The Masters Time Trials

Last night at Masters Swimming we had time trials of various events, just like the practice meet we had last December. I took some time off in December and January so I’m just starting to get back into the swing of things in the water, but that didn’t stop me from swimming a few events and having a good time.

Since I’m mainly interested in endurance events I chose to swim 500 yard freestyle. I also chose a couple other random events just to mix things up, 200 yard individual medley, and 100 yard breaststroke.

The 100 breaststroke came first for me. I finished in 1:26, which is frankly faster than I expected, though not terribly fast. Interestingly, it was my muscles that were holding me back. My breathing was barely elevated by the end.

The 200 IM came next. I’ve only done an IM this long one other time (last week in practice). My time of 2:57 was better than last week’s 3:07, though to put that in perspective, the guy in the lane next to me was almost finished just as I started the final freestyle lap. This took a lot out of me.

After a short (too short) break came the 500 freestyle. Just as in December I was the only person swimming this far. Since I really only have one speed it felt kind of like a sprint to me. The good news was that the coach had a lap counting sign he stuck in the water after each lap so I knew how far I’d gone. I have a problem with losing count of my laps. The bad news was that after only one or two laps my upper arms and shoulders were burning with lactic acid. I swam as fast as I could and finished in 7:10, a good 17 seconds slower than in December. This was also a slower pace than I swam for 1000 yards last September, shortly after peaking for the national triathlon championships. It wasn’t great, but it’s still very early in the year.

The event was fun. To be honest I’d like to do this more frequently to be able to gauge on my progress (or in this case, lack of progress).