Reflections and Goal Progress

I set a goal a few months ago to break every single personal best I have in the next 12 months beginning on October 5th 2008. I'm making great progress toward my goal. This weekend I swam three events in SCY (Short Course Yards). My 50 Free was a fantastic swim at 20.98 and only 0.03 seconds off my lifetime best. My 100 Back was a 2 second drop down from a month ago to a 49.50 and 0.99 seconds off my Lifetime Best. My 100 Fly was really quick for me at 49.93 and my leadoff split was a 22.58 which was my lifetime best in the 50 fly!

Overall I'm VERY pleased with my performances, The butterfly counts as two lifetime bests to add to the count! I have 23 events to achieve a personal best in, adding these two best times I'm now at 5 down or 21.7% completed! I feel like I'm just lining them up and knocking them down!

I have LOTS to work on, the race experience really helped, and I'm very thankful that I had a friend available to videotape my swims (thanks Sarah). I owe a lot to the meet staff which accommodated my three swims after the sessions were totally completed. I really appreciate it and I was sure to thank everybody I could, namely the Pool Manager Tim, his assistant Denee, and the Meet Referee George.

50 Free (20.98)
Need more speed work since I never train freestyle. I could use a little more strength in my legs, I don't push off very well from the starting block. I have very good entry into the water, very little splash. I chose to butterfly kick off the start and the wall. I'm happy I tried this, if I get my underwater kicks stronger, I can really drop some time. I'm confident I can be a mid to low 20 second 50 freestyler if I work on this.

100 Back (49.50)
Great race overall. My start was a little sub-par but didn't cost me much time at all. My flipturns were ok, but my underwater kicking was very lacking. Unfortunately I've been working on kicking a lot lately and it didn't really show. I have a lot more work to do to improve. My speed above the water is decent but could always improve. I notice I STILL bounce in the water. I'm wasting energy going up and down rather than forward. I need to remember to keep my head back instead of letting my chin drop, which makes my body position poor. Lots to work on but a significant time drop and a very strong swim for me. I think I can be a 47 in this event.

100 Fly (49.93)
Overall it was a wonderful swim. A solid 2 second drop from my lifetime best which is just AMAZING for me! I still don't think I'm anywhere near my peak in this event. I have lots to work on because I never train butterfly. My walls (flipturn and underwater kicking) were sad. I glided in too far on my first and third wall and jammed the second wall. My underwater kicking was slow on all walls. One positive was that I didn't stay under too long. It's a mistake I've made before. I find that I want to get the most distance underwater but I end up slowing down to the point it costs me time. I swam this race as best I could and I'm proud of the results. I think I can go a 47 in this event with the right training.

5 out of 23.
I am confident I can achieve my goal. I will make it happen.