Hello. First post. I'm Canadian (British Columbia), and I haven't found a forum like this for Canada. This looks like a wonderful place - friendly, intelligent people - a great resource.
So.....I was a runner for 40+ years. Then it became a struggle in my mid 50s. (I'll be 57 next month.) Osteoarthritis in both knees put an end to it. When I got this diagnosis, I moped for a while, and then, on February 21st, 2019, it suddenly occurred to me that Swimming is my new sport.
I bought a few books, and went to the pool most days since SRD. (Swimming Realization Day.) I absolutely love the feeling of swimming. It's my new drug. I hope I can have 40+ years of it. :)
But in these early days I cannot claim to be very good at it. I'm improving rapidly, and that in itself is thrilling. The books are very helpful, and I'm making adjustments/improvements in form. I care only about Freestyle.
At the time of this post, my very modest PRs in a 25m pool (without diving in) are:
25m-19sec
50m-42sec
100m-1min32sec
200m-3min26sec
400m-7min19sec
800m-14min53sec
1600m-31min19sec
I think by the time mid-April rolls around, I can be under 7min 400m. 400m seems to be my favourite event at this early stage. It just so happens that our Provincial Masters Meet is in mid-April. In running, I lived for meets. Those events organized my running. I'd love to do the same in swimming.....but I am so new at this.
I'm terrified about signing up for this meet in mid-Apr. Do I belong there with a 7min 400m? I've looked at old results, and I'm in awe of the times recorded. I understand that as a 7min 400m person, I would be in a heat with other people around my time, no matter the age/sex. That's a wonderful thing. But I'm still mortified.
It's a new sport. I'm very new at it. I'm not even sure what I'm asking in this post.
Perhaps some of you will describe similar situations in your journey? Maybe you can talk me into signing up and losing my inhibitions? I'd hate to wimp out of this, then read results afterwards and cringe, while shouting "I would have loved this".
The full results are out, and as I suspected, the split times show that I started way too fast and got slower and slower. I was 3:19 at 200m (my pr is 3:15!!), and 3:39 for the second half. OUCH!!! I'm glad that I got this mistake out of my system on the first meet. :)
An aside: I signed up as an independant at this meet. Some friends from a local club were there, and they were shocked that I was a) independant, and b) doing only one event. They implored me to join their team for next time, and they strongly suggested that I do multiple events for next time, plus relays too.
Now, that might be a lot of fun for some people, but I am convinced that one event per meet is best for me. I just feel that several hard efforts within a short timeframe is a recipe for injury. And I want to put my eggs into one basket. I want my focus and energy to be aimed at one race, not spread out over several.
Am I alone in feeling this way? Am I a miserable grinch?
I've found that I do much better if I focus on one individual event (well, two): the 50 and 100 fly. However, relays don't seem to affect this. I can just wing them. They're fun, low pressure, and actually they help take the edge off the anxiety in my individual events. Of course if they're right before the 100fly I'll probably say no way. People understand.
An aside: I signed up as an independant at this meet. Some friends from a local club were there, and they were shocked that I was a) independant, and b) doing only one event. They implored me to join their team for next time, and they strongly suggested that I do multiple events for next time, plus relays too.
Now, that might be a lot of fun for some people, but I am convinced that one event per meet is best for me. I just feel that several hard efforts within a short timeframe is a recipe for injury. And I want to put my eggs into one basket. I want my focus and energy to be aimed at one race, not spread out over several.
Am I alone in feeling this way? Am I a miserable grinch?
Hmm. If you are in decent shape and properly warm up and warm down, there is no reason that doing more than one event a day should he risky.
I'm much more of a sprinter, but I find I start running out of gas around the fourth race in a typical Masters meet session. So for me that means my meet sessions are best at 2 individuals and 2 relays.
BC provincials was a 3 day meet. You definitely have time to recover and swim more than one race. It is good to do a race you don't care about before your focus event so you can get more familiar and comfortable racing. You should be able to do at least one good morning and afternoon swim in each day.
BC provincials was a 3 day meet. You definitely have time to recover and swim more than one race. It is good to do a race you don't care about before your focus event so you can get more familiar and comfortable racing. You should be able to do at least one good morning and afternoon swim in each day.
Yeah, I should have added that I was not available on the Sunday, and the Friday night 1500m was the only possibility to me on that day. I did not want a 1500m, then 400m just 16 hours later. But, some responses here are causing me to rethink this. I appreciate your thoughts, thanks.
