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.
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OK... the deed is done. :)
First off, the rest of my meet today was mediocre to fairly crappy. However, I'm really not sure how much of that is the lack of the B70/full body suits, as the only events I've swum well this SCY season are the ones I never swam in the magic suits. So... I'm thinking that I need to reset my expectations for my freestyle. I knew I'd have to do this (as I know many of us did), but I just didn't think I'd have to reset them so drastically.
Anyway... the meet went relatively quickly, with not much rest between events. I swam the 1000, the 50 free, 200 free, and then about 30 minutes after the 200 was the 400 IM. My 200 was the worst, possibly because I was worried about swimming it too hard and not being able to finish the 400 IM. I was determined to keep a positive attitude, though, which to those who know me, that isn't always easy for me to do. :)
I was in the first of two heats, as they swam the 400 IM slow to fast. I had seeded myself at 6:00, which I felt was conservatively realistic based on my 200 IM time. I decided to take the great advice I received on this thread (love the loaf/loaf/loaf/loaf faster advice for fly, but have to admit that I forgot about outsplitting my heat in one stroke until I was on the 2nd 25 of my free. I did speed up at that point)! My friends, knowing how worried (neurotic) I was, were all standing at the end of my lane cheering for me -- hopefully not in an overly sympathetic way. The race went great -- Judd, you're right! I LOVED it!! I split 1:22/1:23/1:38/1:14 and ended up going 5:38.03. I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I thought it would be. I know that with swimming it more, and I WILL swim it more, I'll be able to fine-tune my pacing and hopefully will eventually be able to go sub-5:30.
Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I do appreciate it, and if I have all crappy races tomorrow, I will still have the 400 IM! To those of you who are debating swimming this race, do it at least once. The feeling of the last 50 is amazing!
OK... the deed is done. :)
First off, the rest of my meet today was mediocre to fairly crappy. However, I'm really not sure how much of that is the lack of the B70/full body suits, as the only events I've swum well this SCY season are the ones I never swam in the magic suits. So... I'm thinking that I need to reset my expectations for my freestyle. I knew I'd have to do this (as I know many of us did), but I just didn't think I'd have to reset them so drastically.
Anyway... the meet went relatively quickly, with not much rest between events. I swam the 1000, the 50 free, 200 free, and then about 30 minutes after the 200 was the 400 IM. My 200 was the worst, possibly because I was worried about swimming it too hard and not being able to finish the 400 IM. I was determined to keep a positive attitude, though, which to those who know me, that isn't always easy for me to do. :)
I was in the first of two heats, as they swam the 400 IM slow to fast. I had seeded myself at 6:00, which I felt was conservatively realistic based on my 200 IM time. I decided to take the great advice I received on this thread (love the loaf/loaf/loaf/loaf faster advice for fly, but have to admit that I forgot about outsplitting my heat in one stroke until I was on the 2nd 25 of my free. I did speed up at that point)! My friends, knowing how worried (neurotic) I was, were all standing at the end of my lane cheering for me -- hopefully not in an overly sympathetic way. The race went great -- Judd, you're right! I LOVED it!! I split 1:22/1:23/1:38/1:14 and ended up going 5:38.03. I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I thought it would be. I know that with swimming it more, and I WILL swim it more, I'll be able to fine-tune my pacing and hopefully will eventually be able to go sub-5:30.
Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I do appreciate it, and if I have all crappy races tomorrow, I will still have the 400 IM! To those of you who are debating swimming this race, do it at least once. The feeling of the last 50 is amazing!
