March 2012

My morning swim of 24.18 was a bit of a disappointment.  I had really hoped to be a 23-anything.  I prepared for my evening finals race exactly as planned.  I slept, ate and arrived at the pool in time to do a full warmup and relaxed until my race.  I was ready to swim.  10 minutes prior to my race I decided to try my Fastskin3 suit again.  The $361.00 investment I made while in London.  As I was putting it on, it ripped.  This was the 2nd of this type of suit I ripped.  I'm very disappointed in the Fastskin3 suits.  During the meet I made it a point to ask swimmers and coaches about their experiences with the suit.  I haven't heard a single positive story.  At this point I'm really wishing I had my $361.00 back.  Comparatively, my $180.00 (or less) LZR Elite Jammer suit is still going strong after 10 meets.  It's certainly lost a bit of it's compression but it hasn't ripped or failed me once.  Speedo certainly took a step backward with this new suit, and I'm not the only person who thinks that.  It will be interesting to see how they handle the public reaction to the suit.

Anyway, back to the race.  I prepared well, ripped a suit, quickly changed into my alternate suit and got ready to swim.  I had committed to change my stroke prior to my race.  After my morning swim I (again) realized how ugly my stroke is.  The buzzer went off and I had a great start.  After a few dolphin kicks I surfaced with a good breakout and immediately started swimming with my improved stroke.  Surprisingly I held it together till the 35 meter mark before I started to revert to my ugly stroke out of sheer exhaustion.  I touched in yet another disappointing 24.10 for a 12th place finish at the meet.  Although I was pleased I swam faster in finals, 0.08 seconds is not exactly a great time drop.  I can be happy that I swam faster with a newly altered stroke.  I have some video of my race I'll watch to study where I can further improve.

I slept well and arrived at the pool in plenty of time for my event, the 50m Freestyle.  Since this is not an especially competitive meet for me I knew almost any decent performance would earn me an evening swim.  During warmup I really wasn't feeling very good in the water.  I felt sluggish, just run down.  I really haven't taken a break in about 2 weeks so it kind of makes sense.  I was hoping to touch in a 23-anything to put me in striking distance of the ever elusive 23.49 Olympic Trial cut but it just wasn't there this morning.  I had a sloppy race and touched in a 24.18, significantly behind the trial cut.  While reviewing the video, I'm finding my freestyle worse looking than ever.  I truly have bad form, it's a miracle I can hack my way through the water in 24 seconds.  Moving forward I will work on my form, I think a better stroke will yield a time drop.  I don't know if it will earn me a 23.49 but at least I'll be less embarrassed to watch my freestyle videos!

I'm feeling like I'm running on empty at this meet.  My first swim, the 100m Free was good but everything since then has been sub-par.  I will swim the finals this evening in the 50 free as well as the prelims 100 backstroke but I'm considering scratching my finals 100 backstroke and heading home early instead.  I just don't think there's much left to give at this meet.  I need some rest.

On the brighter side of things, I've really enjoyed West Lafayette, Indiana!  This is a great college town.  I chose to stay close to campus and was pleased to learn that there is a free Trolly which picks me up right in front of my hotel and drops me off at the pool.  It couldn't have worked out better!  The campus is really nice and the area is easy to navigate.  There is a great selection of restaurants and shops around where I'm staying.  The pool is great and the meet has been running very smoothly.  The weather has been ideal, just a little brisk in the mornings and not too hot during the day.  I went out to dinner with a few CW teammates last night so it's been nice knowing a few people at the meet and having a few people to cheer for.  I've met a few coaches while on deck including Akron, Toledo and Purdue's head coach.  Everybody has been really nice.  I sincerely hope I get to swim another meet at this facility, it would be great to visit this city again!

Back for finals, hoping to drop some additional time!

After a long drive and a hectic morning getting to the pool, I arrived with 20 minutes before my 100m Free.  The competition pool closed just as I was walking on deck.  I met up with two other teammates and did about a 250y warmup.  I knew that wasn't enough warmup but I didn't have much of a choice, I didn't plan well enough to get here on time.  I dried off and sat down for 15 mins prior to my race.  Surprisingly I was ready to race when heat 4 was called up.  I had my lifetime best of 53.65 in my sights today.  I was out in a 25.18 and touched in a lifetime best of 53.23!  I dropped .43 seconds off of my Minnesota time!  I know I have more time to drop in the event, and I'm still unshaved and untapered.  The tough kick sets really took a toll on me, my legs really fell apart at the end of my race.  This is not a very fast meet, I made it back in the consolation finals in 21st place.  I swim it again tonight!

