Even though Triathlon is now my main sport, this will definitely not be my last masters swim meet. Now that I’ve turned my triathlon focus to longer events (Half-Iron and Iron distances), I can’t do as many races per season like I used to do (for both physical and financial reasons.) And with my races so spread out, and with my training time at an all-time high, it’s hard to keep the motivation week after week, mile after mile, without that frequent reminder of just how much I love to compete.
But, I think that the addition of swim meets into my year-long racing schedule will be a great way for me to stay more involved with the sport I love while also keeping me motivated about my athletic progress. Other triathletes like to enter pure running races both during triathlon season and in the off-season just to stay focused and to aid in training. In past years, I’ve done the same. But, with the progress I see in my swimming and my re-established excitement with the sport, I plan on adding a few swim meets into the mix this coming year as well.
MEET RECAP:
I swam SEVEN events over the past 2 days. My main reason for doing this swim meet was to get the opportunity to swim the mile (1500m Freestyle). Even though I wound up with a time that currently ranks me 2nd in my Age Group in the country, my pacing was very poor and I didn’t find my ‘groove’ until at least 500m into the race. This is quite evident by my splits which steadily decreased as the race went on.
What I learned from the mile (and from pretty much every other race) was this… I need to rely more on my training. I am in GREAT shape and can’t be afraid to go out hard because, with the amount of training I’m doing for my Ironman, my body WILL rise to the occasion. I never hit that “wall” in any of my races this past weekend. So what does that mean? It means that I could’ve gone harder. In a swim meet, I shouldn’t be able to touch the wall at the end of a mile race and feel like I could keep going. The work has been done, my training is in the bank, but I need to race like I know it’s there to support me.
For example, I swam the 100 Freestyle just for fun on Sunday. I had no expectations for this race and was never a very strong sprint freestyler. The way you swim a race like this is basically to dive in and move your arms as fast as possible. And, that’s what I did. Now normally, as I’ve experienced many times in college, I’d hit the dreaded ‘wall’ about 15meters out from the finish and my arms would cramp so badly I could barely move them. But for the first time, I never hit that ‘wall.’ I finished strong and with one of my best ever 100 Freestyle times. I went out hard and my training was there to back it up. I only wish I had done this in all of my races.
No comments:
Post a Comment