Today was a busy day. I have three scheduled swim events PLUS the Pink Flamingo Performance. I went into the day really excited actually for all my races. The 200 fly I have been looking forward to, the 400 free because my free has been on at this meet, and the medley relay because its something different (I'll be doing the 50 fly) and its short and fun. Then of course there's the "Pink Flamingo" performance. This year we have 10 of us in the Grunion performance, and it looks good. I have explained earlier what this is all about, so review my past blogs for reference.
200 Fly - Warm up was not a good sign. For the first time in awhile, my fly didn't feel well. I am not sure if it was because of my great swims last night, or possibly this being the 4th day of the meet and me being tired, or the jet lag of Europe just taking its toll on me. I got in for a second warm up before my race in hopes of getting some kinks out. I was just pooped. Wiped out. Tired. Luckily though, the competition wasn't incredibly deep so I still had a good chance of winning even if I was off a little bit.
My goal was to take the first 50, even the first 100 as easy and smooth as possible. The ideal splits would be :32, :36, :36, :36. My 50 split was 31.57. It felt easy, but I think I took it out too fast. As I was coming back down for the 100, I started to feel tired. "What was going on here?", I thought. Uh oh. I hit the 100 mark at 1:07.33. That means :35.76. Too fast I would realize later on. Especially since my body was feeling the previous swims. The next 50 was a struggle and I knew the final 50 wasn't going to be pretty. Luckily, by the 100 mark I was 5 seconds ahead of someone already and 7 seconds ahead of the next person (Drew). By the 150, I had hit the wall at 1:44.48. That's a :37.15. Yup. Not looking good. My last 200 fly I did one month earlier had more steam at the end. This time around, I had zilch. The swimmer 5 seconds behind me was now 15 seconds behindme at the 150, and he was in 2nd. At least I had the gold in the bag, unless something crazy was going to happen to me. I must say that it sure felt like it. I pushed off for that final 50 and my arms were like lead. How was I going to get back to that wall? I really need to learn how to swim more with my hips like everyone says. Bla bla bla. As I survived the second to last 25, I pushed off and saw no one is sight. Ok, the win is mine. But where is that great final 25? It sure as hell wasn't in my race. I became THE MOTH. My arms became heavier and heavier with each stroke I took to the wall. I truthfully thought it would have been faster to kick with no strokes. If only I could. Some how, SOME HOW, I made it to the wall. 2:26.21. My final 50 was a pathetic 41.73. The time, was decent. The main goal was under 2:30, then 2:25, and if I was on, as close to 2:20 as possible. I won the event in my age group by over 18 seconds (almost the entire pool length), so that was rewarding enough to forget that final 50 of mine. Next year I need to get a better swim in me.
G0al for 2008 - 2:19.99
My next event was the 400 free. I had to regroup my thoughts. That 200 fly took a lot out of me, so I new the reality of the situation was that I wasn't going to go as fantastic time as my other races. But nevertheless I was ready for some good racing and to possibly go under 4:30. Going into the meet I was aiming for around 4:27. In 2005 I went 4:34.81. In 2006 I went 4:33.70. So a 4:27 would be a big drop, but I was hopeful. I was thinking I would go 1:04. 1:08, 1:08, 1:05 and that would get me 4:27.
The race started out just as planned. 1:04.38. Although at the 100 mark, I felt the 200 fly, but kept on strong. Next 100, 1:08.92. Barely on pace. The third 100 hurt. Had I known I was to split a 1:10.29, I would have been upset. I must have let up too much. I need to work on that third 100. I did my best to hold on to my heat, as I had a race on my hands from some guy over in lane 5, 6 or 7. I knew he thought he was going to catch me, but I always have something left in the tank for that last 100. I came home not as fast as I would have liked, but still a 1:07.23. Actually as I type that, its not bad, but not the 1:05 I had hoped for. This event has a lot of improvement I can learn from. I finished in 4:30.82. I can't complain though, as its an almost 3 second drop, right after the 200 fly, on the final day of the competition. I definitely think 4:27 and possibly 4:25 can be in the near future.
Goal for 2008 - 4:26.99
4 X 50 medley relay. Competition looked strong. We had one team in our age group seeded ahead of us, and two right behind us, so there was no breathing room. We were also in lane 6 of the final heat, which meant we were seeded 4th overall. This was the final event of the meet. Nothing to be left behind. Plus this was my shortest event of the meet. Only a 50. YIPPEE!! Just down and back. How could you not love it? My relay team was Kurt Murdoch - backstroke, Ken Bixler - breaststroke, Brian Kremers (myself) - butterfly, and Drew Giacobe - freestyle. I entered us in a time of 1:58 which was a good time. I told Kurt I wanted him faster than his individual time of :29.82 and as close to :29.5 as he can go. I told Bixler to go under :33.0. I wanted to be as close to :28 as I could and I knew Drew would go as hard as he could depending on if he had a race on his hands.
