So what exactly were we thinking signing up for a swim meet that would happen almost immediately after we returned from the land of duck confit? But we did sign up for it, so we did go. The exciting news was that another member of our masters team joined us for this one--which made it much more fun.
This was the Classic City / Georgia Masters Long-Course Meet, held at the Gabrielsen Natatorium at the University of Georgia.
My principal observation is that racing in a long course meters pool (i.e., a 50-meter pool) is very different from racing in a 25-yard pool. Or training in a 25-yard pool, for that matter. There you are, swimming along, and you think, "Certainly I must be at the wall by now," and you kind of look up, but no no no you are nowhere near the end.
My secondary observation is that I am relieved it was only a one-day meet, because I just do not think I could race tomorrow.
The only good news is that we had the sense to sign up only for short races, and that was a relief, because after two weeks out of the water I don't think I could have raced a 200 meter breaststroke or even freestyle. Especially since it would have been 220 yards.
Anyway, despite my continuing belief that we were crazy to sign up for the meet, I am glad we went. For one thing, the facility was amazing, with three pools and a very impressive diving well where the stairs for climbing the diving platforms were hidden behind a wall. Furthermore, it was fun to be at a very low-stakes meet. This was our first long-course meters meet, so there were no times to beat or anything. And knowing we had recently been on vacation meant I could not even pretend to be in peak shape for it. So we went and swam and had fun. And because it was a very small meet, they mixed men and women together. Sadly, they reseeded the meet, so although it had seemed that the PP and I would swim the same heat of the 50 Free, we did not. Just as well: he kicked my butt. But it was fun in the breaststroke events to be in the fastest heat, just swimming with men (and beating most of them--heh). And I know I am a bit of a kid about this, but it felt good to come home with 4 first-place ribbons.
Oh yeah, and there was a nice hottub by the cooldown pool!
COMPLETE RESULTS
50 LCM Free :34.17
50 LCM Fly :38.73
100 LCM Breast 1:31.43
50 LCM Breast :41.17
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3 comments:
We just moved to a 50 LCM pool for the summer. It is totally different. I have been exhausted all week because my coach hasn't changed the interval times for our sets to adjust for the extra distance! BTW, your times are great, especially your BR times.
Yeah, training in this kind of pool is GREAT. You get to where you think anything under a 150 is nothing. But I don't know about racing there while training where we train: that's a little weird. And thanks re the BR times!
After swimming long course for a couple of weeks, I've decided that I like it a lot for long distance sets because it's easier to keep track of how far you've swum. And when Coach says "swim a 400", it seems shorter now because it's only 8 lengths instead of 16!
On the other hand, when you're doing sets of 50's, they seem a lot harder.
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