**Individual results for the 2009 PMS SCY Championships are posted here.

I’m finally back from Pacific Masters Champs in Pleasanton. Today’s crowd was a little lighter and there were a lot of holes in a lot of heats from people no showing. I think some were tired out from yesterday and the others were trying to beat the heat. It was upwards of 90 degrees today! I hid in the shade as best I could and drank a few bottles of Gatorade in the process. I was very stoked that the action today was a lot faster. We were out of there by about 1 this afternoon. Personally I wasn’t feeling that great. My arms were pretty smoked from yesterday and my allergies were on the fritz. Pleasanton is a very pretty town, but I am allergic to the entire place! If I go to this meet again next year I’m wearing a scuba mask the whole time! But if nothing else it was really good 2-day-meet practice for me. It’s good to figure out how my body handles multi-day events before I head out to nationals in a few weeks.

My first event of the morning was the 50 breast. This is one of those events I like to swim sometimes just because. I’m not particularly competitive in it, but it’s fun to do. My problem with breaststroke is the actual swimming portion. On top of the water I’m not that great, but underwater I am dangerous. I tend to stretch my pull down to the verge of disqualification and then pop up and get to the wall as fast as I can so I can do another pull down. Anyways, my swim was pretty good and I took a little bit of time of my personal best. I’m now down to a 33.54.

I had a bit of a break after the breaststroke to contemplate my impending 200 IM. Frankly I was dreading the 200 IM all last night. Why I keep signing up for it I couldn’t tell you, I guess it builds character. I’ll admit that I thought about dropping it, but Ahelee sent low level coaching threats to me via Facebook and blog comments so I figured it was in my best interest to stick it out. The time I entered was a lot slower than what I swam at UCLA because I entered this meet before I swam at UCLA. Upside, I got to feel like a hero and win my heat. Downside, I didn’t have anyone on my tail pushing me. I swam a 2:26.95 which is almost a full second drop from my previous best time. It felt like crap though. My first 50 was excellent, I’m actually pretty curious as to what my split was… but that’s where the good news stops. The backstroke leg just didn’t feel right. My breathing was really off because my head was super clogged with my allergy problems. I think I was at least going in a fairly straight line. Breaststroke is where I hit the wall. I gassed out really bad. I was still moving as fast as I could but I felt like I was going to die. I don’t remember too much of the freestyle leg other than I kicked a lot and breathed too much again. I think it’s kind of funny that I’m my fastest underwater but I suck at holding my breath…

My last race of the day was also the very next event, the 50 free. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one other than I didn’t do that great. My arms felt upwards of 900 pounds and I just couldn’t go any faster. I finished with a 26.33 which is almost a second slower than my current best time… yikes.

This meet was kind of a mixed bag. I did have some fast swims and 3 personal bests, but I didn’t feel like I swam as fast as I could. Not that I wasn’t trying, but my body wasn’t cooperating. Ultimately though, this was the plan. I planned a bunch of meets on top of each other for the experience and to get in some hard swims against other people that I can’t recreate in the pool I work out in. I did the same thing in February where I ran myself ragged for a month, took two weeks off from competing and then came back with a whole string of best times and major time break-throughs. Hopefully this works! I now have a week to get ready for SPMA Championships and the San Luis Obispo LCM meet.

Quickly, I’d like to thank the hosts for this meet – Tri Valley Masters and Walnut Creek Masters for putting on such a well run event. They managed to run hundreds of swimmers through two simultaneous courses incredibly smoothly. And thank you to all the people that timed… as I see it there needed to be about 32 timers seated at all times and that’s a lot of volunteering!

I realize I did a lot of complaining about how I swam, but I did have fun! Heidi, my live in videographer & special lady friend, decided to actually watch instead of try and take pictures of me swimming today… she did however get a few winners while we were hanging out between events. So here you go… me in Heidi’s sunglasses wearing my towel as a scarf. You’re welcome:)

Hopped up on allergy medicine and being ridiculous