After a long season filled many highs and lows it's time to recap the season and get excited for a new season that is quickly approaching!
There have been some outstanding and not so outstanding swims this year. For me I don't have a "Swim of the season" or any swim that stood out more then others. Yes there are those races that have better times, a high percentage of time taken off, higher ranking, or looking the other way, not swimming an event, adding a large percent of time, or maybe it's a swim not noting about for a bit.
A swim that pops in my head as a great swim would have to be the 1500 free at Trials in Victoria in April. Swimming out of lane 1 placing 3rd in my heat, 24th overall, being the 8th fastest 17 year old in the event, and dropping nearly 12 seconds qualifying for my second SR National time as well making my first Olympic Trials cut time! That's a lot of excellent things happening in one swim.
400 free at Team Champs where BAC placed 2nd overall in Division 2 I swam to a 4:04.81 and taking gold. This meet led the team with 5 swims and 5 individual gold medals!!!!!! And yes the only BAC swimmer to win 5 gold medals in the meet. :-) It will be interesting to see what BAC can do in Division 1 this December!
Relays... I always love swimming them with different teammates. This is a great time when 4 guys can either rise to the top and win gold or fall to the bottom and crash and burn. Being able to swim a relay is a privilege and you MUST put forth 100% effort, if not then you have failed not only yourself but your relay team. A common goal is to go a personal best for swimmer 2, 3, and 4! And swimmer 1 should be at or within 0.5 of a PB. This is to set up the best possible relay swim. I have been on all these types of relays, and the best part is, there is always something to learn from every relay swim for everyone. I have witnessed some of the best relays this year and 75% of them were with all 4 guys committing 100% effort!!!! If I could name the best relay of the season it would have to be the 4x200 free relay. The job got done and the guys were able to get under 8:00 and I think we could have went even faster then the 7:59 if some swimmers (not naming names) actually stepped up to the plate and raced instead of worrying about there own individual swims that were happening latter in the week. But anyway you can't change peoples stupid thoughts about how they plan to swim a relay and I hope these swimmers that don't give 100% know they aren't hurting themselves because I don't care what your swimming latter on, the only thing that matters is the swim at hand and the team effort in the relay. So remember whenever you get the chance to swim the relay a) swim your best b) commit to winning c) move the team up d) be a team and don't worry about other swims All these things make for an outstanding relay!
Injury, we have all once faced pain and problems with the sport. Even the best of us fall apart when we need to be at the best possible shape. After a solid first National level meet it was back to training pretty much right away, feeling good a few days into training quickly turned to pain and a shoulder injury. Now I'm one that fights through pain and doesn't want to make a big fuss or deal about pain. I fought through it, after swimming to bronze medal and a best time FINALLY in the 200 IM in May I felt a lot of pain and was concerned that I would be done for the season. I didn't have time to react though, threw some numbing cream on and went to swim the 100 free 10 minutes after the 200 IM. Knowing I was in pain I wasn't sure how free would feel. It was pure hell! Pain screaming, crying in my goggles from the pain and un comfort adding time like crazy but not even sure if I could even exit the pool. 200 breast an hour latter after getting things look at massaged I was given the OK to give it a shot and see what happens. Same result, pain un comfort just un sure what would happen. After this I literally cut the meters down to a max of 2,500. Knowing I wasn't ever going to make it through the 1500 free in Tonawanda the next weekend I quickly threw the scratch in. Now I would say this was one of my best LC meets of the season, I mean swimming next to nothing and relying on stroke length was different and it worked for my sprint events. The next meet Canada Cup 6 weeks latter. a) it felt like a life time since I swam last b) I had a full tilt schedule 100 200 400 800 1500 free were just a few events on the agenda c) travel on the same day of the meet proves to be ridiculous and never except a best time with no taper and being cramped in a car since 5:00 AM that same morning d) having the 1500 free the first day of the meet wasn't the best thing but I felt no pain in warm up but quickly the race went down hill. After about 200 meters the pace was gone, the stroke was gone, the walls were gone, the kick was gone, the pain was present and screaming! The thought of stopping and getting out of the swim came up about half a dozen times during the swim. I just kept fighting and fighting. After the race looking at the clock and seeing a shit time was heart breaking. e) I wasn't sure why I swam that swim, I wasn't even sure how I'd get out of the pool. Out of all my teammates I had 3 that actually took the time to ask how I was and clam me down because I was downright pissed and about ready to throw a meltdown. After the swim literally looked at the warm down tank for 10 minutes! Just stood there, jumped in swam a 50 got out and cried a little then walked back with a teammate. f) knowing how horrible this swim was I quickly pulled out of the 800 free. The 400 free just thought it would be great. It wasn't pain, pain, pain was the game. g) after this swim the confidence in myself had been long gone, the confidence in my coach was drifting away, I had more questions then answers, and emotions had taken over. h) many coaches, even today are still shock to ever have scene me at Canada Cup and having the event line up as well at Provincials with the event load. h) Provincials had mixed emotions with excellent relay swims from me, but poor individual swims. I guess I should be happy that I made finals in a stupid 16-17 combined age group when the meet package says otherwise and no where does it say meet management or swim ON has the right to change that. But I'll close my mouth on the issue because I already got a foot in the mouth for a tweet about this issue... Anyways. I did make finals in a couple swims and couldn't put them together. Once again after the mile I just lost it and made a scene.
Moving in Nationals and Age Groups, confidence was at an all time high I had little pain and finally had some confidence in myself again! Nationals started off great FINALLY breaking 2:00 going 1:59 still feel I could have been 1:58 and then 1:57 at age groups. Didn't work like that wasn't a best time at all at age groups but that's whatever, passed. 400 free started off great just that last 150 couldn't bring it home. Similar with the 800 couldn't really put it together. Age Groups was my time to shine, try and make finals in the 17-18 category and make best times. Didn't happen, emotions were all over the place, having great relays and poor individual swims. A lot of swims I didn't do warm downs after races or listen to the feedback that was given because I was pissed at the time or thinking about other things. These meets weren't my time to shine, clearly and I found it interesting that some of my teammates couldn't put together the perfect race.... Makes you wonder whats really going on "off the pool deck" Looking over countless hours of video and splits I have learned that my technique is a train wreck and needs help now and is probably one reason for poor times because of all the wasted energy and a long list of other things. Over training and doing all these mistakes many times a day, week, month, year, my god it adds up to a lot of crap! So moving forward it looks like I need to be way more aware of smaller things because they are keys to success!
Enjoy the rest of your summer folks more blogs coming soon and of course stick to my Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. :-)
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