Ready to race in Austin!

After a nice flight to Houston, a meal and a drive to Austin.  I arrived at the pool around 4pm local time to loosen up with the team.  We joined everybody on deck for a team stretch and warmup in the pool.  I'm really enjoying the team.  I've made new friends in both the post graduate group as well as the college team.  The comrodery is a great addition to my training.

We swam:

400m swim
200m kick no board
12 x 50m @ :50 D1-4
4 x 100's blast start, rest, then blast turn, rest then blast finish

I opted to finish my warmup with a 50m dive butterfly for time.  I took it out like a 100m race.  I felt good in the water once I settled in after the first few strokes.  The coach had me at 24.80, a very good time for me, even if he was a little fast on the watch.  All I need to do is bring it home in 30 seconds flat.

The pool and facility are amazing.  The depth of the pool is perfect.  The walls are a bit deceiving the same way EMU's walls are a bit tricky.  The pool features run-off gutters so there isn't any structure above the water level to focus on.  You have to time it by the wall you see underwater.  I should be ok but it may prove a bit challenging in butterfly.  Freestyle and backstroke will be unaffected.

I'm 100% focused on my 100m butterfly this weekend.  I haven't thought about my freestyle or backstroke race at all.  As far off of the 55.29 Olympic Trial cut I am, I'm confident I still have a 55 second swim in me somewhere.  To achieve it, I'll need to drop 1.01 seconds off my lifetime best time.  This is a ton of time, nobody rational would argue that point. I think it's possible.  We shall see.