How many of you have gone to a meet, without a lot of proper prep for the meet? Maybe it was a lack of training time, less than focused training for any meet, maybe you have been swimming a lot but no real speed or race specific training during your practice?
What were your expectations going in? Did you worry too much about times or just go to do some racing and swim the best that you can?
I am thinking of FINALLY doing some meets. Found a low key one in a few weeks. I swim 4500-5000 about 5-6x a week. The practices are mix of aerobic swims, a lot of drill work to fix some flaws on my free/back and high intensity kick sets. Not done a lot/any speed work in months but I figure if I don't suck it up soon and just start racing, it may not happen for a long time to come.
Any feedback would be great.
My first meet back 3 and 1/2 years ago, I was only swimming 3x a week, had tendonitis, hadn't gone off a block in 24 years, and hadn't really done any speed work. I'm not sure I even knew what speed work was then ... I had no idea what times to expect, but had fun and have kept going back for more. As Paul notes, if you wait for the right time or the right meet or to be in perfect shape, you'll never go.
May I suggest Zones after you've got that low key meet under your belt? http://www.patriotmasters.org/ We had a fun party after the meet ...:party2: Rednecks welcome!
My first meet was after 4 weeks of training after a layoff of 20 years, bad back, could barely bend over for the start. Just wanted to see where I was. I had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people and just didn't worry about the times.
It is great to look back on and see how far I have come after 5 years.
The best part of competition is sharing a sport you love with people who have the same interest and are supportive of your efforts. Not every meet will be PB's but when you get them you appreciate them more.
Good luck.
Go.
It's fun, exciting, and motivational. It had been thirty 30! years between going off the blocks for me. You'll also get some good benchmark times to work from; you're only racing yourself. Depending on the meet, you may have people from all age groups in your heat just to fill the lanes; you're not really racing them.
There is an ex olympian from an earlier era on our Masters team. I asked him how I should train for my first meet, and he said meets are just another practice. Keep your normal routine and just go swim the meet. He said it's National Championships you train and peak for, not meets. Meets are just for fun and to practice competition.
Guess my biggest fear is been embarrassing myself racing....
Thanks!
Some meets I think of as the "ritual humiliation I endure to hang out with my friends".
Go. Race. Have fun. :bliss:
I am going to the Rose Bowl aquatics meet this weekend in Pasadena, CA. I can tell you that I do not consider myself in true race form, but I would like to establish a base as to where I am heading towards SCY Nationals this May. It does kinda suck to come into a meet and know it will be tough to hit the times you really want (especially swimming the 200 back and 500 free). But for me my motivation to train stems from a desire to compete, so I do it anyways because I have fun racing.
I'll add a similar note to the other responses. My first recent meet was almost 3 years ago after 21 years of non-swimming. I just signed up 2 weeks before (they had to look my # up because I didn't have my card yet) and went in cold. It was a long course meet so I swam about 150m warm up and swam 3 events (100 & 2 50s). Felt like I was going to die during the 100 and kinda missed my turn, but it was fun and folks were very cool.
:bliss::banana::bouncing::cake::cheerleader:
What were your expectations going in? Did you worry too much about times or just go to do some racing and swim the best that you can?
My first meet back was a SCM meet, so I didn't even know what my times meant. I had no expectations going into the meet, I knew I would set PB in some events because I had never swam them SCM before. They all were horrible times after I looked at the conversions, but lots of PBs.
I had been swimming 3x/week at less than 4k/workout for about 3 months with no racing at all. The 3 months before that were a mix of infrequent workouts, injuries and building my base. The 3 years before that was work full time, go to school full time, too little sleep, too much drinking and poor eating with no working out at all.
My first meet was a local meet that is held yearly and I wanted to swim events that I planned on continuing to swim in the future. I came out of that meet with a handful of times that I will look back on when I swim the meet again.
A lot of people on this board taking racing seriously. Most people at the meet, at least outwardly, are not taking the racing very seriously and are there to have fun.
Is it necessary for you to go to a meet in top condition??? So many talk about the social activities that go on I don't think it is important to be perparred to compete. You should be prepared for parties...
