Swim Meet! My 50, 500, and 100 Race Reports.

Yesterday was the "Ys Guys" masters swim meet at the University of St. Thomas. I claim to be no "master" at this thing that I do in the water.

SOME PRE-RACE DRAMA: So I noted in a post on Friday that my goggles were splitting in 2 pieces during some practice dives. I got some well fitting goggles on Friday night, and I tested them in the pool on Saturday. I ran into someone special while testing them:

The goggles worked great during the practice swim. Crisis averted. For now.

Sunday I got to the St. Thomas pool just before they opened it for pre-meet warm-ups:

I did 300 once we could warm-up, and I threw in a few "race-pace turns" in the warm-up, and all was well. Then they opened up 2 lanes for dive-start practices. This didn't go so well:

• DIVE 1: My new goggles ended up slipping off and sliding down over my mouth during the dive.

• DIVE 2: I tightened them, and they still slid off during my dive.

• DIVE 3: I tightened them AS MUCH AS I COULD, and the still slipped off.

• DIVE 4: My only "extra" pair of goggles laying around were my FIRST pair of goggles that I started swimming with in 2005. Yes, they're pretty old. But I thought I'd try them at the meet... and they slipped off. Damn.

• DIVE 5: I tightened my old goggles, and they NEARLY stayed put! But they started filling up with water even by the end of 1 length of the pool (which is why I stopped wearing them in 2009ish).

• DIVE 6: I tightened my old goggles a bit more, and they pretty much stayed put! But they leaked a little water again by the far end of the pool.

• DIVE 7: I borrowed a pair of goggles from Scott. They were staying put for him, so I was hoping they would work for me. But they didn't.

That confirmed it: it wasn't the goggles. It was my diving.

After those horrible practice dives, my chest looked like this:

This is not altered in any way. Unfortunately.

About 90 minutes later as I was getting ready to race, it looked like this:

Some bruising starting to the middle-left and the lower-left.

I cheered on some old and new buddies at the pool. Speedy local runner Lance Elliott (who ran a 4:34 mile last winter) was there for his first swim meet. He was telling me that back in December he could barely swim down and back without dying. Here he is in his first 200 which he finished in 3:01:

FIRST UP, THE 50 FREE:

Lance took hold of my camera to get some shots of my 50. THANKS LANCE! (He had just finished a 50 free 2 waves before me.) Here's the story of my entire race in 14 of his photos:

Beat-up chest on the blocks.


"ON YOUR MARKS..."


This was the exact moment the gun went off.
Apparently, my first reaction is to raise my toes! WTF?


I think I got my hands into a streamline position a little TOO quick.
But it's not too horrible yet. It REALLY gets bad in this next picture...


Sweet Baby Jesus. I don't think I'm supposed to be diving "knees first." Help me Lord.


OK Lord, I guess you did all you could with what you were given. This was the result. FLOP.


A bit of a bright spot here: that's a decent underwater streamline, right?!?!!


But then I ruin it by trying to take a stroke WAY to quick while I'm still underwater.
Talk about putting the brakes on. Sheesh.


Again, the horrible "too soon" stroke. Damn.


Swimming. Finally.




A big splash from a kick, proving that I WAS kicking.


A final breath before the single turn.


Back at the finish, checking my time.

I can't tell you anything about this race: it was too short to remember much. Really about the only thing I remember is telling myself to not breathe too much during the final half-length of the pool. I don't even know if my old goggles leaked - I really don't know. It was just a quick, hard race. I was a little disappointed because I was about a half second slower than my PR from last year: I went about 31.6 seconds. But with that shitty dive, I guess that's to be expected.

Two heats later in the 50, I got a photo of Katie (a new-to-the-metro-area swimmer/triathlete who had her gear next to mine so we chatted a lot) showing what a start from the blocks SHOULD look like:

Diving with the PROPER body parts first.


Katie's nice small splash in the middle!

NEXT UP, THE 500 FREE:

About 35 minutes after the 50 was the 500. I wasn't going to take any chances here: I thought it'd be best to wear my GOOD goggles (that didn't leak but DID fly off with every dive start) and just do a pool-start for the 500. I basically decided to give up 1 second or so to ensure I didn't have goggles full of water for 7 minutes of racing. I think this was a good call.

The MOMENT of the start: the woman in lane 7 is diving as I'm going under to push off.


KATIE! I HAD NO IDEA UNTIL I SAW THIS PHOTO THAT YOU WERE MY LAP COUNTER!
THANKS!!!!! (And thanks for the photos, Katie's fiancé!)

