Yesterday I was lucky enough to have pro photographer Mark Savage take some shots of me during my butterfly events. Mark swims for SCAQ, but he also happens to be an excellent portrait and celebrity photographer. You can check out Mark’s blog here. I am beyond stoked at how awesome his shots came out!!!
Here are a few of the shots he sent me.
**If you’re looking for results you can get them here
Today was day 2 of the Zone meet in Thousand Oaks and my first day of racing. There were a ton of people at the pool today, all told it sounds like we were near 400 entries! And lots of first time masters meet swimmers which I think is super awesome. I hope to start seeing a lot of these new faces at more of the in season meets later this year. The meet ran slower than the timeline, but it was smoothly run and it seemed like everyone was having fun and swimming fast.
I started out with the 50m fly. I’ve been chasing a sub 30 second 50 all season and I keep just missing it. I was very determined to finally catch this time before we shift back to short course. I was in heat 10 of 12 in the outside lane. I got a good start and felt really good in the water. I finally managed to get my 29.9 which was my goal time exactly. I’m stoked with this time!
My next event was right after the 50 fly, the 4 x 100m free relay. I’m always excited to swim relays so I was definitly ready for this. I wasn’t excited about leading off the relay though since I just got out of the pool from my first event. Me and Julie switched places and I picked up the anchor spot instead. My relay was me, Julie who swims a lot of meets as well, a younger fast girl that was swimming her first masters meet and a guy in the same spot that I was in last year who just found his way back to competitive swimming. I haven’t swam the 100 free in long course before so I didn’t know what was really going to happen here. Last time I swam a 100 in SCY I went a 58 so I was expecting a 1:08 and was hoping for a 1:07. Much to my surprise I laid down a 1:05! I didn’t even believe it when everyone told me. That translates into like a 56 in SCY so this was a very big welcome surprise. I guess my work in Santa Maria with the masters group there is starting to pay off! I really think in this race I had one of the best starts I’ve ever had. I launched of the blocks and kicked like a madman. I had someone trying to overtake me in the next lane next through the whole 100 but I managed to hold him off. Our relay took 2nd place in the 100-119 age group, and seeing as I heard the team that beat us set a major record of some sort I cool with second on this one :)
My next event was the 100 freestyle… again. I really wanted to duplicate my time from earlier in the day in an official time kind of manner. I swam another 1:05 and I’m pleased with the effort. Kathleen from Rosebowl was nice enough to take some video of this race for me. I tried to upload it to YouTube and after like 2 hours of the progress bar moving incredibly slowly it ended in an error… boo. Anyways, I’ll get it posted when I get home.
I was supposed to swim the 200 IM but I wussed out. I was picked for the 100 fly leg in one of our medley relays and I just can’t do a 100 fly right after a 200 IM.
The 400m medley relay was fun. We had two super fast younger swimmers and then me and Julie again. I was honestly a little apprehensive about the swim because I was getting pretty tired from such a long day in the sun, but I felt smooth in the water. I tried to take it out easy so that I wouldn’t totally gas out on the finish. I managed to swim a 1:09 which has been my default time all season. I really want to get under that 1:09 tomorrow when I swim it as an individual event.
We wrapped the day up with an 800m freestyle relay… charming huh? It was a “take one for the team” kind of a race. We needed the points and there were an overwhelming number of CSA caps out there in this race. We were given the general guidance that it was cool to not go crazy trying to pop off a super fast time just don’t get DQ’d! I cruised to a 2:39 which isn’t great, but it was a good chance for me to feel out the distance since I’ve never done it in long course. We ended up winning first in the 120-159 age group which was pretty cool. Tomorrow I’m hoping to go substantially faster in the 200.
All told this has been an excellent meet. I’m swimming fast, my friends are swimming fast, and it seems like pretty much everybody is here. I’m stoked that things are going so well and I hope to keep it going tomorrow. I’ve been having a hard time with long course season but I seem to finally be making some breakthroughs.
I spent a couple hours hanging out at day one of the SPMA Regional/SW Zone meet. It was all the 1500m free today. The 1500m is not for me, but I did want to get down there, set my tent up, swim a few yards, and see some of my friends do some fast swimming.
