Just back from my first ever swim meet. Swam the 50y & 200y free. The best I ever did in training for 50y was 54 sec., today 51.91. I swam the 200 at my everyday pace not wanting to stress myself, 4:27.43. I've never done a 200 even in practice except on the way to 500 or 1000. I was happy with that and was probably even first in my AG since I saw no other 65-69 in that event. Also met a couple other first timers there, one of whom had only learned to swim a year ago.
It was also the first time I ever got the chance to dive off a starting block. None of the facilities I go to will allow it, so I just did a few practice dives but dove in from the deck in the races.
I'll be 69 next Sunday, so I want to do the epostal hour swim for the occasion. Next pool meet is Mar 5 in Southern Saratoga County. Waiting to hear from ssumargo next.
Possibly more dumb. I just can't stand not trying something and pushing my limits. I'm slow, don't get me wrong, but I'm working on it. That's what matters. I always check first to see if it is ok. Actually in the locker room I asked, and if you are like 5 minutes+ on a 100 stroke or something, 10 min more on the 500, that's where people draw the line at Masters, not Seniors meets. Otherwise if you are a minute or two or so, people are like ... whooptie big deal ... shrug ... gives me a break between my swims. If you are doing 100/200 fly or the longer IM's, etc. they will give you more leeway because about everyone knows what it takes to swim those and I've gotten a lot of 'you are braver than I am' so the tolerance level is different. Being handicapped makes it a bit more leeway also.
I had people coming up to me and saying I wouldn't have the guts to do a 200 *** on pull only. They were really complimentary on that.
Btw, I am ALL about getting out of the comfort zone. If you want to walk on water, you gotta get out of the boat.
Nichollsvi.... if you're doing 200 fly and 200 IM, you're braver than I am! My longest fly event was 50 and I was really, really SLOW... like "are we there yet??"
I only wish swim meets were as frequent as road races. I enjoy those I can attend, although not as many as I'd like. Fortunately, my masters coach will sometimes have Thursday night relays, and creates mixed teams by speed, so that faster and slower swimmers work together. Lots of fun! Sometimes he even invites winners to pick from a box of prizes. He'll do things like pair people up and have one person kick and the other pull, or have a couple medley relays and in the second require us to do different strokes than in the first. Kind of helps wean us freestyle addicts away from our comfort zones. It's a light-hearted kind of break from the more serious part of the practice, yet still instructive.
Possibly more dumb. I just can't stand not trying something and pushing my limits. I'm slow, don't get me wrong, but I'm working on it. That's what matters. I always check first to see if it is ok. Actually in the locker room I asked, and if you are like 5 minutes+ on a 100 stroke or something, 10 min more on the 500, that's where people draw the line at Masters, not Seniors meets. Otherwise if you are a minute or two or so, people are like ... whooptie big deal ... shrug ... gives me a break between my swims. If you are doing 100/200 fly or the longer IM's, etc. they will give you more leeway because about everyone knows what it takes to swim those and I've gotten a lot of 'you are braver than I am' so the tolerance level is different. Being handicapped makes it a bit more leeway also.
I had people coming up to me and saying I wouldn't have the guts to do a 200 *** on pull only. They were really complimentary on that.
Btw, I am ALL about getting out of the comfort zone. If you want to walk on water, you gotta get out of the boat.
Nichollsvi.... if you're doing 200 fly and 200 IM, you're braver than I am! My longest fly event was 50 and I was really, really SLOW... like "are we there yet??"
I only wish swim meets were as frequent as road races. I enjoy those I can attend, although not as many as I'd like. Fortunately, my masters coach will sometimes have Thursday night relays, and creates mixed teams by speed, so that faster and slower swimmers work together. Lots of fun! Sometimes he even invites winners to pick from a box of prizes. He'll do things like pair people up and have one person kick and the other pull, or have a couple medley relays and in the second require us to do different strokes than in the first. Kind of helps wean us freestyle addicts away from our comfort zones. It's a light-hearted kind of break from the more serious part of the practice, yet still instructive.