At my turn at the 100 mark, I saw some times on the board: I was around 1:21. I don't know if it was good or bad that I saw that. It was nice to know that I was moving pretty good, but MAYBE it "allowed" me ease up a bit around the 200 or 300 yard point. I saw the scoreboard at the 200 yard mark too, and it said something just under 3:00. That was the last I even tried to look at it - time to just swim. If I had to do it all over again, I think I wouldn't try to catch a glimpse of my splits.

My back and shoulders started getting fatigued around the 300-400 yard mark. This was brutal, but I wasn't dying. Which meant I was doing it wrong. I maybe saved too much in the middle.

Near the middle of the 500.




Just taking a quick break to check on the weather out the windows: it was still sunny.
Good. So I got back to swimming. (But really, I don't do flip turns.)


Nearing the end, gasping for a breath before my push-off.

I hit the wall, looked at my time, and probably had the biggest disappointment of the day. I was really hoping to break 7:30, but I was HOPING to get closer to 7:00. I ended with a 7:26. It was my first 500, so I'll take it. I think my first 100 was great, and I think I needed to keep the middle 300 stronger! (Although I was fried by the end: I had lost track of lengths, and I was HOPING to see "17" on the lap board at one point - telling me I was in my final 100.) I'm curious to see my splits when they come in: I bet there will be a 0:15 spread between my 100s! I'll post those when I see them.

FINALLY, THE 100 FREE:

Again, I had about 35 minutes between the 500 and 100. No photos of me swimming here: just another sub-par dive (but maybe my BEST of the day), and a lot of pain.

Lance had just done the 500 and the 100 (3 waves before me), and he said he actually felt like the 500 prepared him for this race, and that he didn't feel tired from it! I was hoping for a similar outcome. I REALLY wanted to PR and break my 1:10.17 from last year, but I didn't know if I'd just be too pooped to do that.

I went out HARD like I did last year - when I see the splits, I'm sure they'll tell the same story. I remembered to kick well in the final lap of this race. I used as little oxygen as I could, and breathed only every 4 or 5 strokes where I could, instead of my usual 3.

I hit the wall not sure if I'd PRed or swam a 1:13, but I felt happy with my effort. I felt smooth and fast for the race. The scoreboard read 1:09.88! I HAD MY PR!!

Katie's dive (a little better than mine) during her 1:01 100!


The final wave of speedy 100 swimmers.

I'll post the official results with the official splits in the next day or 2. Until then, you'll find me working on my diving while applying various pain-relief creams to my chest...

From Instagram post-race: Who has 2 thumbs, a bruised chest from
horrible diving, and 2 new swim PRs? This guy.

p.s. If you want to see my horrible diving in action, check out the video and animated GIF from last year where I was diving a little better. And stop by for the official results in a day or 2.

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Goals for Tomorrow's Swim Meet

The final "psych sheets" are out for the meet tomorrow, and there are no surprises: I'll be one of the slower ones there.

First up is the 50. Out of the 50 people signed up, I'm seeded 38th:

GOALS FOR THE 50: Don't dive like a complete ass, don't take any extra breaths near the end, and shoot for a sub-31 PR. Can you go sub-30? Doubtful (it will need a REALLY nice dive), but go nuts.


After that is the 500. I'm scared of this one. Everyone's been telling me that 500s hurt like a mother. I'm seeded 21st out of 31. MAYBE I can gain a couple of spots and finish around 7:00. We'll see. I'm freaking out a little.

Hey, it looks like I WON'T be in the slowest heat! Woo hoo!
(Now let's just make sure I don't make a fool of myself in the 2nd slowest heat...)

GOALS FOR THE 500: Start off hard but not TOO hard for the first 200, then don't be a wuss (push the effort) from 200-400. Really concentrate on good streamlined push-offs, and don't worry about not knowing your 100 splits at the moment. Just turn in a good effort. (I could be thrilled with a 7:30 or pissed off at a sub-7:00 - I have NOOO idea what to expect here.)


And then just 2 events after that is the 100. It's more important to me to PR in the 100 (than the 50), but after that 500, I just might be hashed. Again, we'll have to see. A PR would be overtaking the next time in front of me (sub-1:10.17):

Seeded 28th out of 42.

GOALS FOR THE 100: Streamlined push-offs, and lots of pain in this race. Just deal with it and go. Can you go sub-1:10?


It's a good thing I didn't sign up for the 1000. Patrick Parish is a local speedy triathlete (who is never the first out of the water at a triathlon), and he's seeded 3.7 seconds out of last place in the 1000:

Had I done this, people would be waiting around around 3-5 minutes for me to finish. Yikes.

Keep an eye on my Instagram photos and my tweets on Sunday morning and afternoon because I'll probably be updating from the pool. Here goes nothing....

p.s. Did you see my red chest in my last post from my horrible practice dives? I'm just not good.

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'Y's Guys Meet:' My First Swim Meet!

Saturday was the "Y's Guys Meet" at the University of St. Thomas just down the street from my house. I've been swimming for 7 years, but my only "swim only" event was a 2.5K open water swim race 3 years ago. Now it was time to step it up and try an actual swim meet. Intimidating.

I posted last week about learning how to dive off the blocks and the resulting red chest I got, and really THAT was my biggest concern at the meet: simply entering the water! Once I was in the water and swimming, I knew I'd be FINE. But being I'm new to the start, that was my "x-factor" for how speedy or slow I might be.

I got there just as everyone was starting their warm-ups:

Lots of swimmers.


St. Thomas has some sweet facilities.
I watched this being built a few years back as I was running intervals on their track.


Steve H and Julia pausing during their warm up.


Julia and I had our Coach Jen Harrison water bottles with us. (That's Julia's coach and
the coach I worked with when I attempted a sub-60 at the TC 10 Mile 2.5 years ago.)

Oh yeah, and as you can see from the corner of that photo above, I wore my "Tutti Frutti" shorts for the meet!

I chatted a bit with Aaron, Marcus, and Pete as things were getting ready to start. When they opened up 2 lanes for "sprint" warm-ups, I tried diving off the blocks. Pete and Aaron saw me dive, and Pete told me it was totally "passable." I told him that "passable is the best I can hope for!" Then I asked him if he saw my first strokes. He smiled. He had seen my mistake. I was still WAY too far underwater to be trying to take a stroke. I needed to hold my streamline position for another 2 seconds. But the dive itself wasn't too horrible. That was a little "confidence boost" that made me feel a little more at ease before my races.

Aaron was in the first heat of the first wave. Here he is (in the black and green suit) showing pretty solid form as he dives off the blocks in the 200 free:

I'll come back to this photo of his butt in the air in a moment....


Aaron on his way to a 2:12 200!


Julia on the blocks (in lane 2)


Julia swimming.


Steve H in the pool.

MY FIRST EVENT- THE 50 FREE:

I figured it'd be good to do the 50 free if for no other reason than to practice a "race intensity dive-start" before the 100. (I was only planning on signing up for the 100, but figured I might as well try the 50 as well.) Julia grabbed my camera to take a video of the entire race. THANKS JULIA! Here's a screenshot from the video of me on the blocks just a second before the start.

When the buzzer went off, I didn't think at all. I just pushed off into the water. And it looked like this:

Less.

Than.

Perfect.

I'd failed to pop my butt up like Aaron's doing in the final picture of his dive above. I needed to snap my hips up to get my arms to come down so I could enter the water hands first. ....Not "chest first" like I did. Oh well.

After that, it was just time to swim. I didn't think of ANYTHING for the first length of the pool - I was just trying to go fast. Once I'd made my turn for the finish, I had my ONLY thought all race: "don't take too many breaths!" This was a 50 free - I didn't need to take a breath every 3 strokes for the entire race. So I kept my head down and ended by breathing every 4 or 5 strokes so I hit the wall out of breath.

Popping out of the water... I'd MADE it!


Seeing Julia right above me (still catching my breath).


"Hi Julia."


Julia's video ended with 2 awkward crotch-shots of me as she was figuring out how to stop recording.


About 60 seconds after my "chest-first" dive, you can see my chest is already turning
a little red. And that yellow-ish area to the upper-left of my nipple is still
some bruising from learning to dive last week.

So those were all screenshots from the video Julia took. Here's the entire (unedited) 69 second video of my first race at a swim meet:


http://youtu.be/mMEw6x0OisE

A few notes from that video:

• I love how "fast" a swim meet goes. I was at the meet for over 4 hours (so it's long), but notice we're being called onto the blocks just 1 or 2 seconds after the woman in lane 4 crawled out from the previous heat.

• My right foot moved WAY too much on the push-off of the dive. I picked it up and set it back down before pushing off. NOT fast. Not right.

• I couldn't see too much of my actual swimming, but 2 people told me after this 50 that my form looked pretty good. I was just churning water trying to go as fast as possible.