I talked to my coach and figured out which relays I’m going to be on tomorrow… I’m going to be busy! I’m swimming the 50 fly, 400 free relay, 100 free, 200 IM, 400 medley relay (100 fly), and the 800 freestyle relay… I’m not completely sure I can do all that, but I’m going to try!
I took a few pictures of the action while I was on deck…
Results will be posted here
And just a quick note for those of you that will be out there tomorrow… sunscreen and liquids, it’s probably going to be hot!
Today was day 3 of nationals and day 2 for me. I got to the pool this morning around 8:30 and it was already hot out. It only got hotter from there so I decided to wrap myself in a black rubber suit, that’s an excellent idea right? I spent all day drinking water, Gatorade, Cytomax, and whatever else I could forage out of the Gold Medal Sponsor tent.
Once I got myself situated I went in search of my last place medal from yesterday’s 200 breaststroke. Thanks to the magic of Disqualification I got myself all the way up to 8th place, whoo! So there is my big medal from the meet. Next year my haul should hopefully be more substantial.
My first event today was the 50 free. When we stepped up on the blocks the dude in lane 8 took a tumble into the pool. I think the start from the other side of the course caught him off guard and he lost his balance. Once he got back up on the blocks they had us stand down and wait for the other course to start another heat. After 5 minutes of getting on and off the blocks we finally got started. I think I had a pretty good race. I took one breath out and 2 on the way back. I came in at a 25.39 which is a best time (dropped from 25.49). I wore my new B70 and it felt pretty good in this event. Heidi got some video from the race…
Up next was a couple hours of hanging out while waiting for my 100 fly. I got to see all kinds of people and watch a bunch of friends race. I baked in the sun, but I had a lot of fun watching 1600 people swim their brains out today. I also got to meet Rowdy Gaines and talk to him briefly. He’s sponsored by Blueseventy now and was set up back in their booth signing autographs and taking pictures. He was super nice and took the time to talk with everybody, not to mention extremely fast in the pool today! 50 free in a 21.3 today, smoking!
Eventually my magic moment arrived… the 100 fly. I have mixed feelings about this race. My time was decent, I swam a 59.30, but I wasn’t totally happy with my swim. I decided to wear the B70 for this race and I don’t think it was the right call. It felt like I had a gallon of water sloshing around in my suit dragging me down. I don’t know if it was just air in the suit and it felt like water, but whatever it was it felt like it was slowing me down. I think the suit may not be particularly compatible with me butterflying. It feels fine in freestyle, fly I’m not a fan so far. Anyways… I digress… I had a bunch of friends watching and cheering for me and that was pretty awesome. I got some video of this one too. Now that the SCY season is over I’m going to use this to start picking apart my stroke and figuring out what I can change to make me faster.
Tomorrow I’m not swimming anything but I decided to stay in Clovis until Monday when I do the 1 mile open water swim. I should be at the pool hanging out and swimming in the warm up pool for a while tomorrow.
…I almost forgot! I shaved my arms in the name of science Friday night. It felt super fast/weird in the warm up pool, but I didn’t feel a difference in my races since my mind was in other places. Growing all that hair back should be exciting… let the awkward itchiness begin.
**UPDATE 28APR09: Results are now posted here.
My first event was the 200 free and it was the first time I have raced it as an adult. I wasn’t really sure what to expect or how to race it. I’m told I swam it very smoothly, but I think it could have been a lot faster. I just couldn’t break all the way into a sprint at any point during the race. Saturday’s swims were still sitting heavy in my muscles. The good news is I can swim 1:01 without feeling like I am sprinting. I’m curious what my 100 time would be right now… the world may never know. But like I said I went out in 1:01 and I finished with a 2:09. Not great but about where I guessed. I entered a 2:10 and I predicted a 2:07 so I kind of split the difference. If I swim it again on purpose, I think I could drop upwards of 5-6 seconds in a fresher state.
Up next was the 50 breast which is kind of a “palate cleanser” for me. It’s an event I like to swim but I don’t really care about the outcome of. We had a bit of a delay on the start because one of the blocks was wobbly. Apparently they’re held steady with wood blocks and lane 8’s block had gone rogue right before my heat. After waiting an awkwardly long time for my heat to get going they finally called us back onto the blocks. I got a solid start and an excellent pull down. The sun was pretty much directly above us so I could watch my streamline via shadow on the bottom of the pool which was kind of cool. I popped up around mid-pool somewhere, pulled like crazy to get to the wall, and then did another pull down as big as I could. Most of the heat finished right on top of each other. I’m not sure where I finished in the heat, but I was within about 2 tenths of a second of my best time. I got some video courtesy of Kathleen below. I’m the guy that takes forever to surface in the black suit.
