My resolutions:
1. Last month, I discovered "Go the Distance" and inputted all my yardage from the past year. With a week and a half left in the year, I have put in 660 miles. Looking at the top of the GTD results, I see that a "Don Tatzin" has the most mileage of anybody this year with 1685. That is almost 3 million yards. For 2012, I resolve to top 3 million yards and the GTD list.
2. Get under :50 in the 100 yard freestyle. PB stands at 53.13 from last July. My current season goal for the event is even harder, but that's between me and my coach.
3. Get under :23 in the 50 yard freestyle. PB stands at 24.58 from last July. Current season goal is even harder, " "... The NY resolution makes for a nice little stepping stone.
4. Attain a QT for a Grand Prix, even if it's not for this current GP season.
5. Become the best I possibly can within the confines of Jan 01 12 to Jan 01 13.
I have no idea how ridiculous some of these might be, but with Darth Real Life all sorted out and logistics of classes and job all worked out, I still have a lot of extra time that can be spent at pools, for which I am very thankful. If you doubt me, I forgive you in advance (but I won't forget your words).
What are your swimming New Year's resolutions? And if you don't believe in NY resolutions, then what do you think you can do to improve your swimming?
Former Member
Thanks! I think. :D
I just got back from the meet. It was at the College of San Mateo, by the way. With this meet, I've competed at that pool four times now. The weather was thankfully glorious. Just beautiful, couldn't have asked for better conditions. Last year at the same meet, it was wet, windy, and generally miserable.
I have 3 new in-season best times:
100 fly: 1:08.86. That's two seconds shaved off the time I had before I tapered in July. I absolutely died on the last 40 yards, I probably did not warm-up enough, but the pool was super-crowded, so a quality warm-up is impossible, anyway. My coach says I still spend too much time underwater- she says, "4 or 5 dolphin kicks and that's it, surface." I'm still relieved, though, because after July, my butterfly has just been off... my time from November was 1:13, which wasn't anything by any arrangement of the goalposts. It was like all the mojo went from my butterfly to my breaststroke.
100 back: 1:11.53. This was probably my straightest backstroke race ever because, lo and behold, I was in lane 2 and the long-course flags were right above me. That was fun. New in-season best!
100 free: 57.32. My second fastest freestyle race ever, by a second. :bliss:
All in all, the meet was the perfect combination of motivating encouragement yet still getting a little bit of cake to eat. As I learned in the past six months, it's great, pure joy, to have a meet like I had in July, but there's a danger of satisfaction inherent in such meets that makes you sit on your ass when instead you should be swimming towards your new goals, y'know? It was like my coach said to me after a subpar meet in October... "you've been resting on your laurels, all fat and happy..." :angel:
As for goal #10, it was great meeting you Swimosaur! :D ... Will you be at Georgia Tech, on April 7?
Very nice meeting you, too!! I envy all your PBs! As for GaTech, I just learned about that meet over the weekend & so will have to think about it.
Wait a minute... 8 events a day?! Was this over a morning or an afternoon or both? You are serious business! Congratulations!
No, no, no; chalk it up to lack of sleep! :afraid:I meant 4 events each day for a total of 8 individual events. I edited my post. :blush:
Swimosaur, I like your goals and they are consistent with mine. So, do you mind if I add to your four for my own goals? I turn 50, in January, so I get to add #4 to my list. :D
5. In addition to those above, my GTD goal is 400 miles. (I swam 262 last year and I'm at 367 as of today; 92 miles over my original goal of 275 for the year.) But, I agree with Swimosaur: It has to be fun! It has been a blast, this year, so as long as I continue to feel the same way about swimming, I'm goin' for it!
6. Make NQT's (SCY) in the 100 breaststroke. (I already achieved it in the 50 and have given up on the idea of trying to make it in the 200. I'm too far off to make it attainable and training the 200 breaststroke is not fun for me.)
7. Making NQT's in the 50 free is probably too lofty of a goal, but I'm setting it, anyway. I will be happy if I just get faster and get a PB. (My PB is :33.29 and I would have to hit :31.03; too much of a drop, considering my Meniere's doesn't allow for me to do flip turns).
8. Compete in the maximum 8 individual events at Auburn, in February; something I have never done. (The most events I have ever competed in at a meet was 5 at a one-day Pentathlon or 5 at Auburn, a two-day meet.)
9. Continue to work on my backstroke (worst stroke) and butterfly and get PB's in the 50's of both strokes.
10. Finally meet Swimosaur at a meet! :agree: We have both been at Auburn and Georgia Tech (St. Nick's), as well as Nats. and have never met.
Check, check, and check, in addition to swimming in a SCY meet and having FUN!
I am most pleased with being able to successfully swim the 4 individual events each day- and a relay each day, as well. I didn't know if my body would be able to handle it, considering the autoimmune issues I have been dealing with this year. But, a good taper did the trick. And, I got four PB's in the process: 50 back (by almost 3 seconds), 100 IM (by 1 second), 50 fly (by almost 2 seconds), and 50 free (no NQT, though). I also was surprised by my 100 free; the first time swimming the event. I seeded at two seconds faster than my best practice time, however I took another 31/2 seconds off of that. As for my breaststroke events; not my best, but not my worst. I haven't trained the 200, so my goal was to keep my stroke count down and ride the glide, so I could survive the next two events that immediately followed.
As for goal #10, it was great meeting you Swimosaur! :D I'm glad we met at the very beginning of the meet. Thanks for stopping me and being so NICE. Your comments made my day and set the tone for a very memorable and fun meet for me. I'll look forward to seeing you at future meets! Will you be at Georgia Tech, on April 7?
...You can show us your ride and glide fly.
Are you saying you'll be there?!?! As you know, it's a fast pool!
After this weekend in Auburn, I decided I need to do something about the freakin' fly. It's no longer good enough to say, "I swam the 4IM/2Fly & made it", now I want to go faster. And to go faster, I need to do something about the fly. (Yes, you can read that as, "Peter kicked his ass again, didn't he?")
Back to the drawing board! The puzzle for the next few weeks will be to re-engineer the fly to something that works better in the 2IM & 4IM, saving 2Fly for later.
By the way, Peter had a stellar meet this weekend, shattering PBs in virtually every event. I don't know what he's been putting in his Wheaties, but it's working!
All I saw was mcountryman's wake in that heat. She had quite an impressive meet.
Marianne won high points for the 45-49 women; something she has been doing regularly! She is an amazing swimmer! :applaud:
Hey, I just found out I placed 3rd in points out of the 10 gal's in my age group. :D