Kurt led off with a smoking :29.65, typing his best Grunion time EVER, which was swum back in 2003 in SF. He put us in 2nd place, just a speck behind first. Ken then dove in and I never saw his stroke have such a fast turnover. As I got up on the blocks for my leg, my heart began to race. Holy shit!! We are in the lead now!! Not only ahead of our age group competitors, but EVERYONE. The adrenaline was fantastic. Scary but great. Ken came in and split :32.90. He was on FIRE. Now it was up to me. I dove in, in the lead, determined to do my best to hold on. This distance swimmer doing a 50 sprint of fly. NICE!. My arms never spun so fast in all my years as I powered through the water. I was going to fast, I didn't have time to breath much. Normally I am such a breather, but this time around I didn't need it. I only took one breath the first 25. BAM! I think the wall, turned and bolted off the wall. "Faster, faster", I thought. I wondered if this crazy fast stroke of mine was really productive or was I really not swimming that fast. Two years ago I had split a :28.78, but in a 100 fly in a relay split last December I went out in a :29.34, so I knew I was going to be a low :28. I breathed one or two more times and then powered myself into the wall to give Drew the "torch" to bring it home. I turned around and saw I had maintained our lead and actually extended it. My split you ask? :27.7!!! Ya that's what I am talking about. I got out and cheered Drew home as he brought it home in a fast :26.36. Not his fastest, but definitely a satisfying time for him based on his training. We won the heat, won the age group gold medal and won the OVERALL event, with the fastest time. The four of us were elated. We all swam fantastic, feeding off each other's swims one by one. This is what is great about swimming. Relays. The one chance you get to swim like a team. To enjoy a race with 3 other members of your team that train just as hard for the same goal. I wouldn't say its far better than an individual win, but instead on a completely different level. By far, this was my favorite race of the meet, and the most fun! To top it off, the entire Grunion squad was going crazy during the entire race, cheering us on. To turn to them and see them going crazy for us just topped it off. What a great way to end the meet. All of us were on cloud 9. Grunions came up to us afterwards congratulating one by one, saying how fun and great of a race that was for them to watch. All I could was, "You should have been in my shoes...it was AWESOME!".
Goal for relay split 2008 - :27.30
200 Fly - Warm up was not a good sign. For the first time in awhile, my fly didn't feel well. I am not sure if it was because of my great swims last night, or possibly this being the 4th day of the meet and me being tired, or the jet lag of Europe just taking its toll on me. I got in for a second warm up before my race in hopes of getting some kinks out. I was just pooped. Wiped out. Tired. Luckily though, the competition wasn't incredibly deep so I still had a good chance of winning even if I was off a little bit.
My goal was to take the first 50, even the first 100 as easy and smooth as possible. The ideal splits would be :32, :36, :36, :36. My 50 split was 31.57. It felt easy, but I think I took it out too fast. As I was coming back down for the 100, I started to feel tired. "What was going on here?", I thought. Uh oh. I hit the 100 mark at 1:07.33. That means :35.76. Too fast I would realize later on. Especially since my body was feeling the previous swims. The next 50 was a struggle and I knew the final 50 wasn't going to be pretty. Luckily, by the 100 mark I was 5 seconds ahead of someone already and 7 seconds ahead of the next person (Drew). By the 150, I had hit the wall at 1:44.48. That's a :37.15. Yup. Not looking good. My last 200 fly I did one month earlier had more steam at the end. This time around, I had zilch. The swimmer 5 seconds behind me was now 15 seconds behindme at the 150, and he was in 2nd. At least I had the gold in the bag, unless something crazy was going to happen to me. I must say that it sure felt like it. I pushed off for that final 50 and my arms were like lead. How was I going to get back to that wall? I really need to learn how to swim more with my hips like everyone says. Bla bla bla. As I survived the second to last 25, I pushed off and saw no one is sight. Ok, the win is mine. But where is that great final 25? It sure as hell wasn't in my race. I became THE MOTH. My arms became heavier and heavier with each stroke I took to the wall. I truthfully thought it would have been faster to kick with no strokes. If only I could. Some how, SOME HOW, I made it to the wall. 2:26.21. My final 50 was a pathetic 41.73. The time, was decent. The main goal was under 2:30, then 2:25, and if I was on, as close to 2:20 as possible. I won the event in my age group by over 18 seconds (almost the entire pool length), so that was rewarding enough to forget that final 50 of mine. Next year I need to get a better swim in me.
