Learning How To Race

Hello Everyone, I have been back in the pool for about a year now and am enjoying myself. With a busy schedule and two young swimmers, I rarely have time to swim Masters meets. But when the opportunity presents itself, I dodge the meet quite effectively. Here is the reason. I have absolutely no confidence in my racing ability. In my workouts, I can lead the lane for the intermediate swiimmers and easily make 100 frees LCM on the 1:35 but many of those behind me can blow me away on sprint day when we do 50s and 100s. I had my strokes taped and have been able to make a few nice adjustments to my freestyle that allows me to swim with much less tension in my arms and provides a greater catch with a higher elbow. I notice that I am able to go faster with much less effort now. Thus, when we do 200s and longer, I can hang with the faster swimmers. It seems the longer we go, the better I do. I am 5' 7" and about 160 pounds so I am not tall but have a pretty solid chest and shoulders. I find that if I tell myself to go 80% during a sprint, my time is perhaps only a few seconds slower than if I tell myself to go 100%. My stroke is much stronger if I go slower and thus more efficient. But I am still stuck in the mindset that unless I go all out, I will not achieve max speed. I realize that I am talking about pacing and my own mental block but I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem with acheiving their potential when there is a disparity between workout speed and race results. My coach keeps prodding me to enter meets but I resist. But I am tired of being a "workout warrior". Any input would be appreciated. Rob