Right now I'm using this as a sounding board for my thoughts on my swimming. Yesterday I posted about swimming the 1,000 at the Rose Bowl meet next weekend and my various goal times. I've settled on a 1:09. A dooable time. Before this past summer I never really thought about what pace I'd be swimming. My goal was just to finish without drowning and have a faster time than my previous time. Who knew people thought out races and had it all figured out before even hitting the water. I was on deck at the IGLA Championships when teammates started to talk to the Coach on deck about what they had planned on doing. When the coach asked me I had nothing to say. I think all I said was that I didn't want G, a teammate, to lap me. I listened to G talk to the coach about his pacing and he would be in the same heat as me but two lanes over. So I figured by past swims as long as I stayed about a body length behind him for the first 1,000 I'd be okay. After that I'd just be in survival mode. Turned out that I was able to keep at his feet for the first 800 and then feeling strong passed him. I don't think I finished that much in front of him but it was after that swim that I decided I needed to start thinkig about how I swim the 1500.
So in my blog and with emails to swimmers and a coach I've been thinking it out. I thought my 1500 SCM swim back in December out and dropped 20 seconds from my IGLA time a few months before which already was 30 seconds faster than my previous time. 50 seconds in one year is a lot to drop in the 1,500. I'm so impressed with it myself. So now I'm swimming my first 1,000 SCY swim in a week. After emailing a coach about my goal pace of 1:09 she replied to me:
For your 1000- 1:09s sound good. Does this mean low 1:09s or are you
thinking 1:09-mids? Your walls are looking so much
better/faster/longer. Be sure to keep that head position for the first
few strokes off the wall so you can take advantage of your speed. When
was the last time you swam the 1000?
Umm...mids, lows? I just want to finish under a 11:30 and 11:29.99 is fine with me. So I'll have to say mid-1:09's. Monday we are swimming our 10x100 Check Set. I won't be sprinting them all out like we are supose to do as I'm just shooting to feel like I'm swimming a 1,000 at a 1:07 pace. So I will hit a 1:07 on each and every 100 on Monday during practice. As for her comments on my head position. I really need to work on that. In and out of the wall. I'm slowly getting use to the idea of not looking up and at the wall at each turn. To just have faith that the wall is going to be there and I'm not going to crash into it. Coming out of the wall is another thing. I still need to work on that. For now I'm really worried about the 1,000 as I'm beginning now to worry about the very next event the 200 Butterfly. Oy! Is it LCM Season yet?