G0al for 2008 - 2:19.99
My next event was the 400 free. I had to regroup my thoughts. That 200 fly took a lot out of me, so I new the reality of the situation was that I wasn't going to go as fantastic time as my other races. But nevertheless I was ready for some good racing and to possibly go under 4:30. Going into the meet I was aiming for around 4:27. In 2005 I went 4:34.81. In 2006 I went 4:33.70. So a 4:27 would be a big drop, but I was hopeful. I was thinking I would go 1:04. 1:08, 1:08, 1:05 and that would get me 4:27.
The race started out just as planned. 1:04.38. Although at the 100 mark, I felt the 200 fly, but kept on strong. Next 100, 1:08.92. Barely on pace. The third 100 hurt. Had I known I was to split a 1:10.29, I would have been upset. I must have let up too much. I need to work on that third 100. I did my best to hold on to my heat, as I had a race on my hands from some guy over in lane 5, 6 or 7. I knew he thought he was going to catch me, but I always have something left in the tank for that last 100. I came home not as fast as I would have liked, but still a 1:07.23. Actually as I type that, its not bad, but not the 1:05 I had hoped for. This event has a lot of improvement I can learn from. I finished in 4:30.82. I can't complain though, as its an almost 3 second drop, right after the 200 fly, on the final day of the competition. I definitely think 4:27 and possibly 4:25 can be in the near future.
Goal for 2008 - 4:26.99
4 X 50 medley relay. Competition looked strong. We had one team in our age group seeded ahead of us, and two right behind us, so there was no breathing room. We were also in lane 6 of the final heat, which meant we were seeded 4th overall. This was the final event of the meet. Nothing to be left behind. Plus this was my shortest event of the meet. Only a 50. YIPPEE!! Just down and back. How could you not love it? My relay team was Kurt Murdoch - backstroke, Ken Bixler - breaststroke, Brian Kremers (myself) - butterfly, and Drew Giacobe - freestyle. I entered us in a time of 1:58 which was a good time. I told Kurt I wanted him faster than his individual time of :29.82 and as close to :29.5 as he can go. I told Bixler to go under :33.0. I wanted to be as close to :28 as I could and I knew Drew would go as hard as he could depending on if he had a race on his hands.
Kurt led off with a smoking :29.65, typing his best Grunion time EVER, which was swum back in 2003 in SF. He put us in 2nd place, just a speck behind first. Ken then dove in and I never saw his stroke have such a fast turnover. As I got up on the blocks for my leg, my heart began to race. Holy shit!! We are in the lead now!! Not only ahead of our age group competitors, but EVERYONE. The adrenaline was fantastic. Scary but great. Ken came in and split :32.90. He was on FIRE. Now it was up to me. I dove in, in the lead, determined to do my best to hold on. This distance swimmer doing a 50 sprint of fly. NICE!. My arms never spun so fast in all my years as I powered through the water. I was going to fast, I didn't have time to breath much. Normally I am such a breather, but this time around I didn't need it. I only took one breath the first 25. BAM! I think the wall, turned and bolted off the wall. "Faster, faster", I thought. I wondered if this crazy fast stroke of mine was really productive or was I really not swimming that fast. Two years ago I had split a :28.78, but in a 100 fly in a relay split last December I went out in a :29.34, so I knew I was going to be a low :28. I breathed one or two more times and then powered myself into the wall to give Drew the "torch" to bring it home. I turned around and saw I had maintained our lead and actually extended it. My split you ask? :27.7!!! Ya that's what I am talking about. I got out and cheered Drew home as he brought it home in a fast :26.36. Not his fastest, but definitely a satisfying time for him based on his training. We won the heat, won the age group gold medal and won the OVERALL event, with the fastest time. The four of us were elated. We all swam fantastic, feeding off each other's swims one by one. This is what is great about swimming. Relays. The one chance you get to swim like a team. To enjoy a race with 3 other members of your team that train just as hard for the same goal. I wouldn't say its far better than an individual win, but instead on a completely different level. By far, this was my favorite race of the meet, and the most fun! To top it off, the entire Grunion squad was going crazy during the entire race, cheering us on. To turn to them and see them going crazy for us just topped it off. What a great way to end the meet. All of us were on cloud 9. Grunions came up to us afterwards congratulating one by one, saying how fun and great of a race that was for them to watch. All I could was, "You should have been in my shoes...it was AWESOME!".
Goal for relay split 2008 - :27.30
Final medal tally - 4 golds, 4 silvers, ALL PERSONAL MASTERS SWIMMING BEST TIMES!
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