Saturday, April 12, 2014

Results of the Utah State Championship meet

This morning I got a ride with Jacob's swim coach, Jayme Jorgensen.  She said this was her first swim meet in a very long time.  She swam all the tough events (1650 fee, 400 IM, 200 fly, etc)  Pretty brave.

I on the other hand scratched my 1650 free, cause I really was hoping to break my high school PR (5:25) in the 500 free.  Last time I swam the 500 free at the Ski N Swim meet I got 5:32.02 and felt like I could better that.  Well apparently, even with swimming the 500 fresh, I wasn't able to cut that much time off my 500.  In face, I was a fraction of a second slower than the last time I swam it.  I got 5:32.25.  I had Julie take my splits and here they were:

50 - 28.59
100 - 32.05 (1:00.64)
150 - 32.99 (1:33.63)
200 - 32.98 (2:06.61)
250 - 33.26 (2:39.87)
300 - 34.65 (3:15.52)
350 - 34.58 (3:49.10)
400 - 35.06 (4:24.16)
450 - 34.84 (4:59.00)
500 - 33.25 (5:32.25)

Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed with this time.  I felt like I prepared for it and did my best, but apparently my best wasn't good enough. I had Julie Keyes help me with my splits and notifying me of what they were during the swim.  I remember during the 150 mark noticing that my time dropped from my 31 second target straight to 33 instead of maybe leaching into 32 second territory.  I tried to pick it up, but I still wasn't able to hold that 33 second and soon I started seeing nothing but 34s.

Russell Brusch was in the lane next to me and I was trying hard just to stay with him, but he was always, just one arm pull ahead of me.  I thought I'd try staying close to his lane and get any kind of draft off him, but I don't think I was getting much as I had to really push it to stay with him.  I hated the far wall from the blocks.  They were slippery and I had to really stick the feet on the wall to get a good push.  About 4-5 of the push offs the wall were total crap.  Even on the block side, I was too close on a couple of them and ended up with a really deep push.

I got Josh to take some video of the 500 and its no wonder I wasn't able to get the time I wanted.  My stroke looks like crap.  My left arm is totally swinging out, and my push off the walls are extremely wimpy with no dolphin kick at all.


50 fly - Swam a short 100 free to loosen up after the 500.  That didn't seem enough as my arms felt like lead during the 50 fly.  When I took my first breath at about the 15 yard mark I saw the lane counter was being used with the double orange.  I laughed a little, but tried to stay focused on a long powerful stroke.  When I got to the wall I looked forward, and I wasn't able to get a really quality two hand touch because the lane counter was still being held in the pool.  I wanted to extend my reach, grab the edge of the pool with my hands close together, and then turn, but with the lane counter still being held in, I had to reach around it.  With the far end of the pool having less than ideal surface area, my turn on the 50 fly sucked pretty bad.

I tried to make up for it on the swim back to the finish.  Ended up with a 28.70.  Over a second faster than the Ski-n-swim meet, but I had over 15 minutes rest from the 500 free to the 50 fly, whereas with the Ski-N-swim, I had less than a minute.  I had my split time as 28.5 which is what I probably would have got had I been given the opportunity to swim it without being interfered with.  FYI - lane counters are supposed to come out before the swimmer gets to the wall.  And yes, you'll get wet if you don't.

200 free - I had about 20 minutes rest before swimming the 200 free.  I was again disappointed in getting a 2:06.27.  I'm capable of getting a much better time than that!

I tried to be a good coach for the South Davis Masters swimmers: Julie Keyes, Matt Chamberlain, Mindy Hopfenbeck, and John Eyring.  They all swam exceptionally well.  I was super impressed with Matt's 100 free time: 51.03

Check out Julie's 100 free.  She was so stoked to get her goal time.  An improvement I think she said by 7 seconds on her 100 free.  Awesome work Julie!
As well as Josh's 100 free.  Look how smooth his stroke looks!  And I love the finish, how he comes from a half body length on that last 25 for the win.  Literally, a smokin swim!





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