oldmodelt's 2012-2013 Swimming Update

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times.

2012-2013 Swimming Update. After the Sink or Swim meet I felt pretty good. I had 2 State records in my age group. I was lucky that they were soft records. But a record is a record. I do not expect them to stand for long. There are some very good swimmers aging up and some others starting to swim that were very good in their HS & college days. But that is what makes this fun. I'm hoping that the 20+ years of on and off again lifting will help me. I've also come to just accept that my hernia might be with me for a while. It would take another major surgery and loss of income that I just don't want to do at this point. Plus the option of having a mesh screen that might break or harden at some point is not too appealing. I'm pretty lean and mean at this point. My weight is 178-182 range at 6ft.1in. for the last year.

Last Feb 2013 on Super Bowl Sunday I had the worst of times. I need corrective goggles and got a new pair and tried them on for the first time at the meet. During the 100 Freestyle I was too far away from the 1^st turn and barely got my toes on the wall. Then it went from bad to worse. I was too close on the 50 turn and slammed both heels on the gutter and then had to peel them off and finish the stupid race. I gave them a rest and decided to come back in the 100 Backstroke. But the goggles were still throwing me off. At the 50 turn I was too far to the left and when I flipped both heels again came down on the touch pads/gutters but the left foot hit the edge of the touch pad that curves over the gutter and sliced my heel almost down to the Achilles tendon. I thought I had just banged it again and just kept going. After the race I limped back to my seat and one of my team mates saw the blood trail. I spent the rest of the day in the ER getting 12 stitches.

That put me out of the pool and exercising my lower body for 6 weeks. Then I only had 4 weeks left before the State Meet. And I wisely laid off flip turns until the week of the meet. I resigned myself to just enjoying the meet and to not worry about the competition. Each year the participants keeps growing. This year almost 700 swimmers competed. Including a former Olympian from the 1980 team that didn't compete at the Olympics because the USA boycotted it that year. Fortunately the year's workouts helped me. I dropped time in 6 out of 7 events from the previous years meet without a taper. I cracked 26 secs in the 50 yd Free. Oldschool. Tell your kids I only took 2 breathes in the 50. One into the turn and one out of it. And my 100 IM time was almost 2 secs faster than 2012. My time would have won last years event by almost a sec. But was only good enough for a 5th this year because of the youngsters (lol) who moved up from the 50-54 age group. My 100 Freestyle still needs a ton of work. I still think I can get to a 55 but I'll have to put in some time.

I was able to swim with the young bucks in the 35-39 Men's 200 Free relay which placed 2^nd. And I wasn't the slowest. My split was a 25.2. Which I'm very happy with with considering my starts and turns still suck. Or should I say are so 1975. Back then you were taught to hit the water much flatter than today's hit the hole technique. And the combination with the body dolphins make a big difference.

On 6/23/2013 Munster HS ran a LCM (Long Course Meter) ie., Olympic distance meet. I swam 4 events and blew away everyone in my 55-59 age group. Actually I was the only one who showed up. Lol. It was the first LCM ever at this new pool. Only about 40 swimmers participated so they seeded the swimmers (guys & gals) in heats as close to times as possible. My younger brother recorded 3 of my swims. I had never seen myself on tape so I learned then that my starts are so 1975. But I can see what I need to work on. I just wanted to finish strong because the jump from SCY to LCM is big. I took 2 more breaths in the Free than I should have. My backstroke turnover was too slow. The 23 yr old gal who creamed me had almost a 2x1 turnover ratio. And you can't see it on the video but I'm sure she hit that hole during her start. She also broke the State record in this race and the 100. I was about 1.5 secs off the State record for my age group. But I was happy with my Fly. And actually gave the 32 year old young buck a scare. 3 videos from my swims at Munster below. Click on and like them. If enough of you watch them I can get to a million hits and then start making some cash. J/k. I disabled the comments section on the backstroke because of the idiots on YouTube. I could care less what is said about me. But didn't want to expose the gal to any abuse.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAPStE9he4s    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ggsUXj4ZuA   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LNonUlBxg8