Jumping In (Literally) to My First Swim Meet

So I'm thinking more and more about doing my first swim meet in a few weeks.

*gulp*

Here's some info on the meet if your interested. It's at the University of St. Thomas in their athletic facilities that are only a few years old. (I watched that building be built while doing intervals on their track.) It's $20 to race any number of events. I've been thinking about the 200 and the 100 free, but the 200 is FIRST and the 100 is 15th (out of 19 events). I don't know that I want to spend 4 hours there. So maybe I'll just come and do the 100. We'll see.

The swim coach at the Y is going to meet with me for a few minutes in 2 weeks to help my practice diving off the blocks. I've NEVER dove off the blocks, and I'm a VERY SHITTY "regular" diver. Very. I may not do a diving start if I do the meet - I might do an "in pool" start. But as swimming buddy Julia told me recently, I could save 2-3 seconds off my 100 if I do a diving start, so I'd LIKE to try it if it's something I think I can do. (Oh, and I can't do flip turns, so I won't be attempting those at all.)

I found this quick video (one of many) on YouTube showing how to start on the blocks:

The "top rated" comment when I saw that video yesterday was "looks so f*ckin easy but when you actually do it... arghghghbubub..." That'll be me.

So this past week when I had a half hour between a faculty meeting and doing a tech demo for a class, I hit the pool for a quick 10 x 50 workout (with 15 seconds rest between 50s). Well, that's less of a "workout" and more of a "let's see what I can do some 50s in." I think I've only swam 50 repeats once with "the gang" about 3 years ago. (Usually if I'm doing repeats, it's 100s or 500s. I'm not saying that's RIGHT, I'm just saying that's what I usually do.)

I did the first 50 feeling GREAT in 37.67! "Whoa," I thought, "could I hold that pace for a 100 and do a 1:15?" In my mind, a 1:15 was the best possible 100 I could hope for. (I've dipped under 1:20 a few times in a few spaced-out "all out" 100 efforts.)

My ten 50s looked like this: 37.67, 39.05, 39.88, 40.65, 40.50, 40.18, 40.66, 42.16, 40.38, 40.31. That's an average of 40.14 / 50 average.

(That 8th one is so slow because I kinda zoned out and was trying to figure out if I had 1 or 2 left - it's amazing how much time is lost with just a little loss of focus!)

So check out the swim meet on the 23rd, and MAYBE I'll see you there!! And anyone have any diving tips?