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.
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.Great job! Sounds like you need to be giving me tips.
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.Great job! Sounds like you need to be giving me tips.
