Would you scratch?

And you did too! Let the record show that Elainiak won ALL the breaststroke events in her age group! A couple of PBs too! Well done! Results --> www.clubassistant.com/.../st_pats_2011_results.pdf Congratulations, Elaine.

Thanks, Elaine! You did great as well! Don't worry about your 100 ***. A meet with that many events that goes that quickly is tough to do. You were a lot fresher for the 200 ***, as evidenced by the fact that your 100 split in the 2 *** on Saturday was faster than your 100 *** on Sunday. :) That's happened to me before a couple of times when the long distance free is the first event of the meet and the 400/500 is the last event of the meet. The physical and mental fatigue takes its toll. Even though Saturday was a wash except for the 400 IM for me, Sunday was better (except for the 100 free). I swam the 500 free as a hard 2nd warmup, and ended up swimming my Auburn time. I think giving myself permission to relax my swim helped me to go faster than I expected to go. Which means that I've not been relaxing the 500 enough at the beginning. I think that if I had actually raced the 500 I would have gone maybe 5-6 seconds faster at most, and I wouldn't have had good races afterwards. Probably the main difference in my pacing if I had raced it would have been that I would have built the 2nd half of my race instead of just the last 50. But at what cost? The 200 IM was about 15 minutes after I finished my 500. I ended up swimming only three seconds over my best (B70) time from St. Pat's last year, and 3 seconds better than my Auburn time from last month. I was hoping to see a drop since I've been training more IM for the 400. The 100 free was about 15 minutes after that, and that race wasn't great as I couldn't ever pick up my speed (and should have also taken it out faster, as I wasn't all that tired when I finished... but then again I am not a sprinter). 200 back was so much fun -- I LOVE that race but even more LCM... ended up going 1:17/1:18 for my 100 splits and the entire race felt great, and I had a personal best -- 2 seconds below my Auburn time. Given that I have been told that the 200 back is supposed to hurt (which it never has the half dozen times I've swum it -- except maybe the last 50), I would think I have more room to improve there as well. I feel like I need to focus more on IM and backstroke rather than distance free right now. Like many of you, I'm sure, I tend to overthink races, splits, results. etc., and it really gets into my head. And since I have events that I am dropping time in and have the potential to drop more, that's what I need to be doing to keep my sanity. And this is masters, after all. It's supposed to be fun, right? :)

Kristin - I'm so glad you didn't scratch!! You're an animal!! (i.e. dolphin, shark, mermaid, etc.) Aren't you glad you did it?! :applaud::applaud::applaud:

Kristin - I'm so glad you didn't scratch!! You're an animal!! (i.e. dolphin, shark, mermaid, etc.) Aren't you glad you did it?! :applaud::applaud::applaud: Celeste, now the light bulb goes off! I knew I had seen your name before St. Pat's... and it was here! It was so nice meeting you! And I must say that you look 10 years younger than the heat sheet said you were. :) I am SO glad that I didn't scratch! It did help a lot that the event was pre-seeded. Next time, though, I won't complain if I'm in a faster heat. I know I can get through it now, so that will get me through. I thought about you at my practice today! Remember when we were talking about swimming similar paces at practice and at meets? Well... looks like I qualify for that in distance free. :blush: My coach gave me 3x500 pull (granted I was wearing paddles, but still), on 6:15. I came in at 6:00, 6:02, 6:01. I should be going a lot faster in meets than a 6:04 and a 12:35 in the 1000! It's a mental thing at this point, I think -- probably for both of us!

Thanks, Elaine! You did great as well! Don't worry about your 100 ***. A meet with that many events that goes that quickly is tough to do. You were a lot fresher for the 200 ***, as evidenced by the fact that your 100 split in the 2 *** on Saturday was faster than your 100 *** on Sunday. :) That's happened to me before a couple of times when the long distance free is the first event of the meet and the 400/500 is the last event of the meet. The physical and mental fatigue takes its toll. I feel like I need to focus more on IM and backstroke rather than distance free right now. Like many of you, I'm sure, I tend to overthink races, splits, results. etc., and it really gets into my head. And since I have events that I am dropping time in and have the potential to drop more, that's what I need to be doing to keep my sanity. And this is masters, after all. It's supposed to be fun, right? :) Thanks Alison and Kristin! I appreciate your kindness, Kristin, too! You are so encouraging and supportive; something I really appreciated when I met you at Auburn for the first time. I was completely new to you, but you treated me like a teammate and I felt honored to be on your relay team! You are an awesome swimmer and I felt you had a lot of guts to go out in the 400IM the way you did. I understood your hesitation; I think we are a lot alike when it comes to overthinking races, etc. Like you, I let things get into my head! I think you have it right when you suggest what you need to do to keep your sanity. It sounds like the perfect decision for you, because, you're right; it's supposed to be all about fun! And, I've been thinking the same thing for myself, so we're running on the same wavelength. I just recently added the 100IM as my "fun" event; no pressure on myself, just fun. And, when I worked with my coach yesterday, we worked on everything BUT breaststroke for the first time. I even asked him to time my splits on a 500 and critique my freestyle mechanics; something we have only worked on briefly in the past. Why the 500? For the same reason you mentioned; a second warm up. I could have really used that on Sunday, rather than warming up in the hot kiddie pool. I didn't know the 50 meter pool would be closed and I had missed warm ups in the competition pool, because the storm was really bad until 8:45am, in our area. The hot water in the kiddie pool, I believe, is what did me in on my 100 breaststroke; it was a reaction to the heat (something I have problems with in or out of the water). I only went out in :43, but my muscles shut down after the halfway point and it took several minutes to catch my breath after the race. Later, for the 100IM, I felt fine and caught my breath back quickly. And, my time was seven seconds faster than my 100 breaststroke, so I didn't loaf it; I almost got a PB. And, I felt great afterward. So, I'm thinking of adding more events that will get me on the blocks and into the cooler water more and get my body ready to race my best events. I may not do the 500 (especially at a one day meet), but I would at least like to pick up some other 50's, since I'm a sprinter. Besides, from what I figure, if I had picked up more events, I would have placed third, right after Marianne and you. I would have been really pleased with that 1, 2, 3 in our age group! Instead, I placed 6th out of 11, because I only competed in 4 events. Celeste, I agree with Kristin; you look awesome for your age! :applaud: