After a long rest

LPA USAS Meet

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, December 14th, 2014 at 06:33 PM (3399 Views)

I swam the LPA meet in our home pool today. Linda Price Applewick was a coach in Rockwall and masters swimmer at Rockwall Aquatic Masters who passed away from Pancreatic cancer 5 years ago. The meet is very special to all those who knew Linda and is very well attended. This year Linda's mother and husband attended and they received a terrific reception.

Today ii was signed up to swim the 200 free, 50 free and the 1650 free. I ended up withdrawing from the mile due to having been gone the past two weeks, and then traveling this week, and not wanting to be a sore zombie before heading out of town again.

I showed up a little late for warm up but still managed to get my normal meet warmup and actually felt pretty good in the water. The meet ran very quick and before I knew it the 200 was up. I was seeded with my 1:48.05 from my shave meet in January and this was the fastest seed. I was not nervous this week and felt good ahead of the race. I had a great race and won the heat by about 6 seconds going a masters best time of 1:46.90. My splits were right where I hoped they would be, going 24.97, 27.13,27.41,27.39.

I just about had time to grab a quick warm down and then I had the 50 free. Technically this was a bad race with a slow start, bad streamline, crappy turn and another bad streamline, but still a masters best of 22.51. If I ever want to really be competitive on the 50 short course I need to work on some fundamentals like reaction time and streamlining on my starts and turns. The same thing happened today that happened at worlds and my hands separated on my entry. I think I have a lot more I can do to improve on this but I am likely not going to focus on this event for nationals.

I am stoked about the 200 free and all the pain I went through training to do this swim and last weekends swims was worth it. That all said I am dreading the thought of more of the 16x50s at 200 race pace and 16x100s at 500 race pace. I plan on swimming some longer yardage aerobic swims while in Atlanta this week and then sitting down with Tom next Friday and discussing Christmas training and starting to think about training for Nationals. Scary to think we only have 4 months til Spring Nationals. I suspect we will do some base building over Christmas and then start building up on the race pace work again. I am not excited about the thought of the training but if it pays off its going to be worth it.

Never ever thought I would be excited about aging up, but I am.

Categories: USA-S Swim Meets / Events

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Comments

pwb - December 14th, 2014 07:59 PM
Damn impressive 200, Stewart. To hold a taper after all that racing last weekend and then all of the travel is incredible. As for this comment ...

Scary to think we only have 4 months til Spring Nationals.

... I look at that as a gift of a huge amount of time.

Take it easy this week - you deserve some R&R.

Great season.
StewartACarroll - December 15th, 2014 08:03 AM
Originally Posted by pwb

Damn impressive 200, Stewart. To hold a taper after all that racing last weekend and then all of the travel is incredible. As for this comment ...

... I look at that as a gift of a huge amount of time.

Take it easy this week - you deserve some R&R.

Great season.

Thanks Patrick. I could not have been happier. Its funny how going a 1:46.90 is so much more satisfying than a 1:47.00. On this training cycle I hit all my goal times for scm and it gives me great confidence ahead of nationals. I obviously hoped to be able to hold the taper but was not sure how I would react with lower overall yardage. I am convinced that the race pace training I have been doing, works. My splits on all my events were great and I have a lot of confidence as a result.

Thanks for for all your support.
Water Rat - December 15th, 2014 12:19 PM
I echo what Patrick said. but I agree with you that 4 months seems like overnight to me. I have not been doing much if any race pace training as no one I ever swim with finds it important. I'm going to have to get serious about modifiying my workouts I'm afraid.

are you moving up to my age group??? With a 22.5, you're not allowed!
StewartACarroll - December 15th, 2014 12:57 PM
Originally Posted by Water Rat

I echo what Patrick said. but I agree with you that 4 months seems like overnight to me. I have not been doing much if any race pace training as no one I ever swim with finds it important. I'm going to have to get serious about modifiying my workouts I'm afraid.

are you moving up to my age group??? With a 22.5, you're not allowed!

I was very skeptical when I first read about USRPT and although my race pace is not USRPT I am convinced this type of training has helped me enormously and plan on sticking with it. I will examine my weights and yoga and likely adapt both.

I am aging up to your age group but likely won't be doing the 50 at Nationals. It just does not fit on the program. I also have a tough choice to make on the 1000 and likely won't swim it either. I wish I could enter 8-9 events and then it would make much easier choices. The program this year makes it tough; I know your breast and free is in a similar(perhaps worse) boat.
thewookiee - December 15th, 2014 03:20 PM
Nice swimming! You split that race very, very well. Did anyone video the race?
StewartACarroll - December 15th, 2014 04:11 PM
Originally Posted by thewookiee

Nice swimming! You split that race very, very well. Did anyone video the race?

Unfortunately not. My daughter was sick and so I was flying solo. The SPMS meet where I went 1:59.9 on the 200m free is online. In fact all the races are online from SPMS.
knelson - December 16th, 2014 11:32 AM
Wow! We've got an early favorite in the Blue Bell challenge.
StewartACarroll - December 16th, 2014 01:22 PM
The Fortress - December 16th, 2014 03:35 PM
Congrats Stewart! Soak up all the happiness you can from your accomplishments of the last two meets. Really splendid swims! I agree with you that race pace training is what makes you fast. Garbage yards are just that, garbage, though I can see the value of some base building right now for you. I would take it easy this next week. Just read an article posted by Paul Smith about how important it is for serious athletes to take off a week after the end of a training cycle. I know that's hard for obsessive types like us, but think about it.
StewartACarroll - December 16th, 2014 03:51 PM
Originally Posted by The Fortress

Congrats Stewart! Soak up all the happiness you can from your accomplishments of the last two meets. Really splendid swims! I agree with you that race pace training is what makes you fast. Garbage yards are just that, garbage, though I can see the value of some base building right now for you. I would take it easy this next week. Just read an article posted by Paul Smith about how important it is for serious athletes to take off a week after the end of a training cycle. I know that's hard for obsessive types like us, but think about it.

Thanks Leslie. As I think you know, I was skeptical about race pace training and usrpt in particular, however I gave race pace a serious try and I am convinced the race pace combined with, more rest, a concentrated weights and dryland along with a yoga program have paid dividends. I know this is just one training cycle and many things can contribute to my improvement but it's hard for me to not see race pace training as anything other than a revelation. If I compare last season to this season in events I swam both years it's wild.

200scm - 2:04.51 to 1:59.97
400scm - 4:24.17 to 4:17.72
50 back - 30.71 to 29.17
200scy - 1:48.05 to 1:46.90

I plan on swimming this week but more for staying wet than for training. I almost can't function without my daily chlorine!!