I'm proud to say that I only had 1/2 a day of rest for this meet and definitely met my goals for day 1!  Since a Long Course Meters meet at Purdue is next weekend, I didn't want to put too much effort/rest into this meet.  My focus remains U.S. Olympic Trials and therefore long course meets.  I skipped Saturday training to swim at the 2012 USMS Michigan State Meet.  I just love masters meets.  The people are really friendly and it's just a really warm environment where everybody is supported.  I make new friends each time I swim a meet!

Day 1 went really well.  I purposefully didn't prepare much for this meet.  I lifted on Friday morning (not very hard) along with some purple swimming.  Thursday was no walk in the park either with two back to back kick sets.  I arrived at the meet Saturday morning a little sore from training and tired from a 1.5 hour drive.  My relatively ambitious meet outlook held strong though.  I wanted a 45 second 100y freestyle, a lifetime best in the 50y Fly and a 22 second 50y back.  I had a chance to swim the 50 free in a relay which is a good thing since I skipped the individual event.  I wanted to be a 20.x in that event.  EVERYTHING went to plan.  I met all of my goals for the day:

100 Free SCY - 45.79
50 Fly SCY - 22.25 (Lifetime best!)
50 Free SCY - 20.92
50 Back SCY - 22.64
50 Fly SCY (Relay) - Not sure, probably a 22.x 

I could definitely feel how tired I was in even the short races.  I just wasn't as sharp as I could have been if I wasn't worn out.  I fell apart a little in my last 25 yards of my 100 free, I was breathing way too much.  I actually had quite a sub par 50 Fly.  My underwaters weren't great and my turn was very slow.  Yet with those errors I was still the fastest I've ever been in my life at a 22.25!  I find the key is not breathing at all.  If I can pull that off, it's a great 50 fly.  My 50 free was pretty good, definitely the fastest I've ever been without some rest or a taper.  My time of 20.6x a few months ago at EMU is still my fastest but my time of 20.92 today is the second fastest time of my life!  I really think it's just kicking.  My legs have improved a little lately and I think that makes all the difference.  I used to be a consistent 21.5 or 21.low at these types of meets and now I'm a consistent 20.x or at worst a 21.flat.  For some reason I find a 20.x in the 50 free to be very satisfying.  The "splash and dash" has been the event I've done at almost every meet of my life, even moreso than backstroke.  I was always mediocre in it through high school and college but I'm definitely improving.  As a consistent 20.x I'm definitely the fastest freestyler I've ever been.  The 50 back went pretty well.  I finished the race and saw a "22.90" which would have been respectable in itself, among the fastest of my life.  Yet when I checked the results later I saw a "22.64", a time significantly faster than the time on the board.  I respectfully inquired upon the timing staff to look into the issue.  My concern being that I didn't want a time faster than (or different at all) than I earned.  The staff was very helpful.  I got a quick tutorial on how the system might have averaged a "plunger (hand) time" with the touchpad in a situation of significant discrepency.  They also showed me the hand times of "22.54 and 22.89".  Honestly I'm not sure which time I deserve.  In the end it doesn't matter much, neither the board time or the official time is a record.  Although the official time of 22.64 ties my EMU masters meet time from a few months ago, a very good sign!  The fact that I can swim the same time with less rest is a positive indicator of progress. At the end of the day I was put into a relay swimming butterfly.  I knew some of the people on the STRAY team but wasn't sure who was in my relay. I showed up to the correct heat but the wrong lane.  As the race was beginning I definitely looked like an idiot.  I shuffled over one lane and met the correct relay team, just in time to get up on the blocks.  I didn't get to see the split but with a relay start and some good underwaters I'm confident it was a 22 second swim.  Relays are always a blast.  Your individual performance all of a sudden legitimately earns support and cheering right behind your lane.  I'll always sign up for any relay, they're far more exciting than an individual race!

