**Full results with splits for the weekend are available here
I had a very breaststroke-tastic kind of day today, which if you know me is a pretty odd occurrence. On top of a 50 free I entered the 50 and the 100 breaststroke. All my races went pretty well and I walked away with 2 best times!
I got to the pool early again today and took some time to warm up in the competition pool. It was a little cold in the morning and the pool had a nice layer of fog across the top of it. I probably swam around 500 yards before I got out and did a few starts. I was feeling really good off the blocks this morning. Afterwards I set my stuff up over by the Walnut Creek swimmers that I had gone out to dinner with the night before. It was nice to have a team to borrow while I was out of my region :)
My first race was actually pretty early today. The 50 breast was the second event of the day so I didn’t have to wait around forever before swimming. I had a fun little manufactured grudge match set up with my friend Sarah in the breaststroke events. Since the meet was set up women’s heats then men’s heats she swam first and gave me a baseline number to shoot for (not fair I know, but I don’t think they would have let me in her heat… even if I tried I would make an ugly woman!). Once it was my turn to swim I went with my usual breaststoke plan… stay underwater as long as possible and then flail as rapidly as I can until I hit the wall to go back underwater. I had a really good start with a long glide and a big pull down. I surfaced just shy of the 15m mark and started churning my way through what was left of the 1st 25. Off the turn I tried to get as much as I could out of the pull down and it was a scramble for the wall. I turned in a 31.90 which is a best time and my first time under 32! I think all the trash talking with Sarah leading up to the event helped shave the time off… I need to manufacture more of these match ups…
After the 50 breast I had f o r e v e r to wait for my next event. I hung out and talked with the Creekers, caught up with some of my PacMaster friends that were floating around the deck area, and hopped in the warm up pool a few times just to cool off because it was way hotter today than the day before.
Eventually the 50 free came around and I wasn’t feeling particularly “on” for it. My calves were tightening up and I was a little dehydrated. I managed a good start and some good dolphin kicking but my flutter kicking once I hit the surface didn’t really feel like it was connecting so well. I managed a mid 25 which is about par for the course this season. I really want to break into the 24′s at some point… we’ll see if I can make it!
My last race of the meet was the 100 breast. I haven’t done that race since last year so I wasn’t really sure how it was going to pan out. My best time was a 1:13.69 that I swam in the old UCLA pool. My major strategy for this one was all out till it’s over… it’s a complicated strategy I know, but I really have no idea what I’m doing with this race so it seemed to be the best approach. I worked the start as much as I could, and really leaned into my turns. I took it out in a 32.6 (which is what I swam last week for the 50 in Wisconsin!) and brought it back in a 36. I could feel myself slowing down a bit but I didn’t gas out which is good seeing as my strategy didn’t particularly account for that. I finished up with a 1:09.53 which is a monster drop for me and kind of makes me wonder if I should actually try to swim breaststroke every once and a while. It’s now officially faster than my backstroke!
After the 100 breast I packed up and got out of town! It’s a pretty long haul to my house from the East Bay. I lucked out and didn’t run into any real traffic so I’m pretty stoked about that. Now I just need to collect up my times to send to my coach because there’s some new team records in there, and figure out what I’m going to swim next weekend at UCI!
random relay action!