• Watch the video again and look at lane 7 (2 lanes to the left of me). Aaron put down an estimated time of 0:45 for the 50 free, but he KILLED our heat in 0:25!! It looks fine until I hit the far wall with the 3 or 4 swimmers around me - then you notice that Aaron is half way back already! What a solid swim!

• And Julia's laughing at the end as she realizes she was filming my man bits for a bit too long.

So I had estimated that I'd swim a 0:38 50 free. But officially, did my first 50 free in 31:03!!

I snapped this next photo after a few more heats of the 50 free. It had looked like the pool area had cleared out, but really, everyone was just standing behind the starting blocks because EVERYONE does the 50 free!

Aaron taking a break with Kacey in the stands.


A bunch of better splashes than mine.


Steve H finishing a relay leg with the next swimmer diving over him.
(And a super buff, potentially naked man to the right.)


More relay action.


Pete swimming hard! Pete and I are planning on teaming up as a relay for the Gear West Du
this spring. Matt (my brother-in-law and normal relay partner) can't make it this year.


Julia on the blocks for the 500.


Lap counters for the 500.

I counted laps for Julia for her 500. You're given a plastic flip board of odd numbers so you can count lengths (not laps). So when they start, you hold "1" in the water (that's what they're doing in the photo above). The swimmer gets back to the starting blocks and heads back towards you on their 2nd lap, and you hold "3" in the water. The 500 is 20 lengths, so instead of showing "19" on their last lap, you show a big orange square which means "get back to the wall and you're done!" Julia told me that she was hoping to see orange on her last lap - she'd lost track and was working hard and NEEDED to be done!

I ran upstairs to grab a few photos and to say hi to Kacey.

Julia (in the white cap) talking to Dominique (in the black cap)

Suddenly, I had to get down to the pool in a hurry - they were starting the first heat of the 100 free, and I was in heat 3. "Bye Kacey!"


MY SECOND EVENT- THE 100 FREE:

A little "side race" popped up in the 100 free. Julia and I saw that we'd be racing RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER!! Julia is BY FAR the better swimmer, but in a shorter race, I'd MAYBE have a chance of catching her. I was hoping to finish CLOSE to her. She joked that if I beat her, she'd have to fire Coach Jen! Ha! So if anything, I wanted to catch Julia so I could tease Jen!

The line-up (and predicted times) for Heat 3 of the 100.

When the buzzer sounded, I THINK I hit the water a bit better this time. I realized shortly that I was a bit in front of Julia, but I was trying to go out hard - I was planning on dying before the end.

In the first lap, I had the same thought of "don't breathe too much" like I had in the 50, but I also had the thought of "make sure to lengthen your strokes." My turn-over was so quick that I wanted to make sure I was getting some good "glide" to my stroke. But those were the only 2 thoughts during the race. Ideally, I would have checked that I wasn't over-roating to breathe, that my elbows were high, that I was kicking strong, that I was pulling through the entire stroke, that I was really pushing off the walls, and that I was holding a good streamline for the right amount of time. But in such a short race, it's really all just muscle memory - there was no chance for me to think about what I was doing.

Kacey got a photo of the half-way point of the 100, and you can see I'm about a half body-length ahead of Julia:

I thought Julia would catch me on the final lap because she's better with turns and I thought I might be slowing up. But she never got closer! I ended up finishing almost a body-length in front of her:

Big splash from a final kick!

Julia DID just swim a 6:4x 500, so that MAYBE took something out of her, so I can't really feel like a big stud. :)

By the time I took off, the official 100 results weren't posted yet. But I remember seeing 1:10.xx after I finished! I had put down 1:17, I was HOPING to be around 1:14 if I could be, and anything faster than that would be thrilling. So I'm ecstatic with my 1:10!!!

I tweeted Coach Jen on the way home. I said "Julia says your fired. I beat her in the 100 free." She tweeted back: "Ha. She needs a penis at that distance. What about the 500 ?? that's more fair. ;)" Julia would kill me in a 500, but I'll have to try it sometime. As we were getting ready to climb onto the blocks in the 100, Julia asked "So will it be MUSCLE or FORM that wins?" MUSCLE can (apparently) win a 100, but FORM will kick MUSCLE's ass in the 500.

Julia was sticking around for the 1650 (the final race), but I headed home just before that. I had to get one last photo with my old "swimming buddies" from the Y:

Me, Julia, and Steve H.

I'll be back in a day or 2 with the official results, along with what I'll do differently in my next swim meet. Yes, I'm TOTALLY doing more of these. I'll see if I can improve upon my belly-flop starts, my 31:03 50 free, and my 1:10.xx 100 free. And I'll probably add in another race or 2.

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