Day 2 will be a little tougher than this morning with the 100 Fly, 50 Back (as part of a relay), 100 Back and 100 IM.  I might get put in another 200 Free relay as well.  I should mention that I really appreciated my free relay today letting me swim first to get a flat start time, that was very nice!  Some goals for tomorrow:

100 Fly SCY: 50.5 (A 49 second swim is a bit aggressive, I'll be happy with a 50.x)
50 Back SCY: 22.5 (I want an even better swim!)
100 Back SCY: 49.5 (I want to break my own pool record!) 
100 IM SCY: 51.x (I think with some improved fly and back combined with a new breaststroke and solid free, I can drop a second off my 52.64)
50 Free SCY: whatever (If I have a chance to lead off again, another 20.x would be great but I'll be pretty run down)

Looking forward to another great day! 

Due to a Water Polo Tournament, our post grad group was unable to train at U of M today.  Todd Brunty (Legendary EMU swimmer and Saline Head Coach) was nice enough to loan his pool to us for a few hours!  I was impressed how thankful our group was to Todd.  It made me proud to be part of a gracious and humble team.  Coach Brunty seemed to enjoy having a group of talented coaches and athletes in his pool as much as we appreciated the chance to practice there.

I arrived late to the pool due to an GPS error.  It seems that since the middle school took over the location of the old high school, at least half our team showed up in the wrong place.  I find it odd that the new Saline high school is about 8 years old and somehow this is still an issue.  Fun fact: while I looked for the build date of the school, I found out Saline High School is the largest high school in Michigan.  Once I got some phone directions from Todd, I eventually showed up at the right place and got changed for the workout.  I greeted Coach Brunty and stretched with the team for a few minutes.  During warmup the coaches flip flopped on what workout I should swim.  I had glanced at the workout and it seemed as though either would be good for me.  The sprint workout was definitely easier, and my "I can do anything" attitude steered me toward the MD workout.  When the coaches asked me my preference, I responded that I'd prefer the MD workout.  They supported my decision, perhaps reluctantly.

After a 25 minute warmup, we were ready to start the main set.  As a spoiler, I entirely underestimated the "300y white" portion of the workout.  This just ruined my set.  I chose the wrong workout.

The rounds went something like this:

300y white @ 3:30 + 6 x 50y @ :45

each round added more distance to the first portion and subtracted the number of 50's while adding to it's interval.  It looked manageable at first.  I was wrong.  I never swim "300y white" on a 1:10 pace backstroke.  That's not an easy interval for me.  Shortly after I started I switched to freestyle which wasn't much of an improvement.

I was last finishing the 300's each time and last on every single 50.  Neither was a surprise, especially since I was the only person swimming backstroke while others swam freestyle.  Still, my times were horrendous.  I never kept track of the 300's but the 50's were ugly.  I was pushing 28's to 30's on each one.  Very slow for me, bordering on embarassing.

As the set went on, I got slightly faster, dipping into the low 28's on the 4 x 50's on :50 seconds.  After some yellow pace swimming and a 300y white we had just 3 x 50's left.  I was finally ready to swim.  The coaches recommended "dive" on these which would have meant a backstroke start for me.  I declined because I wanted a consistent time compared to the rest of the "push" set.  The freesytlers were going :22's and finished with a :21, not too shabby for MD.  I actually finished the set quite well since it was a 1:05 interval.  Amazing what a little rest can do.  I went from :28 mid to:

#1 :25.2
#2 :26.1
#3 :24.4

I was proud of my last 3 swims considering what I had just been through.  It was a rough week for me.  I broke out of my mini taper from London, recovered from a wacked out sleep schedule, lifted hard twice and had some difficult ab workouts to swim a 24.4 from a push.  I'm so glad to have that week behind me and relax a bit this weekend! 

After almost a year with Club Wolverine, I don't feel like I've achieved any significant time drops.  That's not to say I haven't accomplished anything, I've learned a lot and achieved an Olympic Trial cut in the 100 Backstroke.  I went from a 1:01.40 to a 57.44 in a few short months.  I had a number of meets where I swam 58 second backstroke races, the best being a 58.0x at the Pro Dual 1 meet in Ann Arbor.  My performance in London of a 57.73 was not impressive to me.  It reinforced some concerning facts I've mostly kept to myself.  I don't feel as though I'm working out enough and the workouts we do swim aren't as intense as I'd like.  I feel I need to either add some workouts or sets myself or join the Middle Distance group.  Admittedly, the Middle Distance (MD) group is beyond my current abilities for a few reasons:

1. They're staggeringly fast, not only at short distances but 200+ meters, they just never slow down.
2. They all swim freestyle, I would choose to do Backstroke and therefore not be able to keep up
3. The coaches don't think I can handle the workouts, they're partially correct.

