tyler's take

At master’s nationals I was somewhat disappointed with my 100 Fly. I thought it would be a good exercise for me, and my coach concurred, to keep resting a little longer and see if I could go any faster than the 57.50 I did at the American Long Course meet in February.

Well, this morning I swam in the Texas Senior Circuit #3 meet at College Station and I ended up going .24 seconds slower than I did in February. The swim felt smooth, but I just didn’t have the speed I needed. I was out in a 27.01 and needed to be out at least a second faster than that; I got home in 30.73 and I needed to be at least a second faster than that. So all around I needed to be faster. To get there I probably need to take at least 2 fewer strokes per length. At this point I think I really need to lift weights if I want to drop any more time (I’m certainly not getting any younger).

If you want, you can check out all of the meet results.

Master’s nationals went well. I had several great swims and also some mediocre ones. I did accomplish one of my goals for this season, which was to go under 21 seconds in the 50 yard free. I actually did that two times (three if you count bringing home the last medley relay). Many of my teammates also some really outstanding swims. Our club and the Texas Swim Center did a really fantastic job of hosting the meet. Many thanks to all the volunteers! More to come…

The first day of the 2008 USMS short-course nationals meet is done. If you check out the real-time results you will find several TXLA swimmers who had outstanding swims yesterday (on the distance day), including the first national champion of 2008 from TXLA: Amy Marsh won the Women’s 30-34 1000 Yard Freestyle by almost 12 seconds. Way to go Amy!

I constructed a heat sheet for the meet that shows only the swimmers on Longhorn Aquatics. I thought this might be useful for those on the team who want to avoid all the “noise” of the full heat sheet and not miss any of their teammates swims. I left some space in between heats for people to write in the swims of friends (or superstars) who they don’t want to miss, but aren’t on TXLA.

Kudos to anyone who can explain this chart (hint 1: leave a comment; hint 2: the clues are in the peaks and valleys).

Today is the beginning of the 2008 USMS Masters National Championships. The big event is being held in my home town of Austin, Tx. There are almost 1900 competitors entered in the meet, and they range in age from 18 to 90 (no kidding, 90). The distance events start today, and the real meet starts tomorrow and goes through Sunday (that’s just a little humor for all my distance swimming friends).