This-morning I swam my first race since Beijing. I arrived in Atlanta yesterday afternoon. I warmed up in the pool and felt descent for having traveled. As I said before, I'm not quite sure what to expect from this meet. I know this is a good pool and I have had good luck in it. I won the 100 free here at the NCAA Championships my junior year, in 2006.
Warm-up was good this morning. I generally warm-up really slow in order to help my mind and body ease into the meet. As warm-up went on I started to do some build 25's and fast 25's. I felt ok but nothing to write home about. However, it doesn't matter how you feel...it matters how you look. Randy Reese always told me it doesn't matter what we feel like. He is right. There have been times when I have felt terrible and have swum awesome.
The 50 started and I had a pretty good start. What happened next was not as good...I was on the surface of the water before I even knew what was going on...I soon realized I needed to start swimming. Usually I will have a powerful breakout and transition very well into the rest of the race. Needless to say, this was not the case. I approached the turn and I found myself looking up to see where the wall was. My turn was ok and I could tell I was ahead of the people in my line of sight. I whipped off some fly kicks and broke out for home. The second 25 I just focused on blasting my legs. I got to the wall and went 19.91. I'm moderately happy with that as a morning swim. I made it back for the semi-finals, which is all that really matters to me right now. I don't care how I place. This meet is simply a way for me to gauge my progress and get an opportunity to race.
After the race I talked to Kris, our assistant coach at Texas. I was laughing when he walked up to me because it is funny to race when you haven't done it in so long. He said I looked like a guy who hasn't raced in a long time. I would have to agree with him. Kris described my swimming by saying, "your body was like Woooowwww I haven't gone this fast in a really long time." Very true. I know the meet will continue to get better with every session. I will keep ya'll updated...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
First Race Since Beijing
Posted by Garrett at 12:25 PM
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8 comments:
Thanks Garrett!!
:)
Wait, you did 50m Free in a little over 19s? Wow. I saw that Eamon Sullivan did 21.28 in a comp a couple weeks ago. Keep up the work GWG! I'm still learning about times and splits and all that. Forgive the novice!
Congrats!!! You remain to compete another day! :) It's hard, I'm sure, to jump right back into swimming as if you've never been away... the important thing is you kept going and made it into the next round... :) And while 19 may not have been what you were shooting for, it's still amazing and nothing to scoff at! :) Good luck with the rest of the competitions, I'm sure you'll do great and look forward to reading about them! :)
good luck with the rest of the competition... i'm sure it will get better as you said!!!! hugs
good to hear from you Garrett...it will all come back! are you going to update your swimroom blog as well?
thanks for your detailed writing as always :)
you got the 1st race out of the way... you were wondering what it'd feel like jumping in again. now it'll be easier to focus on what you need to do to improve :) it was a good race though.
and i'm seriously loving swimnetwork for having the vids up.
When you're really competitive, you want to go fast, fast, faster, no matter what. As someone who has seen him swim forever, I can tell you that his times are really good for where he is in training. He thinks they're merely okay, I'm sure. :)
Garrett's dad.
The 50 I did is yards. The 50 Eamon would have done was in meters.
This meet is simply a test. competing as much as possible is really good for me right now.
I'm happy with where I'm at right now.
My dad is correct haha
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