18 January 2025
When I raced at this long course meet last year at the (generally) excellent K2 Crawley pool ...
... I wrote that it, "... left me breathless and my whole body aching as if I had just climbed a mountain."
The sum total meterage of my racing between the two years was the same (550 meters), but I swam different events this year in the Saturday afternoon session (400 free, 100 back, 50 breast) than last (200 back & 50 fly in the AM session followed by 200 IM and 100 fly in the PM session). The end result in my body was the same - aching all over!
Here's how it went down:
400 free - As noted in my recent training posts (Friday and Monday), I was hoping to get under the 4:44.44 from 2022 and see how close I could get to 4:40. I didn't get there and was, candidly, quite disappointed when I saw the 4:49.28 on the time board. Upon reflection, though, my splitting wasn't bad - 1:09.8, 1:13.0, 1:13.6, 1:12.8 - and it was probably a bit of a stretch to think I could get to a "tapered & shaved" time (the 2022 time).
But, what still perplexes me is how much worse I am at long course racing than short course. I swam the 400 short course meters four times in 2024, never in a tapered swim, and averaged 4:34.1 on those efforts (ranging from 4:32.1 to 4:35.6). Based upon the online time converters, that average time should translate to something in the 4:37.9 (Swimming World) to 4:45.1 (SwimSwam Swimulator) range long course. That's a wide range, but all faster than what I did.
Now, if I'm to be kind to myself, I will allow a little bit of historical comparison:
The first time I raced this as a Masters swimmer was at the 2003 USMS Long Course Nationals, where I went 4:36.11. So, declining by 0.2% per year over those 22 years is not too shabby.
My best-ever 400 freestyle was done in 1988. I cannot recall the time to the tenths, but I was less than a second off the 1988 Olympic Trial qualifying time, which, in those days was 3:59.99. So, let's call it 4:00.5. My swim yesterday translates to a 0.5% average annual decline over the ensuing 37 years.
According to my good buddy ChatGPT:
"Studies indicate that performance in swimming events declines by approximately 0.5-1% per year starting in the mid-30s and accelerating slightly after 50 due to factors like reduced muscle mass, flexibility, and aerobic capacity."
"This implies an average decline of around 45-50 seconds over 30 years, or roughly 1.5-2 seconds per year for elite-level swimmers."
So, my ~49 second decline over 37 years is not horrible ... but, of course, I still think I can get back under 4:40 this year with more focused long course training and then a true taper meet!
100 backstroke - The one big downside to this facility when racing long course is that they don't have any other pool in which to cool-down after a race. I knew I would feel this on the 100 backstroke, which came along too quickly (to my way of thinking) since I was in the last heat of the 400s and we only had 8 heats of the 200 IM, then 9 heats of the 100 backstroke before I swam. Never have I thought this thought more, "they must not have put the backstroke flags up because this pool can't be this long and I'm gonna hit my head."
This hurt, hurt, hurt all over, but especially in my quads. Technically, this 1:14.32 is now my Age 50+ Masters best, since I haven't swum it since 2015 ;)
50 breast - This came even quicker as I had one more heat of 100 backstrokes then 10 heats of 50 breast before I dove off. I focused on a super long pullout (my only strength in a breaststroke race) and tried to emphasize a longer stroke versus a high turnover (as I knew I'd seize up trying to turn it over faster). I was pretty darn happy to see 39.68 as that was under my previous Age 50+ Masters best from 2017, when I was 41.62.
In the end, any day of racing is better than a day not racing ... but this has reinforced to get more long course training in this year!
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