Alright, guys, I got a meet coming up and I need some advice
Former Member
It's going to be June 4th and 5th in Pleasanton, CA.
I'll be doing five events a day for a total of ten. Last February, I did eight events at a meet and I decided I wanted to top that when I registered for this meet.
Now, with the meet fast approaching, I had been considering dropping some events ahead of time and getting refunds. Then I was informed I couldn't do that. Uh oh.
The circumstances are... I wasn't in the pool for two weeks up to last Friday. Due to a combination of having been sick three weeks ago, accumulating bad decisions, and having to study for finals (which are now finally over, thank every deity that was ever believed in), I missed a whole lotta swim time. Looking back on it, I realize now it was a big, big mistake, although I wonder how I would've done on finals. And whether I could've balanced the two, school and pool. That might've been risker in regards to my grades, though... ah, well. Anyway, I digress too much...
My events, in order:
day 1:
200 IM
200 free
100 back
400 free (first time)
100 free
day 2:
400 IM (first time)
100 ***
200 back
100 fly
50 free
You can probably tell which of the events I wanted to refund. I suppose I could always scratch, but I don't really want to. I did enough of that at the last meet when I was sick. I want to take this thing head-on.
So, I would highly appreciate it if you could all offer me maybe one short sentence or even a single word of advice about each of the events (or just some specific ones).
Thanks in advance.
I guess you know the answer... :)
Five events per day that's too much!
Just wonder why didn't you choose 1500 Free after 400IM?
You may try to take Creatine during trainings to see if it works for you then to use it at the meet, though I doubt it will help much in 400 Free and 200 Back.
Cruise the fly
I believe you misspelled "curse".
Seriously,are there any of these events that you particularly want a good time in?If so which ones?
If not I'd just say"man I'm going to have an awesome workout" and just swim hard.
It's going to be June 4th and 5th in Pleasanton, CA.
What meet is that? I don't remember hearing about a Pac Masters meet this weekend.
I know you don't want to scratch any events, but what good is it to swim mediocre-ly in all? I'd focus only on the events I really cared about, and pretend that I never signed up for the others.
I was in a similar situation for the Pac Masters Champs. I found that, having missed some training, my speed held up better than my endurance did.
400 IM (first time)
Cruise the fly and negative split each of the back/***/free 100's. Post your splits afterwards :)
No strategy for anything 100 or less...just go all out start to finish.
First off, I have to say, I agree with Allan, especially about the misspelling of cruise (curse the fly).
I am firmly of the opinion that if you have to travel to this meet & spend the night in a hotel, that you will be ahead financially simply by scratching the whole meet if you are confident that you will swim poorly.
On the other hand, you should count yourself shaved & tapered!! Go get 'em! :ohyeah:
Look on the bright side: you were sane enough NOT to enter the 200 fly.
I'd counter Greg's suggestion for going all out on the 100s -- in long course I focus on building these from about 85/90% effort on the 1st 50 to 95% on the next 25 and aim for 100% on the last 25.
400 IM would be a good warm up for the rest of your day. Just take it easy and have fun. Go for a swim. Use the 400 free to get up to speed for your 100. Negative split it and get comfortable with the turns.
Cruise the fly and negative split each of the back/***/free 100's. Post your splits afterwards :)
No strategy for anything 100 or less...just go all out start to finish.
You mean like this? www.swimphone.com/.../splits.cfm
My suggestion would be to pick 3, maybe 4 races to focus on, and use the others for warm-up/keeping loose. The only problem with that is if you don't swim the exact time you seeded, you may be accused of sandbagging/anti-sandbagging :D But seriously, I'd pick just a few races to do well on, and if you're determined to swim what you signed up for, do a moderate effort on the rest.
Good luck! I can't imagine swimming more that 200-250m in any given meet anyway, but that's because I'm a wussy sprinter :banana:
