Rundown of My Swim Meet at UC Irvine Yesterday

Steve and I hit the road early yesterday to head down to get settled in for a swim meet held at the UC Irvine pool. Though I swam just last weekend at the UCLA meet, I wanted one more opportunity before the forthcoming Zone Championships and US Nationals meets to improve on a few of my times in some events I will be swimming soon.
 
It wasn't an especially large turnout, so the events flew by really quickly. My last three were pretty much stacked right on top of each other, with only about 10 minutes rest between the final two, but it was a good challenge and I was still pleased with the times that rolled in; especially since I trained pretty hard this past week and wasn't coming into the meet rested at all (I was actually quite tired, but a "good tired" if that makes sense - ha ha).

UCI Pool

• So I would rather not talk about my first swim, but I'll throw it out there quickly. It was 50 Backstroke. I was stoked to swim it because last week at UCLA I lowered my time by 2 seconds and was ready to whittle it down again, but I found out quickly that I should have practiced some backstroke starts in warm up, because my start in the race resulted in a HUGE slip off the blocks. My feet slipped as soon as the send-off bell was rung and I plunged STRAIGHT DOWN and cut my toe in the process. So the rest of the race was just a battle trying to regain composure and lost time. I touched in at a 33.25, less than a second off last week's time, but UGH... it was a frustrating start.

• So I needed to turn things around fast and next up was the "sprintiest" sprint of them all, the 50 Freestyle. Though I still need to improve greatly on getting into sprint mode, I squeaked out my best USMS time by a second yesterday, swimming a 27.22 and was pleased just to get down around a 26 (which is my new goal for next time).

• With just a quick rest in between, the 100 Freestyle popped up fast on the agenda, so I geared up and tried to focus on keeping this one strong and not getting too "sprint crazed," which I tend to do and am not very good at (ha ha).  My best USMS time going into this one was a 1:02.95 and I dropped dramatically (finally) to a 58.80 and felt like it was a solid swim. It gave me a little more confidence to get in there and work on dropping it lower at Zones.

• For my last race, the 50 Butterfly, there was no event in between and since I was in one of the last heats of the 100 Free and one of the first heats of the 50 Fly, it came up QUICK! I was still a bit tuckered out from the 100, but gave it a go and finished in at 30.19, my best USMS time by a little over a second.

Each improvement really helps me to gain perspective of where I stand and what to shoot for next time around. It's been just 4 short months since my first meet back into the swimming world in January. I can't believe how much I love being back into this groove again - making goals, working out hard, getting out to meets, enjoying what this great sport has to offer. If you asked me 20 years ago, while I was swimming in college, if I would ever swim competitively again, I can assure you that I would have responded with a big "NO." But life has a funny way of bring things back around; and for now, I sure am enjoying this round and the opportunity I've been given.
 
Next up is the Zone Championships in Mission Viejo, CA, which is going down May 7-9th. And then just 10 days later, I fly out to Atlanta for the USMS Nationals meet. I'm nervous already, but really excited. Time to collect on all the hard work and time that's been put in. I need to follow my coaches' advice and taper into these upcoming meets, so I'm ready to go and swim effectively.

I shall keep you posted. =)
 
Over & Out,
j~boo