Six months ago I decided to take a shot at a top ten time (my first) for the 400 free. Historically, a 4:48 has always been fast enough in my new age group (50-54), but my best time in Masters was a 4:59 from three years ago. So I decided to focus on that one event. I trained hard, bought a Blue 70, and hit my taper just right. In the end I swam what I thought was a perfect race and finished in 4:47.73, beating one of my training partners by seven seconds. And then I waited to see if the time would hold up.
As it turns out, it didn't. With the results from Long Beach, I will end the season ranked no higher than 11th. As the saying goes, the journey is the destination. But I really wanted one of those patches.
Six months ago I decided to take a shot at a top ten time (my first) for the 400 free. Historically, a 4:48 has always been fast enough in my new age group (50-54), but my best time in Masters was a 4:59 from three years ago. So I decided to focus on that one event. I trained hard, bought a Blue 70, and hit my taper just right. In the end I swam what I thought was a perfect race and finished in 4:47.73, beating one of my training partners by seven seconds. And then I waited to see if the time would hold up.
As it turns out, it didn't. With the results from Long Beach, I will end the season ranked no higher than 11th. As the saying goes, the journey is the destination. But I really wanted one of those patches.
Gull:
I just went to the Top Times site and saw that a time in the 50 -54 age group of 4:47.73 is currently 8th in the rankings so you still have a chance to get in there. And I saw that they included the Long Beach and Colony Zone Results. I also noticed that you are 2nd in the country in the 200 Free with a time of 2:05.92 from the same meet you did the 400 Free on November 22, 2008 at the Baylor Tom Laundry Center taken from the LMSC website.
That 200 is either a great time or a mistake in the results. The point I am making here is I have found mistakes in Meet Results that have been turned in to the Top Times site so NOTHING is FINAL. By the way I saw that someone had a 1:32.73 for the 200 Meter Free in the 50-54 age group in the rankings.
Six months ago I decided to take a shot at a top ten time (my first) for the 400 free. Historically, a 4:48 has always been fast enough in my new age group (50-54), but my best time in Masters was a 4:59 from three years ago. So I decided to focus on that one event. I trained hard, bought a Blue 70, and hit my taper just right. In the end I swam what I thought was a perfect race and finished in 4:47.73, beating one of my training partners by seven seconds. And then I waited to see if the time would hold up.
As it turns out, it didn't. With the results from Long Beach, I will end the season ranked no higher than 11th. As the saying goes, the journey is the destination. But I really wanted one of those patches.
Gull:
I just went to the Top Times site and saw that a time in the 50 -54 age group of 4:47.73 is currently 8th in the rankings so you still have a chance to get in there. And I saw that they included the Long Beach and Colony Zone Results. I also noticed that you are 2nd in the country in the 200 Free with a time of 2:05.92 from the same meet you did the 400 Free on November 22, 2008 at the Baylor Tom Laundry Center taken from the LMSC website.
That 200 is either a great time or a mistake in the results. The point I am making here is I have found mistakes in Meet Results that have been turned in to the Top Times site so NOTHING is FINAL. By the way I saw that someone had a 1:32.73 for the 200 Meter Free in the 50-54 age group in the rankings.
