I'm kinda nervous I am swimming my first meet in 7 years tomorrow. I'm 26, swam from when I was 9 to end of high school, sparingly since. My last meet was freshman year of college (intramural meet). I am swimming 50y and 100y free. I used to swim about 25 secs on the 50 and 55 secs on the 100. I'm hoping to beat those times. Who knows though...I'm 30 pounds heavier (mostly muscle) from weightlifting, changed my stroke completely to total immersion style a month ago, but have not had a chance to practice much (only 1-2x per week the last 6 weeks or so not doing much yardage). I'll let you know how I do :)
Daveindc,
Sorry I couldn't make it to that meet and skew the average age up by at least one year :rofl:. I had planed on competing in the 50 and 100 but the fates said nay.
So with your first meet as an 'older' swimmer, what lessons can you take away?
It sounds like you were not quite mentally prepared at the start of your 50. I too have had this issue. My suggestions are:
- Check your suit about 15 minutes before your swim, fastened, tied, adjusted etc. Make sure you also have your cap and goggles.
- Get behind the blocks with about 5 minutes before your heat (so more heats if 50, less if 100, etc.) and get your cap (if you wear one) on and adjusted. If you have the straps of your goggles under your cap, put the goggles on first but have them resting on your forehead.
- Visualize the race you want to swim about 2-3 minutes before your heat.
- Do whatever pre-race routine you desire but a pre-race routine should be designed to do one thing: RELAX YOU!! Do not focus on anything just try to clear your mind and relax your body.
- When the heat before yours goes off, clear your goggles of any moisture and/or fog that may be present and put them into place, do any last minute adjustments of suit, cap, goggles while you are behind the block.
- At the long whistle, step up on the block and assume your ready position. I use a grab start so I put both feet in position and bend down till my fingers just touch the block. That way I only have to adjust slightly to get into my starting position. This is not the time to adjust anything, that needs to be done before you step up.
- At the starter's 'take your mark' slow exhale and relax and listen for the beep.
- At the beep, take a huge inhale while you explode off the blocks.
As in all things, YMMV.
As for the 100, what were your splits like? What was your front 50 compared to your sprint 50? What was the differential between your front and back 50s. How much speed work do you do in practice? All out sprint 25s and 50s?
Daveindc,
Sorry I couldn't make it to that meet and skew the average age up by at least one year :rofl:. I had planed on competing in the 50 and 100 but the fates said nay.
So with your first meet as an 'older' swimmer, what lessons can you take away?
It sounds like you were not quite mentally prepared at the start of your 50. I too have had this issue. My suggestions are:
- Check your suit about 15 minutes before your swim, fastened, tied, adjusted etc. Make sure you also have your cap and goggles.
- Get behind the blocks with about 5 minutes before your heat (so more heats if 50, less if 100, etc.) and get your cap (if you wear one) on and adjusted. If you have the straps of your goggles under your cap, put the goggles on first but have them resting on your forehead.
- Visualize the race you want to swim about 2-3 minutes before your heat.
- Do whatever pre-race routine you desire but a pre-race routine should be designed to do one thing: RELAX YOU!! Do not focus on anything just try to clear your mind and relax your body.
- When the heat before yours goes off, clear your goggles of any moisture and/or fog that may be present and put them into place, do any last minute adjustments of suit, cap, goggles while you are behind the block.
- At the long whistle, step up on the block and assume your ready position. I use a grab start so I put both feet in position and bend down till my fingers just touch the block. That way I only have to adjust slightly to get into my starting position. This is not the time to adjust anything, that needs to be done before you step up.
- At the starter's 'take your mark' slow exhale and relax and listen for the beep.
- At the beep, take a huge inhale while you explode off the blocks.
As in all things, YMMV.
As for the 100, what were your splits like? What was your front 50 compared to your sprint 50? What was the differential between your front and back 50s. How much speed work do you do in practice? All out sprint 25s and 50s?
