Love to Swim? Yes

After my third indoor swimming competition, I'm a little wiser and also know that there's still a lot more to learn. Yesterday was the English Bay Swim Club's Love to Swim meet at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

For some reason I swam most of my events goggles-optional, though that doesn't mean 'intentional'. I recommend swimming with goggles - perhaps double-capped too - and I'll focus on that for the next meet - Provincials April 26-28 in Vancouver.

At the next Titans Flippin' Tuesday session on March 5th, I will look to practice my diving skills along with perfecting my turns. I flip turned every time at yesterday's meet; a year ago I didn't know how to flip.

What did I get from this latest meet? First and foremost, I have some early season benchmarks, in particular for the 1500m. It's the fastest 1500m that I have swum in recent years - and as best I know ever.

Yesterday I swam 25:26.76 - which made me 1st among one in my age group. Ha! Once relegated to the slowest lane where I swam with fins in a losing effort to keep up with superswift kids, I now have a 'gold' medal performance :)

What I've learned most over the years is to celebrate my successes - with a grain of salt.

My objective for the 1500m was to start slower than I knew I could swim and then build. It was a good strategy though I might revise it a bit for the next meet. I might opt for a fast start and then ease into a rhythm that is 'comfortably uncomfortable' - in other words, a half ironman or ironman pace.

I am usually good at counting laps but not yesterday. I lost count of the 60 x 25m laps very early and so practiced my sighting skills - keen to see a bell ringing for me, the signal for the final 50m. Apparently I was sighting a lot. Perhaps that's because it seemed to take a lot longer than I expected - though my anticipation of the bell and some frantic on-deck signals from Titans teammate Simon encouraged me to swim the last few hundred metres as fast as I could.

I was ecstatic to finally see the bell and hammered the last 50m. I don't think I had much left in the tank so I'll look to expand the tank a bit ahead of April.

For comparison, I looked up my swim times from some recent triathlons.

I rarely do Olympic distance events, which start with a 1500m swim. The one exception has been the Squamish Triathlon which I have raced the last three years.

In 2012: I swam 25:29. In 2011, it was 26:20. And in 2010, I clocked 25:56. Last year I 'sort' of tapered ahead of the race and so I was fresh; the previous year I had completed a massive training day on the Saturday and had nothing.

The key change for me has been to swim calmer for which I credit Coach Roseline Mondor-Grimm.

So yesterday's time is a positive one, in particular given that it's so early in the year. I am convinced that a Sub 25 swim is within my reach and I intend to get it this season.

What will that mean for a longer distance swim? Ideally it will translate into a faster, more efficient one. And the intent of a faster swim as a triathlete is to exit the water with a stronger group of competitors. If challenging yourself is an objective, as it is for me, then you want athletes at least as fit as yourself either chasing you or in the near 'legal' distance.

I have done seven half ironmans (mostly starting with 1900m in the water) in the last four years: Vancouver four times, Oliver twice and Sooke once. (And I have three Ironman Canada swims in those four years too but I won't look at those results today.)

My times in Vancouver have steadily fallen: 31:15 (2012), 32:49 (2011), 32:35 (2010) and 33:32 (2009). My target for this year: Sub 31.

In Oliver - which is a 2k course - I swam 38:32 (2012*) and 34:16 (2010). *The course last year wasn't accurate, I know that because I was in great form and swam very well. Others agreed. That said, everyone does the same course so it didn't alter the overall results - though it gave me pause for thought as I ran for my bike. Learning to compartmentalize is a great skill for a triathlete, one that I continue to develop.

In Sooke I took 32:09 (2011).

The progression in my swim times is positive. In both the 1500m and the 1900m, I am stopping the clock faster and faster. That's all I can ask for. Well, I can ask for still faster times :) and I do.

***

As for the swim meet itself, I did four events.

In the first - the 400m, I lost my goggles immediately after diving off the blocks and stopped as immediately to reset them. So much for the starting momentum. Coach Roseline says the start/stop cost me 5-10 seconds. The disturbance did fire me up and I swam hard to recatch the swimmers in the adjacent lanes. It ended up being my fastest 400m in recent months but not what I think is an accurate  reflection of my fitness at the moment.

I was, however, particularly happy with both my 100m and 50m efforts - and times. I enjoy these timetrial efforts: head down, breathing deeply and as little as I can, kicking and reaching long for the timing mat.

As it turns out my 50m split was very close to the qualifying time that I would need to attend the FINA World Championships in Montreal in 2014: 33.54 ME vs 33.0 FINA.

I also believe I can make the 100m standard, given that yesterday I was somewhat slowed by having to pull my goggles out of my mouth as I was in motion: 1:21.19 ME vs 1:15.30 FINA.

400m .. 47.92, 1:35.50, 2:25.73, 6:30.28  (6th)

100m .. 1:21.19  (39.43)  (7th)

50m .. 33.54 (5th)

1500m .. 25:26.76 (1st)

Other targets for Montreal, I would need to swim 5:50.00 in the 400m and 12:20.00 for the 800m. I did swim Sub 6 once in training last summer.

See you at the pool.