Buffalo, New York United States

Total Time = 25m 82s Overall Rank = / Age Group = 50-54 Age Group Rank = 0/

I am writing this race report to record my memories of this event. I set a Niagara District Masters Swimming age group record.

I came to swimming in my mid-to-late thirties. I did not swim competitively in my youth. In fact, I had to take remedial swimming to graduate from college. (My college required everyone to pass a swim test to graduate, which I failed.) I started swimming because I wanted to do a triathlon. I did triathlons from my mid 30s to mid 40s. Even from the beginning, I was a good triathlon swimmer, usually finishing in the top 10% of all swimmers.

In my early 40s, I was definitely focused on triathlons. But I would do the occasional swim meet. My first was at age 41. I was not particularly competitive as a swimmer, but I enjoyed them and enjoyed the various strokes. My first time racing the 50 yard butterfly was at age 42 and my time was 30.27 seconds.

I stopped competing in triathlons about age 45 but continued to swim to stay in some shape. Without really realizing it, I continued to improve. And much to my significant surprise, I qualified for USMS Nationals at age 46. It was the 50 fly that I first qualified for USMS Nationals. My story of that event is here.

https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid...

My 50 fly time at that Nationals was 26.93. Going to Nationals turned me into a competitive swimmer. I had so much to learn. I continued to improve through my late 40s. I continued to try new techniques. Try different points of emphasis. At age 48, my times started dropping. First to 26.53. Then to 26.29. At Nationals that year, I went 26.20. That race report is here.

https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid...

At age 48, I think it was that I first started looking ahead. The USMS Niagara District record for men 50-54 in the 50 yard fly was 26.57. It was a record that had been on the books since 2000 and held by a swimmer with many, many records over many age groups. At age 48, I went under that record 3 times with improving times in succession.

I began to do some specific strength training for swimming and butterfly in particular. A significant focus on core work. I also tried to find some strength moves to mimic the pull down motion in fly. I was able to co-opt the machines with a pull down bar to work the muscles used in fly. I worked on jumping, to try to maximize my start and turn. I regularly would do both box jumps and standing broad jumps from a stance similar to what I use off the blocks. All of these jumps, pull down machines, and core work became part of my usual strength routine.

I set a personal best time of 26.18 at age 49. Modest improvement

I can't pretend that I was perfect in my workout routines or swim time in the pool over the last year or so. Life is busy. Actually, I have a lot going on in my life right now. I recently started a business. I have a lot of timely family things going on, at both the parent and child level. Many of these factors led to my not going to Nationals this year.

Despite all of these things going on, I would work on my fly. Most every time I'd go to the pool, I would work on my fly sprinting. This summer, I would play around with different points of emphasis on my stroke to see what was faster in a 25. I also continued to work the strength areas of emphasis when I had time to get to the gym. I was doing these things specifically to go after the Niagara record. It was foremost in my mind when I was working out or swimming over the last year plus.

This Fall, I have been swimming and working out some. Not at a level that I would ideally do to leading up to a big event like Nationals. I've only been in the water 2-3 times a week. Dry land stuff only 1, maybe 2 times a week. Too many other life events going on to do much more. I would say that I've been swimming reasonably well given the amounts I've been able to focus on it.

The notice of the event only came out about 10 days before. It actually was a first-of-its-kind event. It was a combined event for USMS and college club swimming. There were college kids from about 20 club teams as well as close to 30 masters swimmers. I signed up somewhat haphazardly, thinking it'd be my first chance at the record. Eh, why not see where I'm at?

I specifically only signed up for 2 races, the 50 breast and the 50 fly. Breast is my least competitive stroke. I signed up for that to give myself a feel for the blocks. Breast also has a similar turn to fly. I felt this would be the best event to test conditions without unduly fatiguing me.

I was not able to workout in the two days before the event. I'd normally at least swim for 30 minutes in the days before an event. But too much going on. I did go to my normal Masters swim that morning. I swam about 1000 yards to loosen up.

I also talked some with Coach. I had not planned on shaving or wearing my best technical swim suit. But she said I should do that. So when I got home, I shaved my body. I had not done that in about 18 months. Can't say it was the best shave job I had done, but I did it. I also packed my best suit.

It was a little over an hour drive to the meet. I put on my favorite music artist. As it turned out, a song came on that occasionally sends shivers down my spine. Today it did. And for some reason, I also felt a huge amount of tension release from my body with the shivers. I actually started crying a bit, the release was so strong. Like I said, I've been under a lot of stress recently. A sense of calm came over me. I took it as a good sign.

I got to the arena and found my way to the pool. The event was late getting started but whatever. I was interesting seeing all of the college club team swimmers. There were some REALLY good swimmers, and some not so much.

I did a typical swim warmup. Tried to get loosened up again and get my body ready to race. I tried out the blocks a few times to work on starts. The blocks were different from what I'm used to. They had a back fin. I don't normally have that. I could never quite get fully comfortable with how to set up on the blocks to feel like I could explode on the start. During breaks once the meet went on, I would get up on the blocks and try different setups to find one that felt comfortable. I never was able to really find one I liked.

The 50 fly was one of the last events. The 50 breast was a bit over half way through. So I had a bit of a wait. I watched some teammates swim their races.

Time finally came for my 50 breast. I had a decent start. The rest of the event was unremarkable. My time was the slowest in several years. Whatever. I got a feel for the blocks and turn.

I still had another long wait for the 50 fly. My back was getting a bit sore from standing on the pool deck and sitting on bleachers. I actually lay down on a bleacher for awhile and closed my eyes. I was tired. I didn't sleep all that well the night before. After doing that for awhile, I got up. Back still sore. I decided to warm up again in the side pool. I did a few laps. A few higher level efforts to get my heart rate up a bit. To get my body warmed up to go hard when needed. Probably the right idea.

As I walked back to where we were sitting, a woman official said that I looked tired. Yes, she was right.

I dried off and tried to get warm. It was getting closer to race time.