Race Report- Santa's Tune Up for Nationals

I'm back in the water full time!!! Tri season is over, my dabble into running for the 5k last month is over, now the pool has my focus.  My last meet was in March, so it has been quite some time.  This swim meet was a "tune-up" for the US Masters Swimming National Championships coming up in late April.  The meet was held at the same pool that Nationals will be held in.  That is my ultimate 'A' race/meet to end this solid year of training I have put in and physical gains that I have made.  I'll take a break next summer and regroup.

Overall, the meet was ok.  I had some solid swims, but there is certainly room for improvement.

Results
50 free: 38:32 (+ 1.08 :/ GRRR.) Slow start, botched the flip turn, gave up after the turn.  I'm not happy and this race out of all of them showed me how much work I need to do to be able to execute technically at masters nationals.

100 free: 1:27:89 This was my first time racing a 100 free, and I had to channel my inner Michael Phelps, as my goggles filled up with water from the dive.  I raced the whole thing blind and nailed all 3 of my flipturns!  I need to take out the first 50 faster and work on closing better, but overall, I was happy considering the circumstances.

50 breast: 52:84 Second time racing this event, first time with a legal time. I am TERRIBLE at breaststroke, but that is exactly why I make a point to race it each meet.  I want to improve my IM (all four strokes), therefore, I need to master all of them.

50 butterfly: 44:45 First time racing fly in a meet, first full 50 of fly, EVER.  I did really awesome!  Much faster than my coaches expected of me, and certainly faster than I expected of myself.  My technique needs some work as I am very new to this stroke, however, it looks like it will be my bread and butter.  My coaches say that I am a natural, which is both a gift and a curse, as butterfly by far is the most challenging and tiring stroke.

100 IM: 1:52:32 (- 1.99) My favorite event, but it was the last one of the day.  I was totally beat by the time I got to this race and told myself to focus on executing perfect technique and not worry about the time or maxing out my effort.  Even without going full force, I dropped time, which tells me that my non-free strokes are coming along.

--------------------------------
Reflection

I was really upset by my dismal 50 free time.  I put 8 more months of training in, and my time was slower!  I'm a much better swimmer now than I was then, but you have to execute.  There are so many moving parts to a perfect race and I did not have it today.  I am mostly upset with myself because I had a poor attitude when I finished.  I was ANGRY!  It felt as if all my work was for nothing and I focused on external factors as excuses, and not the things that were in my control.  This meet inspired me to re-focus and step up and take responsibility for my training.  I've been doing a lot of yardage with my teams, and I'm coming off a summer of endurance training for my triathlons.  As an exercise physiologist, I know this to be true--You can go fast or you can go long, NOT both.  I have to be more strategic with my training and focus on shorter, high intensity sets to get my speed back.