State Meet Day 2

They postponed the start of the meet by an hour to allow people more time to get to the pool. My coach drove down from Duluth and said the road were ok. The roads around the hotel had all been plowed, so it was a much easier drive back to the pool this morning, once I had dug my car out of the parking lot.

I was pretty tired this morning, so I wasn't sure how well I would do in the meet. I had 4 events today. I started with the 200 free. My goal was to break 3:00 and I came up just short at 3:02, but that was a PR! My arms felt like lead during that swim.

I had a couple of short swims with a 50 back and a 50 free and I had a PR in the 50 free which surprised me. 

Then I had the 1650. I have never swam this far non-stop. Ever. I have never done that many flip turns. Ever. I was nervous for sure. I had put down a time of 27:00, but as the day got closer I think I may have miscalculated. It probably should have been closer to 28 or 29 minutes.

I did make it through the 1650. I did all flip turns except for one because honestly I just forgot and ended up too close to the wall. My result was a 28:36. So I shouldn't be disappointed, but I was.

So overall this weekend, I was disappointed in my longer distances, especially the 500. I really thought I was going to do well in that, but just not my day. I wasn't that far off of my PR in any of my events, and did set 3 new PR's. 

I also need to remember, that back in October 2016, I couldn't swim more than 25 yards without stopping, and just 8 months ago I didn't know if I could flip turn for an entire 500. Now today I just swam a mile for the first time! So looking at it that way, I have come a long way. So I think I just need to keep it all in perspective.

Now I gotta change gears mentally and get ready for the triathlon season. I am very excited for that!

Went to a Swim Meet, Leave with an Aero Helmet

This weekend is the short course yards Masters State Swim Meet. So my friend Amy and I headed down to Minneapolis on Friday night because they were predicting a snowstorm in the twin cities this weekend. So we drove down and had dinner at Olive Garden and then crashed at our hotels. The drive was fine but the snow was starting to come down pretty good when I went to bed.

This morning the snow had started, there was a few inches on the car, and we headed over to the University of Minnesota. Parked in the ramp and headed in. Nice and warm inside, despite the weather being nasty outside.

I didn't do as well as I had hoped in my events. I was really hoping for a PR in the 500 today but it was not to be. I did get a PR in the 100 free which I wasn't expecting at all. I also swam a couple of relays and had a good time. 

As is customary during the state meet, after the first day a bunch of met for drinks and dinner at a nearby restaurant. We walked through the 2 feet of snow that had fallen while we were swimming over to Applebees. There one of my team mates sold me an aero helmet that he had. So I tried it on and we decided it wouldn't work very well for swimming.

The drive back to the hotel tonight was scary. I saw at least 20 cars in the ditch in the 5 mile drive from the pool to my hotel. The roads were terrible, and at best there was just 1 partial lane plowed anywhere. Hopefully things are better in the morning. Lots of people didn't come today because of the weather.

Cold Running

Plus 12 degrees air temp, -12 with the windchill. This sucks.

Really good run. I have a good loop that is right around 4 miles. It was too cold to walk too far to start, so I walked about 0.25 miles and then started my run/walk. 2:15/1:15 again this time. I like this pace.

Mile 2 and 3 were nearly identical times at just over a 10:00 mile. So I tried to push the pace a bit on the last mile to get it under 10 minutes. I succeeded and tied my 1 mile PR at 9:45. I also set a 5k PR at 31:00!

That run felt good despite it being really cold and windy. No issues with pain today either. I am going to have to find a longer route to get to 45 minutes now.

Money

I just added up all the money I have spent on this sport for equipment and clothes and such and I haven't even done my first race yet!

Why did I do that?

First Swim with the Wetsuit

Well I got the wetsuit on. I watched a few Youtube videos on the proper way to put on a wetsuit and with some help from the wife, I managed to get it on. Enough compression can make anyone look and feel like an athlete!

Since I got the thing on, I might as well go test it in the water. So I threw a sweatshirt on and headed down to the YMCA with my daughter for her swim team practice. I knew the coach would let me have a lane, so as soon as lessons were done I hopped into lane 5. I had no real plans for this swim session at all, just wanted to get some yards in and make sure the suit fit, and that I didn't have any chafing spots etc.

I took a bit of time to get some water in my suit (I read that somewhere), and then just started a couple of easy laps. It definitely felt constricted at first with my breathing. I didn't panic, it just felt like I couldn't get a full breath of air. I swam 150 yards and things started to feel a little better. I stopped and chatted with the lifeguard for a bit and then started swimming again.

I was just swimming along, nothing fast, just easy and steady. No flip turns, just easy open turns at the wall. After about 300 yards I decided to just go to 500 yards and then stop. When I got to 500 yards I stopped my watch and I had just swam a 500 PR with no starting block, all open turns and not even really trying very hard!

Holy crap! This thing is fast!

So the extra buoyancy, and the smooth surface really makes a difference. One thing I noticed during the swim was that my feet were very high in the water. In fact they felt too high. Like my feet were getting cold because they were out of the water more than in. A byproduct of the extra buoyancy but an interesting sensation.

Wetsuit?

Ummm, I hope the middle is pretty stretchy.

Netflix and Amazon Prime

So I have been watching movies via Netflix or Amazon Prime while I am on the trainer. Searching while on the trainer is not the best way, so I spent some time over the weekend picking out some movies and putting them into my que in both programs.

Today I get on the trainer for my ride and because it is now April 1st, NONE of the movies I chose are still available. Grrrrrr!