Woah. I haven't swam in such a long time. And I NEED to get back in shape. High school swimming starts soon. I'm so scared. Distance. I'll be stuck with the 500. Way too short.
Yay! I am so not ready for the 1500 but ... whatever. There's only two heats (they capped it at two heats for time constraints for obvious reasons) and my seed time is 2nd slowest time, so I guess it doesn't really mattter anyway that I am so not in shape for it. Oh well. Friday evening for me is the 1500M and the 400M, Saturday morning will be the 100M and 200M free and 200M back. My parents just moved here and my mom's been wanting to go down to Denver, and I'm thinking of asking if she'd be interested in coming down to Denver to watch me swim. The meet is in downtown Denver at the Denver Athletic Club, plus I wanna go down to CU-Denver campus that's downtown and sell some old books back for some cash. I think my dad would be interested too probably. Hell, they used to put up with my holy hell club team meets when I was a 12 year old sprog and masters meets are much more user friendly, plus unlike club team meets dad won't be roped into timing duties like he always was when I was a sprog hahaha. Plus it'll be nice to have a cheering section if they go. I am the only one (that I know of) from my town that competes, so it is always just me representing the team since in competitive respects I am the team. I've made friends with a handful of regulars at masters meets so I am never alone, but sometimes I wish I did have someone else from Longmont who competed. Anyway ... just thought I'd share. :)
I have to mail off my entry form for the Colorado SCM Champs in Denver tomorrow. This will be my 3rd year in a row swimming in it. My question is ... should I still do the 1500? I've done it the last two years, and last year I still did it and finished even though I wasn't really ready for it. Same thing for this year, I'm really not in shape for it again but last year they told me hey don't worry about it just use it as a warm up or something it doesn't matter about the time. That's the joy of masters swimming, there's not so much pressure about times unless you want the pressure. I've already picked what other events I want to swim. I'm probably going to go for it, why not, it's tradition for me at this meet. :)
Ack I feel like such a failure, I haven't done worth shit since I came back from worlds in August. Maybe I just needed a break perhaps? That's what I keep telling myself anyway. But anyway, it's definitely time I get my ass back in gear and get back in the pool. It's been nice to have some time off and you bet that me going to worlds in August was the perfect excuse to explain why I haven't been in the pool. But it's time for me to start up again since Colorado SCM championships are first weekend of December. I really need some motivation right now!
Yes I'm still awake (I'm such a night owl!) and looking at upcoming swim meets. For some reason it always helps me to have something to train for to keep me motivated to swim. So far, the most recent upcoming meet is the 1st Annual Castle Rock Masters Open (SCY) on October 8th.
What I'm thinking to enter: 500 FREE 200 BACK 100 FREE 200 FREE
Was thinking of 100 Fly, but it's right before the 200 Free soooo never miind about the 100 fly. 200 Fly is there too but I don't know if I am that brave to try the 200 fly. I've never done it in a meet before. The only reason I have wanted to try it is just for a challenge and to set a goal for myself, ie just to finish it and see how I do. I probably won't do it but ... who knows. If I decide to do it I'll let you all know. :) But anyway for the time being it will be those four events.
And for sure I'll have to remember to ask for the day off work. Last time I had a swim meet and went straight to work afterwards, omg I was so fucking exhausted its not even funny.
I'm finally getting around to updating and telling everyone about worlds. Needless to say, it was absolutely AWESOME!!!! Except for the sunburn I got my first day of racing, the whole experience was so wonderful. Seriously, there were a shitload of masters world records broken for different age groups as well as a lot of meet records too! My mixed 200 Free relay actually broke a meet record, but the other Colorado team in our heat was 4 seconds ahead of us so they get the record title. We came in first and second place. Can't remember offhand what my other places were but our relay placed 10th overall and I swam a 30.13 split. In the women's 200 free relay I'd swam a 31.7 and I swam 31.28 in the 50M Free. I got DQd from my 200M race bc I forgot to take off my watch. Arrrrgh. I got 2:41 though. Swam 1:11 in the 100.
(sigh) Why does this have to happen now of all times? Last Thursday I went to the blood bank to donate blood and my iron level tested low. It wasn't like one or two points low (which is no big deal) either. Normal range for women is 38 - 46 and I tested at 31. Yikes! That's the lowest I've EVER been at, and I've been donating blood for five years. I just went six months ago and my iron level was fine. Sooo ... I got some iron pills and I've been trying to eat more meat and veggies that are supposed to have iron. I went back in on Tuesday and I had only gone up to 35. Sure, yeah it's good that I went up since at least it didn't stay the same or get worse. But the lady who took my blood said that with the iron pills I shoulda been back up to normal by then.
I go to San Francisco for worlds in TWO WEEKS!!! I really don't need this right now!!!! I thought it was just me that my times had slowed down recently. But apparently I'm slightly anemic and I can't figure out WHY. I'm glad I know now rather than later so that at least I can try to work on this before I get to worlds. I mean, I would hate to have gone and wondered why the fuck are my times so damn slow and then afterwards find out d'oh I'm anemic. But even so, this couldn't have happened at a worse time. I just keep thinking oh my God I'm going to do absolutely horrible at worlds and embarrass myself ... but at the same time, I still want to swim because I know I will so REGRET IT if I don't. This is such a HUGE opportunity for me, even if I totally suck, so just for the record I don't plan on copping out just because I won't be 100%. It's just so incredibly frustrating because I can't train the way I want to because this condition makes me tired and less able to handle my usual workouts since anemia can also cause muscle weakness.
Woohoo! Just made plane reservations for my trip to San Francisco to go to Worlds next month! *bounce* I'm so excited!! Even better is that my parents were so happy for me that they even agreed to pay for my airfare. OK who are you people and what have you done with my parents? Seriously ... 15 years ago when I started high school as a freshman, if I'd come across an opportunity like this I think they would've balked at the amount of money to be spent, considering how unsupportive they were of my athletic endeavers at the time. Besides the fact that they thought at the time that people who wanted to do things like this were "obsessed", not to mention that mom was against competitive sports and blatantly disapproved of me participating as such. She had other plans for me. Needless to say, they've done a complete 180 and now that I'm an adult they've been really supportive of whatever I'm doing including my swimming. They even gave me money towards renewing my gym pass so that I'm good to go for another 3 months so that I can keep training for Worlds. I've been absolutely amazed with their financial support, since they're always whining about money issues. If I was still 15, their financial support might be more expected but since I'm a bit older than that now ... I didn't expect this at all! And they offered!!! I didn't even ask them for any financial help.
frustrated
excited