Swim Meets

Tuesday morning:  Through the darkness, the water on the lake was flat.  It looked like a double, most likely from the Senior Men's team, took advantage of the water and went for a row.

It felt weird this morning swimming after a whole week away from the pool.  It was a wonder I still floated!  The main set was:

1. 3x50yds flutter kick with board (no fins!) on 1:10min intervals
2. 3x50yds fly and back
3. 3x50yds flutter kick
4. 3x50yds back and breast
5. 3x50yds flutter kick
6. 3x50yds breast and free
7. 3x50yds flutter kick
8. 3x50yds free and fly
9. 3x50yds flutter kick
10. 1x50yds non-free

It is always interesting when our swim sets have kicking as well as different strokes.  In my lane, I was a #1 for the flutter kick, but for everything else, I quickly reordered myself to be a #4 or last.  My butterfly, without fins, looks like I am gasping for air.  My backstroke is just sad.  My breaststroke is never fast because I do not "glide."  And my freestyle is decent.  You can read in more detail the pitiful state of my non-freestyle strokes.

With so much kicking today, I feel like a 400yd kick test, one of Marcia's three swim tests, is coming up later this week.  Thank goodness I will be in San Diego!  I was pretty consistent for all the 50yds kick, about 50-52 seconds, but on the last 3x50yds set, my time went up to 53-55 seconds.  And I heard about it from Marcia, "ANN!  What are you doing?  That's slower than what you did before!"  Damn, I could not avoid her watchful eyes.

This past Sunday, there was a local masters swim meet at the UC Berkeley Speiker Pool.  Despite the unrelenting pressure from Marcia to compete at the meet, I successfully resisted.  I remembered what Chris told us one day on the water that other activities, such as swimming, running, pilates, were basically for shits and giggles while we are training for San Diego.  Only rowing and erging count.  In addition, swim meets give me a queasy feeling--standing on those starting blocks ready to dive, hoping I will not do a belly flop and that my goggles and swim cap will stay on.  Swim meets are like rowing regattas.  Both are usually all-day ordeals with athletes arriving to the race early for a swim warm-up or for rigging the boats.  In both, you can compete in multiple events, such as swimming in the 100yds free and 200yds fly or rowing in the masters eight and club double.  During swim meets though, you are walking around freezing in your wet swimsuit between events.  On the other hand, during regattas, you can stay warm by huddling inside cars or under tents, unless it rains, which can happen during the fall head race season.

The weekend after San Diego, there is another swim meet, this time in Pleasanton.  I am sorely tempted to sign up.