Getting out of my comfort zone

[Wahine]

Thanks for the encouragement Susan!

I'm usually totally happy and in the zone on the 1500m. I'm just annoyed that I got sick just before it.

What freaks me out is the 200 IM on Sunday,. EEEEEEEEEEK.

[Susan Otcenas]

Thanks for the encouragement Susan!

I'm usually totally happy and in the zone on the 1500m. I'm just annoyed that I got sick just before it.

What freaks me out is the 200 IM on Sunday,. EEEEEEEEEEK.

I'm so impressed that you're doing an IM. Knowing all those strokes makes you such a well-rounded swimmer. I can fake the backstroke (can't be too awful, as my Garmin 910 recognizes it as backstroke) but butterfly and breaststroke are total mysteries to me.

You mentioned that the turns are different. How so? (I can barely manage a flip turn and most times just do open turns. Any time I don't get water up my nose, I consider it a successful turn. )

[solobiker]

Good Luck!!! You will do great.

[Bike Chick]

Good luck!
Can't wait to hear the report. I know you will do awesome.

[Wahine]

My 1500 m race report:

I had a flu/virus of some sort that had me feverish on Thursday. I didn't sleep well, but the fever broke during the night. Iwas quite congested when I woke up. But like many days when I'm congested in the spring, I started to feel better after being up for a while and clearing my sinuses and lungs.

So I "raced". The first 500 m were dead on pace then I couldn't catch my breath and I slowed waaaaaaay down. In the end, my time was 1 min slower than what I had expected.

I'm OK with having a bad race once in a while. I'm really OK with it if I understand why. In this case, I just wasn't well. But I woke up this morning much worse. I was supposed to swim the 100 IM at around 9 AM, I was on some relays and I had the 800 free this afternoon. But I'm not going to make it. I feel worse than yesterday and with this much breathing difficulty, there's no way I can sprint, let alone do a distance event.

I'm resting today and hopefully I'll be able to swim tomorrow, even if it's at half effort. It's disappointing because I've actually put a lot of time and effort into getting ready for this meet. It's in our home town too.

[Wahine]

I'm so impressed that you're doing an IM. Knowing all those strokes makes you such a well-rounded swimmer. I can fake the backstroke (can't be too awful, as my Garmin 910 recognizes it as backstroke) but butterfly and breaststroke are total mysteries to me.

You mentioned that the turns are different. How so? (I can barely manage a flip turn and most times just do open turns. Any time I don't get water up my nose, I consider it a successful turn. )

Susan, all the strokes, except for freestlye have very specific rules about how you start, legal turns and legal finishes. Butterfly and breaststroke require a 2 hand touch at the wall on the turns and the finishes. Back stroke requires you to finish on your back but you are allowed to turn over kind of at the last minute to do a flip turn.

So IM events require you to obey all the rules of that stroke during that segment. So on the 100 IM, you are do a fly start one length and a fly finish, into a backstroke start (which has to be on your back), so that becomes a special turn, 2 hand touch with a push-off onto your back. You don't do it anywhere else except in IM events. You sim your length of back stroke, have to finish on your back, then turn over during the turn to push-off on your stomach to make a legal "start" for breast stroke...

On a 200 IM the transition turns are the same as the 100 IM, but you also have to know how to do the legal turn for each individual stroke because now each stoke is a 50 with a turn in the middle.

Does that make any sense? It's kind of confusing when you first start trying it which is why I had to practice my turns so much, to make them more automatic.

[Susan Otcenas]

Wow, sounds super complicated! But yes, it all makes sense. I guess if it wasn't so highly detailed, swimmers might be able to gain advantage in the turns by doing something that wasn't true to the stroke.

Sorry you missed your meet. Will you be able to do another soon?

[fetchspot]

Wahine

Just wondering how your weekend was. Hope you enjoyed it

fs

[Wahine]

Thanks for asking FS.

My weekend fell apart. I was really excited about it, then just before the meet I got a terrible upper respiratory infection that knocked me out for about 2 weeks. I tried to swim the 1500 on the first night anyway and it went poorly. I finished but was 1 min slower than anticipated and felt like I couldn't breath the whole way. The next morning I was so sick I couldn't even go to the pool to help with timing.

I haven't been back to the pool since and I'm still recovering.

I'll do the 200 IM another time.

[OakLeaf]

Ugh. Sorry it worked out that way - hope you feel better soon.

[fetchspot]

Look forward to the next time you step up to the challenge.
Hope you get better soon.
fs