

1650 free
200 fly
200 free
400 I'm

Warmed up for the 1650:

500 build
4 rounds of:
* 25 no breath - :40
* 50 free @ 1650 pace - 1:00
3 x 100 free @ 1650 pace - 2:00

(1100 total)

Couple forumites are here: ekw, Elaine, swimosaur... probably a couple more.

I have to say dispite the shoulder issues and all this weekend I had what I would classify as a good meet for once.

The first event on Friday night was the 1650 and I managed a 22:38.61 which is good for me at this age and time and since I aged up this year to 50 I guess this is my best for this time around.

Saturday was not as good, still too sore from the 1650 to get a good 500 in but it was ok at 6:39.20 not a best for this season, it was off by 13 seconds. I am ok with this. 200 back felt good but the time was just a middle of the road time for me. in 2:55.13 then I had two sprints the 50 Fly and 50 Back, neither were impressive.

The afternoon we spent in a stroke clinic with Rowdy Gaines and now I know what I need to work on with my right arm.

Sunday was much better for me 400 IM was great with a 6:11.57 and my splits were good. It felt good and loose and relaxed and fast! 50 Breast was a filler for me and it was ok. The 100 IM went well even though I felt as though my fly was alittle off rhythm wise but I nailed my back to breast turn! and went a 1:20.28.

Next up was probably my favorite swim I AM NOT WEIRD HERE it was the 200 Fly and I was the slowest one seed in the top heat and got 3rd out of 5. Went a 3:15.68 a time I have held for the last several years. I felt I paced it differently, I actually went out slower than normal. It is unheard of for me to come back in under 50 but I came back in 49.37. The whole swim felt relaxed and smooth. I want to do it again! I would have prefered to do that to the 200 Breast I did next. The breast was my warm down and it was a washout.

North Myrtle Beach always puts on a great swim meet so this is the meet to come to.