You can't fake a 200fly

Yesterday I swam in a swim meet. Now, I don't go into swim meets anymore expecting PR's, I just know its not reasonable with my age and my training. But I do go expecting to work hard, hope for a good race with someone, and to have a little fun. If Nadine (national champ and record holder and world champ and record holder, and best in any stroke, any distance, any event) is swimming my events, I expect a lesson in how to swim the event. She is heads and shoulders better than me. And there are a few other woman in the area whose specialties are much faster than I am in those events. But in my events, I expect to be contesting for the overall win, and I like to race.

So, first up was the 200IM. Hands down, my favorite event. Last year at this meet, my goggles taught me a lesson, and at the 200 I threw them off. And I NEVER get to practice diving in at the pools, O this Wednesday I was able to do a few dives in the diving well at HPER. I took 3 pair of goggles and 2 caps, was going to try combinations of goggles, and one and 2 caps (one on top, one under). But the first one, I tightened the goggles to the point where I thought my eyeballs might pop out of their sockets, and they stayed on! YAY! So, in wamrup I hit the blocks, and did a few 25's and the goggles held tight. One less thing to worry about in the races. SO, the 200IM had no cpmpetition, the nearest girl was 25 seconds behind, so I tried to push myself. I hit breaststroke, which is by far my worst stroke, and well, let's just say that running, cycling, lifting for running and cycling, and swim training for tris does nothing for the leg strength on the breaststroke kick. ANd breaststroke is all about a strong kick. SO I floated through that 50 and tried to sprint home with whatever was left in my spastic arms and legs. time 2:26.

Out of the competition pool, into the warm down pool and I swam easy through the 50fly and 100 breast, and then I was up again in the 200back. Backstroke was my event as an age group swimmer, so I don't like to dog this event, even if I was a little tired, and there was again no competition. The lactic acid was burning midway, and in my mind I had to get myself back to this race because I immediately started thinking if you feel tired at this point in the 200back, how do you think you will feel in the 200fly! So, I soldiered on and had a decent time, another overall win, and now I had a good hour break before the dreaded 200 fly. time 2:23.

I cooled down/warmed up for a good 20 minutes until my legs felt decent. And put on layers of clothes and socks and shoes to stay warm until the 200fly. Now, you can't fake a 200fly. And honestly, swimming 3 hours a week is not really anyway to prepare for a 200fly. 100fly, no problem, but 200fly is painful, and when you hear people say the piano dropped, when its on a 200fly, you literally cannot get your arms out of the water. I'm not really sure what possessed me to enter this since I'm not really ready for it, but I guess I felt like I needed to push myself in something that made me really uncomfortable and anxious. One other woman was swimming the 200fly, and she actually swims at IU too, but I don't train with her. She swims on the masters team, I think she swims 7 days a week, 365 days a year. She is a good flyer and distance freestyler. She walks out to the blocks and she is wearing one of the high tech lazers! WTF!! I was cracking up (for one I thought they were not legal anymore) and secondly, this is just a rinky dink little masters meet. ANyways, my goal was to try to go out easy and just try to stay even with her. If I went out liek my normal sprinter self, I'd pay big time. Every turn we looked at each other, and at the 100 I thought ok, this is not too terrible, you're doing ok, pace is ok, stroke is holding up ok. But at the 125 turn I only kicked 4 kicks and started to feel some weakness in the arms. Try not to think about it, auto pilot. At the 150 turn we were still even, and mid way down that lap the piano was starting to fall, and all I thought was 'oh shit, this is really going to hurt'. Off the wall, I tried to kick but4 kicks again was all I had and every stroke got shorter and shorter and she just pulled away. I honestly thought I was either going to be dq'ed because I'd have to swim freestyle, or I'd just sink to the bottom because I was too embarassed to cheat to save my life. My normal stroke count is 9-10 on fly, that last 25 I took 19! yes 19! oh my, it was excruciating! Somehow I made it, the gal next to me put 5 seconds on me in one 25! I flopped out of the pool, flopped over into the diving well and flopped some more until I could swim again and pondered what the last even was going to feel like. time 2:28 (ouch)

The 100IM was next, I LOVE this event, but warming down I thought maybe I'd just bag it. But I like it, and its just a 100, and its just so darn fun. Suck it up princess and just do it. I was next to a couple of 20 year olds and I didn't know them but thought they might be good spinters. For some reason I couldn't see a thing the whole race, and I just put my head down and turned the arms over and kicked as hard as I could. It was a decent swim, and I hit the wall first. Not bad.

So, no PR's this meet, unless I want to start tracking PR's per age! I like that idea. Its a good idea. That way you get a PR every year.

I don't know if there will be any more swim meets this year, schedules just aren't really falling into place. But who knows. I still would like to swim my 100's. Heck maybe I should swim a distance free event too. You know, a 200free or something ;-)