I'm not a new masters swimmer nor am I new to meets, but am new to the 400 IM. Truthfully, I'm a little concerned about my ability to make it through the event legally (well, I'm really mainly afraid of the 4th 25). I'm scheduled to swim the 400 IM at a meet this weekend (Saturday). There are twenty people entered, it's a 10 lane pool, and as luck would have it I'm seeded 11th. If only one person above me scratches, I'll be in a heat where the fastest person is seeded 1:40 faster than I am, and the slowest person (besides me) is still seeded 40 seconds faster than I am. My seed time is MUCH closer to the people seeded right behind me, and I think I seeded myself as accurately as I could.
So... I am extremely anxious about swimming in this heat, as I was already anxious about swimming the 400 IM. Do I scratch to save myself the humiliation and to save some energy for Sunday's events? Or do I get lapped at least twice by the leaders, once by the next slowest person, and tick everyone off for holding up the meet? I'm already swimming the 1000 earlier in the session, and the 400 IM will be my 4th event of the day. I really have mixed feelings about this.
In all meets except our state meet, events like the 400IM or 200 fly can have a huge time range within each heat. I don't think you should let that hold you back. My experience has been that I'm always glad after swimming challenging events that I stuck to the plan and swam the race. I approach meets as hard sprint practices. Fast times are nice, but not always possible. Try not to psych yourself out, and I bet you'll do fine. Good luck!
In all meets except our state meet, events like the 400IM or 200 fly can have a huge time range within each heat. I don't think you should let that hold you back. My experience has been that I'm always glad after swimming challenging events that I stuck to the plan and swam the race. I approach meets as hard sprint practices. Fast times are nice, but not always possible. Try not to psych yourself out, and I bet you'll do fine. Good luck!
