What are your thoughts on this. Had a great week in practice. Great times in repeats. Did a 400scm time trial on Friday and was within 6 seconds of my meet time in the 400!! Felt great. Had a meet today (Sunday) and my 500 free, (the only event I swam) was 10 seconds slower than I think it should have been. Twelve seconds slower than my best time at last years nationals.
I am usually at my best when I swim the first event of the day. The 500 was the last event. I did not arrive at the pool until 1:00 and swam at 4:30. I ate my regular breakfast and lunch and kept hydrated.
So, chalk it up to experience?, bad body rhythms, not enough food? What say you???
Glenn
Were the conditions between this meet's 500 and last year's 500 at nationals comparable?
Was the pool as fast this time as last year?
Did you wear a similar suit (i.e., body suits both times, or shaved both times, or whatever?)
Were you similarly psyched? Local meets don't always get you psyched the same way national meets do.
Were you similarly tapered? Doing a great time in the 400 scm on Friday may well have tired you out (or made you feel too cocky!) more than you thought.
Were you similarly trained? Did you do as many yards, and as many quality yards, over the course of this season as you did last year?
How do you feel physically a couple days after the meet? Was it possible you were coming down with a cold or something and didn't realize it at the time you swam?
If you spy no major differences in the respective 500 swims from all of the above questions, you may want to just acknowledge that you're human and sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. If for whatever reason you didn't have it at this recent meet, all it means is that you've left yourself tons of room for improvement at the next meet.
Also, keep in mind that even if you swim 5:00 flat 500s, a 10 second difference is only a 3 percent difference--significant, yes, but not overwhelmingly huge. If you've ever done any weight lifting, the idea that one workout you could lift only 97 percent of the weight of the previous workout would probably not make you feel all that distressed. (Having said that, I know how much it bugs swimmers, myself especially included, when we think we're swimming good by our own personal standard of what consitutes "good" but our times don't reflect this.)
Good luck (unless you're in my age group, in which case I want to wish you "moderately good luck"!)
Were the conditions between this meet's 500 and last year's 500 at nationals comparable?
Was the pool as fast this time as last year?
Did you wear a similar suit (i.e., body suits both times, or shaved both times, or whatever?)
Were you similarly psyched? Local meets don't always get you psyched the same way national meets do.
Were you similarly tapered? Doing a great time in the 400 scm on Friday may well have tired you out (or made you feel too cocky!) more than you thought.
Were you similarly trained? Did you do as many yards, and as many quality yards, over the course of this season as you did last year?
How do you feel physically a couple days after the meet? Was it possible you were coming down with a cold or something and didn't realize it at the time you swam?
If you spy no major differences in the respective 500 swims from all of the above questions, you may want to just acknowledge that you're human and sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. If for whatever reason you didn't have it at this recent meet, all it means is that you've left yourself tons of room for improvement at the next meet.
Also, keep in mind that even if you swim 5:00 flat 500s, a 10 second difference is only a 3 percent difference--significant, yes, but not overwhelmingly huge. If you've ever done any weight lifting, the idea that one workout you could lift only 97 percent of the weight of the previous workout would probably not make you feel all that distressed. (Having said that, I know how much it bugs swimmers, myself especially included, when we think we're swimming good by our own personal standard of what consitutes "good" but our times don't reflect this.)
Good luck (unless you're in my age group, in which case I want to wish you "moderately good luck"!)
