Just admit it. Almost everyone sandbags from time to time. Look at Ande, entering at 28.9 in the 50 back to have clear water. Bunch of his times look pretty suspect. Peg completely sandbagged the 1000 free at Zones. I entered a coach-approved NT on the 100 IM at Zones and then scratched. Paul Smith is passing on a 100 free duel with evil Smith to save up for his world-record-shattering performance to be in the 200 medley relay. Julie Oplinger sandbagged her 100 fly at Zones. The list could go on forever, so you might as well join the Club.
As for Nats, because of my lack of expertise with sandbagging, I'm over my 25% statistical probability per race of landing in an outside lane.
(Sorry Osterber! :thhbbb:)
I think Ande mentioned elsewhere that his back entry time was a typo, or maybe I'm misremembering.
I almost always enter the time I (realistically) want to beat. It may be my time from the same meet the previous year. Or it may be the best time of the season so far; it depends on the particular meet. (Of course, if I haven't swum the event in a while it would just be a best guess.) But doing this makes it easy on my memory: if I beat my entered time I'm happy with the swim. Or I should say "happier," since I'm happy to be swimming and competing in any event; consider the alternative!
It is pretty comparable with the idea of entering the time you expect to swim.
Why would one want to enter a time slower than s/he expects to swim? I can think of the following two reasons but I'm sure there are others:
-- trying to create more recovery time if the next event is soon after;
-- being afraid to "put it out there" and announce what you think you can do. It is a guard against being too disappointed in your race. ("Well, at least I beat my seed time!")
The second reason maybe comes out a little more harshly than I intend it to be. But if you are someone who regularly does this then you might want to think about the reasons you do it.
If it IS to guard against potential disappointment, then a little mental readjustment might help. Consider: equalling or bettering last years' swim times is a huge achievement. With the reality of aging, in the long term everyone will fail to do this more often than they succeed. So you should be happy if you are even close, and VERY happy if you succeed.
And if you are way off, so what? You're still in there giving it your shot, the worst thing that can happen is that you are engaging in a healthy (and hopefully enjoyable) activity.
Don't be afraid to set the bar a little high, just not unrealistically so, you don't want to be in a heat with people much faster than you. And resist the urge to play games with seeding; too often they backfire. You can't go wrong swimming in a heat of people of pretty comparable speed, I think.
Just my :2cents:
I think Ande mentioned elsewhere that his back entry time was a typo, or maybe I'm misremembering.
I almost always enter the time I (realistically) want to beat. It may be my time from the same meet the previous year. Or it may be the best time of the season so far; it depends on the particular meet. (Of course, if I haven't swum the event in a while it would just be a best guess.) But doing this makes it easy on my memory: if I beat my entered time I'm happy with the swim. Or I should say "happier," since I'm happy to be swimming and competing in any event; consider the alternative!
It is pretty comparable with the idea of entering the time you expect to swim.
Why would one want to enter a time slower than s/he expects to swim? I can think of the following two reasons but I'm sure there are others:
-- trying to create more recovery time if the next event is soon after;
-- being afraid to "put it out there" and announce what you think you can do. It is a guard against being too disappointed in your race. ("Well, at least I beat my seed time!")
The second reason maybe comes out a little more harshly than I intend it to be. But if you are someone who regularly does this then you might want to think about the reasons you do it.
If it IS to guard against potential disappointment, then a little mental readjustment might help. Consider: equalling or bettering last years' swim times is a huge achievement. With the reality of aging, in the long term everyone will fail to do this more often than they succeed. So you should be happy if you are even close, and VERY happy if you succeed.
And if you are way off, so what? You're still in there giving it your shot, the worst thing that can happen is that you are engaging in a healthy (and hopefully enjoyable) activity.
Don't be afraid to set the bar a little high, just not unrealistically so, you don't want to be in a heat with people much faster than you. And resist the urge to play games with seeding; too often they backfire. You can't go wrong swimming in a heat of people of pretty comparable speed, I think.
Just my :2cents:
