Fast Food Makes for Fast Swimming!

I had a great time in Moscow this weekend. I was a bit unsure about how I would perform based on my recent lack of swimming very much on a consistent basis. I proved otherwise that you don't need to swim a lot to swim well in competitions. It's mostly based on how much you want to swim well when the gun goes off! And a bit of toughness as well to get through the hard stuff, even when your body tells you it can't be done!
I did do a shavedown for this meet, just for the heck of it to see what happens, plus I wore my Finis Hydrospeed suit that I purchased for the Indy 2013 Nationals last year. Just maybe...everything worked out well...

Saturday:

1000 Free - 11:00.43
27.99 / 31.78
32.73 / 32.74 (2:04)
33.08 / 33.22
33.22 / 33.15
33.34 / 33.52 (5:24) <--this was a season best 500 time as well
33.89 / 33.57
34.10 / 34.23
33.99 / 34.61
33.68 / 33.54
32.82 / 31.23
I got out really quick, almost without knowing it. I settled down pretty well, but then the hurt train got me after the 600 point. I was able to recover to finish strong, mainly because I was watching the clock and doing the math...figured I may get under 11:00, and did my best to do so, but a bit short.

200 Free - 1:56.05
27.21 / 29.77 / 30.12 / 28.95
This was a phenominal race for me. It happened about 30 minutes after I got out of the 1000, and I had a racer 2 lanes over from me: 24 year old Matt Edde, who has given me some recent battles in the 100/200/400/500 Frees at recent meets. Every time I tried to accelerate and dust him, I'd look over on the next turn, and he was RIGHT THERE!! I couldn't leave him like I used to be able to, but as it turns out, we both did excellent!
This time was just 1.4 seconds slower than what I did at Indy last year, when I was training full time, with a full taper as well.

200 Free Relay - went 2nd, split a 23.72
Wow! I do have a bit of speed in there!!
Tom (36 yrs) led off 24.4
James (36 yrs) 23.72
Bill (67 yrs) 28.9 <-- I was most surprised by this split!
Rick (60 yrs) 31.8

200 IM - 2:13.30
27.41 / 35.01 / 39.35 / 31.53
This was fun. I was stroke for stroke with another guy for the first 100, but he didn't have the breaststroke skillz to hang after that. I ended up sucking a little wind on the final 50 to home, but I was happy with the overall result.

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Sunday:

1650 Free - 18:49.45 (Not quite superstardom, but still very acceptable)
29.34 / 32.85
34.07 / 34.46
35.23 / 34.72
35.75 / 34.61
35.49 / 35.26 (5:40ish)
35.29 / 35.06
35.06 / 35.18
35.20 / 32.86
33.95 / 33.96
34.40 / 34.75 (11:25ish)
34.40 / 34.60
34.70 / 34.75
34.75 / 34.98
34.36 / 34.35
33.76 / 33.87
33.27 / 32.72
31.45

As this swim was WAYYYYY too early in the morning for my body (9:15am), I really wasn't even consciously awake at the time we dove in. I decided I'd swim alongside Pat Lee next to me (who was a 19:48 entry time - he finished 19:18).
The first 100 of the race I just had fun playing off the walls, SDKing for about 8 big kicks off each wall, just staying nice and relaxed. Afterward, Pat said he hoped I wasn't going to be doing that the whole way!! I guess SDKing can be a psychological advantage to your competition in events like this!
Well, I let Pat take the lead, and I basically swam right off his hip (almost through the laneline) for the 1st half of the race. At the 700/750 it felt like he was fading a bit, so I decided to make my move and get the race going (the bolded split). I ended up going 6 seconds faster than my other swim this season, so that was nice.

50 Back in the 200 Medley Relay: 30.13
SDK'ed for as much legal distance as I could, but still a far cry from some 50-something female swimmer on the east coast!

200 Fly - 2:50.67***
I did this as 8 x Broken 25s!
There were only two of us in the event, and I wasn't feeling like trying to kill myself on this race. I already have a 2:11 in the books for the season, and I have another shot at it in Federal Way at the NW Zone meet next Saturday. So I decided to swim "with" the other swimmer in the heat with me, waiting until he'd gone through the turn and began the next length. And I got beat too by 0.3 seconds!! He thanked me for swimming alongside him, saying it helped him keep going strong.

500 Free - 5:15.80 (WOW!!!!!!!!!)
28.29 / 31.46
32.17 / 32.25
32.15 / 32.02
32.20 / 32.22
31.98 / 31.06
This was just great!! Only about 5 seconds slower than my best masters time that I did last year at Indy Nationals. My middle 300 was split very very consistent too. I honestly don't know where this swim came from, because I was basically a zombie getting up onto the blocks. I guess it's the "I don't give a $#!+" attitude I had beforehand that helped.

Maybe I'll have to continue working on my house more, doing lots of overtime at work, and try adding some new outdoor gardening/landscaping/other springtime projects to my resume!!! Cut the swimming out, and just do the meets!!


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Now I have the NW Zone SCY Champs meet to worry about next Saturday over in Federal Way. I signed up on the last day (Friday), as did a bunch of others from my LMSC. Maybe we'll even have some relays for fun!!!
I'm signed up for:
400 IM - 4:49.00 entry
200 Fly - 2:15.00 entry
50 Free - 27.10 entry (swimming it as 50 Fly)
100 IM - 1:02.10 entry
1000 Free - 11:05.00 entry

Now to see if I can keep the success going 6 days from now!