February 2012

It was a great flight and I found a long course pool to swim in once I arrived in Amsterdam!  I found an "OmniSport" facility listed online. Since I was short on time before a train to Belgium, I got a cab to the pool.  I knew it would be steep but I underestimated how bad it would be for a 13 minute cab ride.  €40 Euros later ($52.80 U.S.Dollars) I arrived at the pool.  Admission was €3.30 which was entirely worth it considering it was a 50 meter long course pool.  Online I had read the following:

The pool is now reopened and has completely renewed. There are more pools available: a 50m pool, an instruction pool, a diving pool, and a recreation pool. It's a very interesting pool to visit! The pool was quite crowded. I swam in the least crowded lane and never had to share with more than one person. Most lanes were occupied by rec. swimmers doing breastroke. Pace clocks were on both sides, digital, and easily visible. The pool is beautiful, and one of the best you will ever see.

 

The review was dead accurate.  There was relatively high security for a pool.  Stainless steel body height turnstyles with RFID bracelets.

Fridays are kick sets, something I wish we did more of.  Directly after warmup, we did:

10 x 25y Dive Underwater @ :30

I did very well, I lead the set and actually felt pretty good, my kicking is slowly improving.

Later we had a kick set which had moments where I really excelled, ending with a 50y kick of 26.2, one of my fastest 50 yard kicks from a push in my life.  I still have so much improving to do, but I'm proud of a 26.2 from a push at the end of a hard workout!

I chose to stay in Geneva, Ohio for the evening and attend day 2 of the "SPIRE Masters Winter Classic Swim Meet" and attempt another 50m backstroke.  After a relatively successful Day 1 even after a long drive, I was hopeful that a good nights rest and a few meals would give me the ammunition to drop the 0.11 seconds needed to break the 30-34 USMS world record of 24.81 seconds in the 50 meter short course backstroke.  Planning wise, everything went well.  A few meals, a local hotel and a solid 8 hours of rest and I was ready to swim again Sunday morning.  I mentioned a few times during the evening and the morning that followed that I was confident that if I performed my 50 back without flaws, I would achieve a world record.  I still believe that.

I prepared for the race well considering I had 1 day of rest and no shave/taper.  I knew I would need a flawless race to swim under the 24.81 world record time.  As I prepared for the offical to hit the buzzer, I ensured I recited some important points I would need to remember during my race.  When the buzzer went off, I had a near perfect start and underwater kicks, nearly nothing could be improved upon.  Unfortunately I didn't have a good transition to my breakout which is especially disapointing since it was something I had been working on lately.  I kicked a bit too far and had to surface quickly to avoid exceeding the 15m marker.  My stroke rates on the first 25 were ideal, under or near 1.00.  My turn was above average but still not as fast as I would have liked.  My underwater kicking on the second 25 were solid but I could tell they would be better with rest.  As I was doing my second breakout, my hands got a bit caught together, I can't really remember how it happened but it's an embarassing error considering my race experience, it caused another mediocre breakout.  My last 10 meters was around 1.10 rates, a bit slower than ideal.  I thought it was a good race overall.  I looked up to see a "24.97" on the board.  I missed the world record of 24.81 again. 

I feel a bit defeated but in the same breath, hopeful that eventually a week of rest, a shave and taper will yield the tenth or two I need to break the record.  My prediction still rings true in my mind: I needed to do everything right to have a chance at the record, I didn't do everything right.  I made a few small errors which could have easily added up to the 0.11 - 0.16 seconds I needed to secure a world record.  Add on top of that the fact that I'm sore and run down from a week of training and I know I could have raced much better than I did today.

The rest of my races were not fantastic.  I tried to swim a 100m Fly less than 5 minutes after my 50 back and it didn't go well.  I can honestly say I was a bit embarassed.  I just fell apart after the 50m mark.  Very slow turnover and poor underwaters, I was just exhausted.  I finished in a very slow 1:01.86, probably my slowest time of my life in the event.  It was one of the first races I didn't even look at the scoreboard, I knew it was ugly.  I shook it off and prepared for my 50m free.

I had a bit of rest before my 50 free.  I had time to warm down and sit for a few minutes and prepare.  I won't do the play-by-play but it was a sloppy race.  I botched both breakouts and should have taken another stroke on the finish.  I touched in a 23.51, one of the fastest times of my life.  If I had done a few more things right, that would have been a lifetime best.

In the end, I'm very happy with my meet.  I tagged two more lifetime best times, got to meet a lot of nice people and see an amazing swimming facility.  I sincerely hope I get to race at the Spire Institute again soon!

All the post grads wish we could swim more LCM but yet again, the college team was the priority, and understandably so.  We wouldn't even have a pool to swim in if it wasn't for the University of Michigan.  Therefore our set today was SCY.

3 x

50y Dive @ 1:00
2 x 25y push @ :30
25y easy @ :45
25y Dive

500y easy

A growing concern of mine is that it takes me at least 1 round to warm up.  My first round of every race pace set is really poorly excecuted and slow.  I honestly can't remember if I was always like that.  I know in college I got faster as the set went on but I can't remember if my first round or first few swims were slow. I find the same issue applies to my meets.  It always seems like I need one swim to warm me up for subsequent swims.  This is especially concerning since I need to be 100% at the U.S. Olympic Trials Prelims to even have a chance at a semi-finals swim.

My first round was:

25.44
12.8
13.6
12.6 

My last round was:

24.56
11.5
12.3
11.9

The middle round split the difference on all the times.  I could have done another round after, it was a short set and we were out of the pool in less than 2 hours. 

In short, it was a rough meet.  I'm more worn down than I expected I would be.  I had my eye on a World Record in the 50m Back of 24.81 and didn't even get close.  My time of 25.67 shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence.  I had some solid times today but even after converted to yards, they're not very impressive.

100 Back SCM - 56.64 (50.75 yards)
50 Free SCM - 23.53 (21.08 yards)
100 Free SCM - 51.63 LIFETIME BEST (46.26 yards)
50 Back SCM - 25.67 (23.00 yards)

Not the meet I was expecting but these times are among the fastest I've ever swum, and definitely the fastest unshaved, untapered times I've swum in my life.  I don't think there is anything wrong with my training, I just know I'm tired and sore from a week of training, with rest I know I could be much faster.  It was great catching up with other Masters swimmers, it's a great group!

The post grads took the time to switch the pool to Long Course Meters after our warm up.  Next up was a race pace set, commonly called "purple" pace.  My first round was a bit ugly with a 50 meter dive backstroke swim of 28.9.  I knew I could crank it up a bit more.  Coach Sam got right in my face afterward and told me, I had a 27 second swim in me today.  He was right because I believed it too.

My second round was much better with a relatively (for me) blazing time of 27.8 and it was darn smooth.  I was connected with a great stroke.  My rates were 1.15 to 1.20, it was ideal.

My third round was even better than the second.  We were supposed to put on fins and paddles.  I chose to swim without both, I had more to give before resorting to power adders.  I had a nearly perfect swim of 27.4 seconds.  I pushed it hard and it paid off.  Considering that after the first portion of each of the rounds (a 35m swim and another 35m swim) I think a mid 27 second swim in practice was a best case scenario.  Even with rest, I've never swum a 27.4 in practice.

To put it in perspective, my fastest first 50m of a 100 meter race was a 27.1.  I'm making progress.  The only faster swim in practice was on June 18th, 2011 when I swam a 27.0 but that was without a swim before it, meaning it was like a race, unlike today which was after 75 meters of hard swimming before it.