Of Swimming Bondage

You could not have asked for more perfect outdoor racing conditions yesterday at the wonderful Phoenix Swim Club / Phoenix Country Day School Aquatic Center ...



... with temperatures for our afternoon to early evening session in the 80s, albeit probably a little colder by the 6:50pm dive time of my 1650, and the water temperature probably right around 79 (e.g., just the hint of a chill when you jump in and no overheating on the mile). I really wasn't sure if my one week taper was going to work or not, but, at least for my events of focus - 200 fly and 1650 - it worked perfectly!

200 fly

• Masters Best - 2:00.45 (Greensboro '12 Nationals)
• Result - 2:01.33
• Comments:
  
  • This certainly did not feel pretty; I haven't been training much fly this season and sloppy but fast was the best way to describe how it felt.
  • I definitely pushed the first 50 too fast and paid for it on the last 50, but the time was fantastic. Splits were 27.17, 30.55, 31.38, 32.23
  • Bodysuit times excluded, I've only been faster three other times and my last effort at Nationals in '14 at Santa Clara was a 2:01.93:
    
    • 2012 - Greensboro - 2:00.45
    • 2008 - Austin - 2:00.96
    • 2011 - USAS meet - 2:01.19
    
    
  • I really do need to take a season and focus on this race as I'm 100% convinced I've got a sub 2 minute race in me.

100 IM

• Masters Best - 55.42 (Greensboro '12 Nationals)
• Result - 58.71
• Comments:
  
  • Clearly, my drop taper was not suited to a sprint. Sloppy but slow is the best way to describe this. Truly no part of this race felt good.

1650

• Masters Best - 17:18.11 (Santa Clara 2001 Nationals)
• Result - 17:07.79
• Comments:
  
  • Man was I ever stoked when I saw this time. While I haven't raced this much since I first got back into Masters in 2001, the last time I did this in 2014, I was 17:35.
  • This is a race that has always scared me as the pain can be unrelenting. My problem, going back to my age group days, when I swam bad races was going out too hard and having that silverback gorilla (not a mere monkey) crash onto my back along with a piano and maybe a small army of Liliputians poking sharp daggers all over my body.
  • As I did with the last 1000 I swam in early March, I went in with a stroke count plan to try to control the front part of the race:
    
    • 1st 300 - 11 to 12 SPL
    • Next 900 - 13 SPL
    • Next 200 - 14 SPL
    • Next 200 - 15 SPL
    • Last 50 - give it what I got
    
    
  • What was excellent about this race is that Kurt Dickson was right next to me and going for a 1000 split, so, while I did try to keep my head in the game and focus on my stroke count, it also helped to have him there as a gauge. Super distance stud that he is, he had already done the 4K OW race that morning (which I skipped), but I figured (correctly) that that wouldn't slow him down. He was 10:17.80!
  • I will say that this still hurt and the pain came sooner than I would like - around the 1000 to 1100 mark - and that validated my decision to not race this at Nationals in favor of the 1000. I also lost my 13 SPL count right at the 1050 and went up to 14, but then, after getting to the 1400, really didn't have any additional 'gear' to rev up for the finish.
  • Splits
    
    • 300s
      
      • 3:02.95
      • 3:06.94
      • 3:08.11
      • 3:08.77
      • 3:09.94
      
      
    • 500s
      
      • 5:07.66
      • 5:12.64
      • 5:15.41
      
      
    • Was at 10:20.30 at the 1000, which is now an unofficial new best time as I was 10:21.21 in March.
    
    
  • Still, that's a great swim for me ... but ... like the 200 fly and the two minute barrier ... has me thinking I've got to keep training for this to break the 17 minute barrier (which I did once in Masters in a B70 bodysuit).

I'm going back today to race the 1000 and am going to try to see if I've got anything left after last night. Through a clusterf**k on the part of the meet organizers (IMHO), Kurt will not be in the 1000: they limited the entries to the first 24 swimmers because they originally intended to run 8 lanes. However, now they are running 10 lanes, but not allowing more entries ... which means we'll have one heat with 4 swimmers and 6 empty lanes. For an otherwise excellently run meet, this one's a head scratcher.