After a long rest

After coaching my kids last night I went back to the house and shaved down. I felt good and excited as usual at the thought of racing. I went to bed reasonably early but could not sleep so watched tv for a while. I woke about 4:45 this morning and got ready to leave for the meet. I car pooled with a couple of my teammates. Weather in north Texas was rough today and it rained really heavily all the way down to the woodlands. We made good time and made it down to the woodlands by 10:30 with a short stop at Denys for breakfast.

In in the warmup I definitely did not feel 100% rested and my legs especially were a little heavy. I did my normal meet warmup and tried loosening up and felt OK.

First up for me today was the 50 back. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to swim in the SCM pool before the 50 due to the mile running long and the anticipated main pool second warmup did not materialize. My time was great going 28.9 but this was the race that could have been so much more. My left foot slipped on the start(not bad but it does not help on a 50) and I came up half a body length behind the young guy in the lane next to me. I also got close on the turn as a result of not going as far as I had hoped on the start but went over well, but because of my proximity to the wall I pushed off very shallow. After my race a few people commented yet again how I was the fastest swimmer above the water but got killed on the underwaters. The winner went 28.6! Despite all my technical challenges this is my best masters time so no complaints.

Next up up was the 200 back. I went 2:13.5 which is a solid time. I was honestly hoping to go a little quicker but my splits were solid. My start and turns were all good on the 200. I felt strong the whole way but my legs were heavy.

Last up up today was the 400 free. I went 4:21.11 which I was happy with. I thought I would be around 4:20 so this again was not quite as quick as I hoped but all in all another solid swim. My splits were a little weird with my first 50 being a little faster than I hoped and the rest being a little slower than I hoped. My last 100 was considerably faster than my 2nd and 3rd 100s so I did not die, but I was a little heavy and just not smooth and definitely not easy speed.

My focus for this meet were the back events. Obviously I am not done yet, but I am quite content with my races today. Tomorrow I have the 50 free, 200 free, 100 back and 800 free. I may skip the 200 free to focus on the 100 back but it depends on how I feel tomorrow.