25 July 2021
Greensboro, North Carolina
I absolutely LOVE the Greensboro Aquatic Center and was delighted to be able to make it to the last day of the (COVID-delayed) 2021 US Masters National Championships ...
... but, while it truly is a great place to race, I was not in racing shape.
I knew this going into the event, as the long COVID lockdowns that shut our pools in Ontario put me very far behind my historic training activity, where I had many weeks with absolutely no access to water and not a single week where I trained near my ten year historical average volume:
However, while my intent was never to swim fast, I really didn't think I would be as slow as I was! For my entry times, I used the slowest time I had ever gone over my 20+ year Masters Swimming career. I truly thought that these would be a "low bar" over which I could easily jump.
How wrong I was!
I started off slow, going 1% slower than my entry time in the 200 free, and then proceeded to get slower and slower: going 2.3% slower than my 100 breaststroke entry time and then 4.2% slower than my 200 backstroke entry time.
Humbling to say the least ... and yet, I still had a fabulous time: I got to see some old friends who I haven't seen for years, I got to push myself as hard as I could (= endorphin rush) and, thanks to the already exceptional GAC adding yet another 50 meter pool since the last time I was here in 2016, I got to add Pool #474 when I did an extra 1,650 yard workout in their new training pool after my racing was over:
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