My last event of the day was the 50 free. Another re-match with Tony from the SCAQ Blog! We’ve gone back and forth this season. Today, he had my number. I was happy however to be back in the 25’s. I’ve had a few questionable 50 freestyles recently so it was nice to get in a decent one. Ahelee said that she has some video for us, so you may see that hit the blog sometime soon.
Besides racing today I did a whole bunch of talking! I got to see a bunch of my favorite swimmer friends and talk shop. I was parked with the Rosebowl crew, but I got to spend some time with Tony and Ahelee, and I got to meet a few new people. One guy that I had interacted with on the USMS Forums introduced himself to me, it was nice to put a face to the name. I also got a chance to talk to one of the guys from the Santa Maria masters group that I’ve been trying to find the time to drop in on.
The meet itself was well run and fairly mellow for a championship meet. You could tell a mix of Sunday meet fatigue and the fact that Nationals is only 2 weeks away had an impact on the overall number of people at the pool today. I didn’t have any super fantastic swims, but my plan was to be a little burnt out right now. Having the chance to catch up with people in person as opposed to via e-mail or Facebook made it worth the trip down. Now I need to start focusing on my races at Nationals… I’m excited for it!
Today was day 1 of the PMS Championships for me and day 2 for distance type people. We got to the pool around 8:00 and the place was packed. There were people everywhere around the pool and then there were a lot of people that set up shop outside the fences in the park area that surrounds the aquatic center. Heidi and I found a corner inside the fence that looked like it would have shade most of the day.
The competition pool itself was really nice and there were 2 other pools in the complex. One was set up for warm up/warm down and the other was a kiddie pool with a slide that was closed off to us old people (boo). The meet was very well run. With as many swimmers as there were there you would expect trouble, but the hosts did an excellent job of keeping it moving. They’ve even posted results already which you can see here! **UPDATE: you can get full 3 day results here.
My first race of the day the 100 fly. Unfortunately I showed up to the meet waaay too early and had to wait until around noon to actually swim. I knew this was going to happen, but I have an unstoppable need to be on time. The meet started at 8:30 and I was there at 8. Anyways, after a nap and my second warm up I got myself behind the blocks. In classic masters fashion the guy in the lane next to me shook my hand and wished me good luck. I really enjoy the friendliness of total strangers at swim meets… Anyways… I honestly didn’t feel like I was having that good of a swim. I really focused on doing as much kicking off the walls as I could because it just felt like my arms weren’t all there today. I had Heidi take some video of this race for me and you can see that she loses me every once and a while because I surface so much later than the rest of the guys in my heat.
Amazingly I managed to beat my time from Santa Clarita! I swam a 59.16 which brings my best time down from a 59.94. This swim checks off butterfly goal number 1 – break a minute again. Now I need to move on to butterfly goal number 2 – beat my 100 free time (58).
Now that I had my first event out of the way the next two came pretty quickly. My 100 IM was good, but not great. Each leg seemed pretty decent, but I do think I took too many breaths on the freestyle. I came extremely close to my best time, but I’ve been stuck at 1:05 for a while now. This is the 3rd race in a row that I’ve swam a 1:05 something. Eventually I want to get this event down around a minute. I also got some video of this race, feel free to pick it apart :)
Last up was the 50 fly which was great except for an epic streamline failure on the start. I hit the water and my hands came apart a few inches and fluttered all over the place totally sapping my momentum off the blocks. I still managed to pull out a 27.05 which is pretty good for me despite the huge mistake at the beginning of the race.
I have 3 more events scheduled for tomorrow (50 breast, 200 IM, and 50 free). The way my body is feeling right now I’m not sure if all 3 are going to happen. Plus it’s supposedly going to be like 90 degrees in Pleasanton tomorrow! We’ll see how far I make it. As usual I got some pictures, here are a few extra shots from my day:
