Last Day of School and Swim Practice
Today, was indeed Thursday. It was a good and a bad day in a few different ways. On the bright side of things, today was the last day of school, Summer Vacation is officially under way. On the not-so-bright side of things, today was also the last day of finals, and for me the hardest day: AP History and Honors English exams. I don't think I did very well, which is kind of too bad, because I believe that I learned quite a bit this year. Finals do not prove anything, I am entirely against them, because they don't reflect me properly, they are a completely stressful waste of time. Now that I've vented about that, I shall move on to the major topic of this post...
Swim Practice...
Thursdays, for the last three months, have been 200 Freestyle practices. This has been quite helpful to me in developing my 200 Freestyle race strategy, and bringing down my time. Two weeks ago, I clocked my best time ever by about 3 seconds, that time being 2 minutes and 24.15 seconds.
The strategy I've adopted is this:
1.) Swim the first 75 yards with a long, smooth, but still quick stroke, to conserve energy, but to make use of how I am able to swim my best.
2.) Next, swim 50 yards at a long sprint pace. At this point I will really start to push it, because, after all, it's only 50 yards.
3.) Finally, since I'm completely warmed up, I'll give everything I have for the last 75 yards. This is where I push it to the limit, the most important part of the race. Also, I always try to push it even more for the last 25 yards, the final lap, and the finish.
Today was like every other Thursday, 200 Freestyle day. I was doing extremely well, because we were working on lengthening our freestyle, and achieving the most out of every single stroke. I was finishing most of the sets first, and I was really happy with how much I was accomplishing. Then came the final part of practice: the actual 200 Freestyle, off the blocks, for time. This is where I accomplished my all-time best time two weeks ago, so after such a great practice, I though sure I could beat my time. The only problem is, I wanted to break that time a little bit too much. I pushed myself too hard, and paid the consequences.
We started, and I ditched my strategy, at that point all I was thinking about was going the absolute fastest that my body would take me. Bad idea... The first 100 yards went exceptionally well, however, that's if a 100 yard event was what I was swimming. It wasn't though, I was swimming the 200 yard event, and I had just about used up everything I had on the first half of my swim. After that half-way mark, I don't really remember much. I wasn't conscious of much of anything. I wasn't even counting laps, so I don't know how I finished it at the right time. My body was swimming, my mind was blacking out. I've swum the 200 yard even so many times, that since my mind wasn't functioning properly, it took over and finished everything up. But the body doesn't work quite as well on it's own, and I slowed down quite a bit during the second half of the race.
Whatever the case, though, I finished it, and I clocked a very respectable 2 minutes and 25 seconds. I wasn't very excited about this time, because at the time I discovered it, I felt horrible, and just wanted to be sick. Everything turned out alright, and I have not suffered physically in any way that I know of. The thing I'm worried about, though, Is the mental aspect of my race. I'm not sure anymore how hard I can push myself. I don't want what happened today ever to happen again, it was an extremely frightening experience. Hopefully I can recover from this, and keep on swimming the 200 yard Freestyle in the way that I know I can. I still have a little over a second to drop before I accomplish next year's High School State qualifying time; however this shouldn't be a problem, because I've got plenty of time.
Peace,
Justin
Swim Practice...
Thursdays, for the last three months, have been 200 Freestyle practices. This has been quite helpful to me in developing my 200 Freestyle race strategy, and bringing down my time. Two weeks ago, I clocked my best time ever by about 3 seconds, that time being 2 minutes and 24.15 seconds.
The strategy I've adopted is this:
1.) Swim the first 75 yards with a long, smooth, but still quick stroke, to conserve energy, but to make use of how I am able to swim my best.
2.) Next, swim 50 yards at a long sprint pace. At this point I will really start to push it, because, after all, it's only 50 yards.
3.) Finally, since I'm completely warmed up, I'll give everything I have for the last 75 yards. This is where I push it to the limit, the most important part of the race. Also, I always try to push it even more for the last 25 yards, the final lap, and the finish.
Today was like every other Thursday, 200 Freestyle day. I was doing extremely well, because we were working on lengthening our freestyle, and achieving the most out of every single stroke. I was finishing most of the sets first, and I was really happy with how much I was accomplishing. Then came the final part of practice: the actual 200 Freestyle, off the blocks, for time. This is where I accomplished my all-time best time two weeks ago, so after such a great practice, I though sure I could beat my time. The only problem is, I wanted to break that time a little bit too much. I pushed myself too hard, and paid the consequences.
We started, and I ditched my strategy, at that point all I was thinking about was going the absolute fastest that my body would take me. Bad idea... The first 100 yards went exceptionally well, however, that's if a 100 yard event was what I was swimming. It wasn't though, I was swimming the 200 yard event, and I had just about used up everything I had on the first half of my swim. After that half-way mark, I don't really remember much. I wasn't conscious of much of anything. I wasn't even counting laps, so I don't know how I finished it at the right time. My body was swimming, my mind was blacking out. I've swum the 200 yard even so many times, that since my mind wasn't functioning properly, it took over and finished everything up. But the body doesn't work quite as well on it's own, and I slowed down quite a bit during the second half of the race.
Whatever the case, though, I finished it, and I clocked a very respectable 2 minutes and 25 seconds. I wasn't very excited about this time, because at the time I discovered it, I felt horrible, and just wanted to be sick. Everything turned out alright, and I have not suffered physically in any way that I know of. The thing I'm worried about, though, Is the mental aspect of my race. I'm not sure anymore how hard I can push myself. I don't want what happened today ever to happen again, it was an extremely frightening experience. Hopefully I can recover from this, and keep on swimming the 200 yard Freestyle in the way that I know I can. I still have a little over a second to drop before I accomplish next year's High School State qualifying time; however this shouldn't be a problem, because I've got plenty of time.
Peace,
Justin
posted by Jw at 8:56 PM
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