I'm running out of time to make a big change like this before Trials.  Today I did some additional dryland and a P90X ab workout.  Just slightly increasing my workload for now while I consider my options.

This morning was the first time I hit the weights in about 2.5 weeks.  I've felt a bit run down since I returned from Europe.  I took it easy with the weights today, nothing too heavy.  I find it's best to ease into it after a break.

The pool workout was surprisingly relevant.  Maybe I just crave some special attention or something self-centered like that.  I was singled out and told to put on 3lb ankle weights with fins.  I did 10x25y @ :30 seconds followed by 1:00 off and then 10x25y @ :25 seconds.  It was a great set for my underwater kicking!  I felt like it was especially relevant for my 100 Backstroke since my 2nd wall is especially sub-par.

The Milford meet went great!  I'm still a little run down from the trip and the flight back but I wanted to see what I could swim Short Course Meters.

100 Back SCM: 55.17 (Lifetime Best!)
50 Back SCM: 25.64
100 Free SCM: 51.48 (Lifetime Best)
50 Free SCM: 23.30 (Lifetime Best)
50 Fly SCM: 25.37

I had 3 lifetime best times!  The other two races were a bit under par.  I was going for the 50 Back SCM world record of 24.81 but I didn't even come close at 25.64.  Somehow my time from a month ago of 24.92 was miles away from my performance today.  I just couldn't seem to rev it up.  The 50 Fly was just sloppy.  I breathed a few times and had a short turn, much behind my best in 2007 of 25.05.

It was a great meet.  Milford always does a great job!

I'm back home after a long flight.  After returning some calls, I headed straight to the pool to swim out my travels.  When I arrived on the pool deck the post grads were all in the water.  I talked to the coaches and swimmers one-by-one.  It felt good to be back.  There were lots of smiles and hand shaking.  Everybody had questions about the pool and the meet.  Being one of the people on deck with the least number of international meets under my belt, it was refreshing being the person telling others about an amazing pool in a foreign country.  I swam about 2000 yards, mostly easy swimming, a few burst sprints.

I was leaving the pool, looked to my left and saw a familiar photo on the wall.  The wall has a bunch of British Olympians, and some guy with a yellow cap.  It stopped me dead in my tracks when I saw it!

I don't typically throw names around, but this was yet another example of me putting my foot in my mouth.  I was talking to my teammate Hulmey and some guy walks by and begins talking to him.  Hulmey, being the classy guy he is introduces me expecting me to know who the heck it is.  I tell the new guy my name and ask for his, to which he responds "Liam Tancock".  Now, I've seen enough backstroke race results to recognize the name, I smiled foolishly and apologized.  They spoke for a moment and Hulmey reminded me that Liam is a former Olympian and the world record holder in the 50m Backstroke.  Oops.

Liam was a nice guy, it was an honor to meet the fastest backstroker on the planet... on accident.

We do a lot of starts in practice.  I take pride in the fact that I have an above average backstroke start.  Since changing my start last year, my focus has been getting off the pad faster.  For example, my start from the 2008 Olympc Trials was a 0.68, my start Sunday was among the fastest of the meet at 0.57.  A tenth of a second off the pad is a great improvement!

I ran a few stats, I compared my start time against the field of 66 swimmers.  5 swimmers started faster than me, the fastest being Joseph Canlan-Shaw at 0.54 seconds.  Arguably, not a huge difference between my 0.57 and his 0.54.  I'm tied with the 6th through 11th fastest backstroke start at the meet.  This is not to say I'm better than the other 55 swimmers, clearly because a huge chunk of them beat me in the race, they still have an edge.  I just throught it was interesting to note that if I had been equal to my 2008 self, then I would have been 62nd in the meet off the pad, rather than 6th-11th.  I'm improving!

I swim again on Thursday.  I've chosen to relax for a day.  My life has been a whirlwind lately so a slow day feels good.  I won't go to the pool today but I'll stretch and do some very light dryland.  I'll be back at the Olympic Pool preparing tomorrow.

I'm trying to stay positive. I swam my 100m backstroke in 57.73, I took it out in a 27.28 and brought it home in a 30.45. It was the third fastest time I've swim the event without a tech suit. As much as I told myself not to read to much into my performance today, I'm disappointed. The fact that my swim at the pro meet a few months ago was a 58.0 unshaved and untapered, a 0.30 second drop with rest and a shave is not impressive at all. Regardless, I accomplished what I wanted to and my swimming performance was in no way embarrassing. I moved up in the rankings and took 39th overall. It was a solid swim and I learned from it.

One topic I can be proud of is my race execution. I did a TON of things right. My start was great, breakouts were good and I had a faster turn. I only brushed a laneline once with my hand, for somebody who has generally poor lane position awareness, that was a great improvement! The experience was everything I hoped and expected it to be. 50 free and 100 fly on Thursday

I hope I'm not hurting any feelings here, but wow... it really feels like I've had some bad pizza since I've been outside the U.S.  I had the chance to go out on the town tonight and see London and I turned it down.  I chose to stay in and rest up for my big race in the morning.  Instead I ordered a pizza from a local place near my hotel.  My thoughts are: "it's technically food".  Which I'm still thankful for considering there are starving people in the world.  It made me realize I'm quite a snob when it comes to pizza.  I'm so used to how the U.S. does it, speaking of most of the chains as well as independents.  The pizza I had in France as well as the pizza tonight was drastically under par.  For some reason, they choose to cut the toppings in MASSIVE chunks and just pile them all in the middle of the pizza.  I got a veggie pizza but others were like this as well.  Although I might have guessed this, I don't like eating a huge chunk of onion.  I find that pizza with toppings placed like this provides you with any one piece with a large topping of one kind, and none of the other kinds.  It leaves me wondering if the kitchen staff is just lazy or if this is normal around Europe.  Is it too much to ask to chop up the toppings a bit more so it covers the whole pizza?  Again, hope I'm not hurting any "traditional Italian" feelings here, I just doesn't seem to make any sense to me.  Regardless, I had some decent dinner and ready to wind down for the night.  I swim the 100 Backstroke around 9:00am Local Time, 4:00am EST.

After two buses to a boat, to a bus, to a high speed train, I arrived at Stratford International train terminal and met up with two teammates, Hulmey and Wu Peng.  They had just come from swimming at the London Aquatic Centre.  It was nice to see some familiar faces after so many new people over the past few days.  More on the swimming in a second, now about the trip:

Buses
I'm impressed with the public transit system everywhere in Europe, the buses are clean and timely.

Boat:
This ship was a borderline cruise ship, it had shops, restaurants, extensive luxury seating... the works

High Speed Rail:
I had a clear option to take either the normal train, or high speed rail.... cmon, any guy wants to go 100+ mph legally.  It was worth every penny of the extra £16 pounds it cost above the normal train price.  I had the GPS tracking the train speed, we hit 142.3 mph and an average speed of over 120mph, very impressive.  It was so smooth and quiet.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Once I got to Stratford, had a quick conversation with my teammates, I headed to the pool for a quick dip.  The competition pool was closed so I hopped in the warmup pool, a 50 meter facility adjacent to the main pool.   I chose to swim about 1,000 meters.  Just enough to loosen up but not enough to wear me out.  Afterward I took the subway to my hotel for some much needed rest.  I really overdid it the last few days sightseeing in Europe.  Ideally I should have been laying low and practicing.  I made the conscious choice to see the Netherlands, Belgium and France.  I knew I was sort of risking my taper.  I hope it doesn't affect me too much but I knew I was taking the risk and I chose to do so.

While swimming this evening, my focus was on backstroke only.  Since my first race is the 100 Back, I'm not even thinking about my 50 free or 100 fly at this point.  My 100 Back will be a great chance to warm me up for my other races.  If I haven't mentioned it yet, my primary reasons for attending this meet are, in this order:

1. See and compete in the 2012 Summer Olympic Pool
2. Qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 50m Free and/or 100m Fly
3. Get a good shaved/tapered time in the 100m Backstroke
4. Take a trip

Although I'd love a good time in the 100m Back, my meet focus remains on my 50 Free and 100 Fly since I already have an Olympic Trial cut in the backstroke.  Therefore, I will race my best in the 100 Back on Sunday but if I don't swim well, I'll try not to let it affect me too much.  I need to put 100% into my other races.

I'm in LONDON!