This past weekend, we headed from Raleigh to a very familiar pool in Greensboro for NC Sr. Champs with my MOR teammates. With my taper just starting, I was anxious to race after backing off of weights and training. The primary focus for this weekend was my 50 free. During Saturday's prelims, I dropped a little over .3 seconds with a 26.57. This was my fastest time in three years and just .38 of a second from the current Olympic Trials cut of 26.19. For context, I swam 26.60 when I first qualified for the Olympic Trials at age 16 in 1988 and 26.32 when I qualified again in 2012. So, I still have some work to do!
I finished finals later than night 3rd overall and was very consistent with 26.59. During both races, my finish was not quite on as I finished too short in the morning and then too long at night. Definitely room for improvement there to hopefully drop more time during my next race. It was a fun finals swim at night as several NC State girls I know were also in the final heat in addition to my fellow Masters swimmer, Kerry Lindauer (age 40).
In the coming weeks, I will continue to work on my stroke rate and increase my efficiency. The idea is to slow my rate down while increasing the power of my stroke. I've made some improvement, but need to focus on this more in practice so that it becomes second nature in races.
To top off the weekend, my sister and brother-in-law made the trip from Suffolk, VA to see me swim. We also celebrated Jimmy's birthday together, making the trip even more special!
This weekend I plan to race just the 50 free at Tarheel States at the UNC pool in Chapel Hill on Saturday, Aug. 1. It's a great pool that I'm very familiar with and just down the road from Raleigh.
50 Free Race Video - 26.57 (Lane 5 - Blue Cap)
Celebrating my brother-in-law, Jimmy's birthday!