I'm 1 for 2 against Olympians today

Today was difficult for me.  It's been a long week.  I didn't have much left to give today.  I had a pathetic practice, I actually got beat by a breaststroker in a 100 yard specialty IM today (Fly, Back, Free, Specialty).  I wasn't proud of my performances today at all.  The coaches gave me zero praise and that's because I didn't deserve any.

Our final set of the morning was a series of relays.  They were all 2 x [200 Medley Relay].  It was a relay were we would all swim 50 yards twice.  The first one I swam buttefly.  The relays were uneven regarding speed so I didn't really race anybody.  The second relay was an entirely backstroke relay.  I was lined up against Wu Peng, the Chinese Olympian who beat Michael Phelps at Michigan and Charlotte Grand Prix.  He is primarily a butterflier but also a fantastic backstroker.  As we started I could see him pull ahead on the underwater kicking.  He is a fantastic kicker.  We flipped at about the same time meaning I momentarily caught up.  However the second underwater he pulled away again and held the lead to touch me out by over half a second.  The second 50 back, about a minute later was ugly, Wu Peng is a 200 meter swimmer and was prepared to swim again.  I'm nowhere near as good at doubling out of a race into another race.  He killed me on the next 50 back, probably by over 1 second.  Olympians 1, Doak 0

The next relay was preceeded by a few minutes of easy swimming.  It was much appreciated.  The relay was a 200 Medley Relay, twice in a row.  Naturally I was chosen to do backstroke.  My relay was yelling before the race to pump me up, I heard a lot of "LETS GO DOAK, BEAT THIS GUY".  It put a smile on my face.  Relays are always a blast.  I was lined up against a 2008 Olympian Freestyler from Norway.  He was the best shot the other team had since they didn't have a backstroker.  I knew I had a pretty good shot at beating him at a stroke he wasn't good at!  We started and he actually had better underwaters than I did, we both surfaced and I was slightly behind but I flipped sooner than he did.  He seemed to catch up a little during the underwaters again but naturally since it wasn't his stroke, I powered home with my #1 stroke to beat him by a second.  Since the other team had Wu Peng and another Olympian, they took the lead at the end of the first 200 Medley.  I started at a slight deficit against my backstroke competition.  We started from the blocks like a relay start and I gave it my all.  We flipped at the same time at the wall and I actually got the lead back for our team with a great 50 back.  However the rest of the other teams relay was stacked with Olympians or almost Olympians.  We lost the lead on the breastroke since we had to make a butterflier swim breast and our other butterflier had to swim against one of the fastest butterfliers on the planet.  Our freestyler ALMOST caught up to theirs but we ended up getting beat by a second in the end.

It was a fun morning even though I sort of swam poorly.  I'm still 1 for 2 against Olympians.  Not bad.