Major LCM Woes! - Over One Minute in some events!

This past weekend I went to my first LCM meet as a master’s swimmer. I trained consistently up to it (with a mini-taper), knew my times in practice, and figured what I might expect to go swimming LCM. Well, the results were baffling! All my times converted to SCY as a time slower than I have ever gone in a Master’s meet, EVER! Even the one I went to 3 weeks after coming back to swimming to see what I could do! And not by a little, these were 10 second to over one minute additions AFTER being converted to SCY! I will often hit or beat most of these times in a practice coming off the wall. I had a coach watching and my form looked good. On Saturday I was very hungry (I thought being a very large mixed USA/USMS meet there would be concessions & I thought I would treat myself rather than pack a bag. But there were no concessions & It was a good distance to go and find food.), which could account for a lot that day, but on Sunday I felt really good & was well rested. My splits also showed consistency, there was no indication of me dying. In the water (except the 100 ***), I felt right on. I’m in my mid 20’s: far too young for it to be an age thing. Do others experience these unusually large time drains at their first LCM meet? I’m trying to figure out what went wrong, or if it was just a fluke. Sorry for the long post but I hope maybe others have experienced this as well and provide advice about what they did to get through it. I’ll post my results below. Thanks! Saturday: 100 LCM Breastroke: Usual time over the past 4 months 1:26 to 1:28. My practice times have shown improvement indicating I might be getting faster. Result: 1:46.64 LCM Conversion to SCY 1:33 Difference: Same as a fast practice time off the wall. 6-8 seconds slower than usual when converted to SCY. Saturday: 400 LCM Free: I finish a 500 free from the wall in practice at about 6:40. This winter I comfortably did a 400 SCM in about 6:05. I’ve swam this event a few times with good results and had a plan. I haven’t swam it in a meet in a while but I have been practicing this event. Result: 7:06 LCM Conversion to 500 SCY: 7:56.81 Difference: 1:16 SLOWER THAN PRACTICE!!!! 54 seconds slower than my most recent 400 SCM! Sunday: 200 LCM IM: Result: 3:45 Conversion: 3:17 SCY. Last meet this spring 2:58 SCY. I do about 3:20 in practice. Difference: 19 seconds Sunday: 200 LCM ***: This was really hard for me to swallow since it was the event I practiced for. Typical Time in practice: 3:25-3:30 SCM Average time in meets over past 4 months. 3:09-3:13 Result: 3:55 LCM Conversion: 3:27 SCY. Same as a practice time from wall. 18-24 seconds slower than normal SCY meet times.
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  • Thanks everyone, it makes me feel more confident that I was probably about right; I just didn't give myself time to make the LCM adjustment. And as someone else mentioned, everything felt right, I was appropriately dead and unable to move after the 400 Free and 200 ***. The last lengths were like moving lead weights. They felt the same as other good SCY swims. What I did do is decide to go jump in a pond yesterday for the first time (since like I said, this had me worried about my first open water race in a couple weeks). I cruised the half mile across Walden Pond in 14 minutes (on the way back), which for taking it easy as a practice just to get used to it I thought was awesome compared with my other lack of turn times. And I was going against the wind in that direction. Too bad I couldn't reswim that 400 LCM this weekend. I think I would be sure to go happily under 7 minutes. On the way out, I did some breastroke and it felt wonderful - but I think it did have a slightly different grove to it than I do in the pool. Next time, I'll do some pond training twice a week in prep for doing LCM. (since that is what I have access to) Thank goodness long course is in the summer!
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  • Thanks everyone, it makes me feel more confident that I was probably about right; I just didn't give myself time to make the LCM adjustment. And as someone else mentioned, everything felt right, I was appropriately dead and unable to move after the 400 Free and 200 ***. The last lengths were like moving lead weights. They felt the same as other good SCY swims. What I did do is decide to go jump in a pond yesterday for the first time (since like I said, this had me worried about my first open water race in a couple weeks). I cruised the half mile across Walden Pond in 14 minutes (on the way back), which for taking it easy as a practice just to get used to it I thought was awesome compared with my other lack of turn times. And I was going against the wind in that direction. Too bad I couldn't reswim that 400 LCM this weekend. I think I would be sure to go happily under 7 minutes. On the way out, I did some breastroke and it felt wonderful - but I think it did have a slightly different grove to it than I do in the pool. Next time, I'll do some pond training twice a week in prep for doing LCM. (since that is what I have access to) Thank goodness long course is in the summer!
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