The BIG RACE is this Friday
A few of you may know that my AAA race for the season has yet to occur.... it's the 50 free showdown between me and my 12 year old boy Timothy.
By a quirk in the USA Swimming rules, I am eligible to swim in an upcoming swim meet hosted by our (mostly youth) club in the Open division, and the head coach has got two 50 yard freestyle match races set up between Dads and young sons. Should be a blast.
The cool thing about this is that I don't have to give him any quarter at all. I've got three kids, and this is the last time I could ever possibly beat any of them at swimming or running. 6 months from now, Timothy will have gotten older and faster, and I'll have missed my chance. On land, Chris knocked out a 16:30 5K, Olivia a 12:30 2 mile, and T a 12:50 2 mile, all on cross country courses in the last few weeks. Maybe I could hang with T, but it would be close. (I would beat the twins at a half marathon or something, but that's cheating!) In the water, I'm also past dead meat with my older son and my daughter. Only somewhat late-developing Timothy is anywhere near my neighborhood.
So .... This Friday, Friday Friday! It all comes down to this! 35 (or 36 or 37....) seconds of Sheer Madness!!! Its going to be great.
For those of you maybe a little younger than me, if your kids get involved in these racing sports, I tell you there is nothing more fun than watching them catch up to you and making them earn it but having them beat you. :-)
Comments
Awesome! Tips for you, with the caveat that I was a pure distance swimmer but over 16yrs of full time competitive swimming you do a lot of everything, even sprinting
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Start:
1st 25 (assuming 25yd pool?)
Turn:
Touch: full body rotation and shoulder extension, straight fingers...and a timing judge on the payroll watching the finish from above
Tight goggle straps. Elbows over ears during the dive. I think.
Oh...I didn't see that he's 12yo. What's his 100 time? In my best triathlon swimming fitness, from several years ago, I was at best as fast as 14yo Rich. 15yo Rich would have crushed me.
Sorry, my money is on Kid Jenks. He's totally going to kick your ass
That sounds awesome, good luck WJ!!
Rich, I'm surprised that you aren't rooting for the old man. I thought you usually get a kick out of crushing youngsters?
My son has discovered the joy of catching me off guard and sprinting away on his bike. He can't drop me for long, but someday he will. It's really pretty cool
Well good luck and at least it will be over fast.
Gordon
Thanks! It will be fun, that's for sure.
Although I am generally addicted to breathing, I'm going to head to the pool today and try that whole "not breathing" thing. :-)
Rich - I know this sounds like a stupid question, but why is it "slower" to breathe? Not sure I understand the hydrodynamics of why that necessarily slows you down, although I acknowledge the result.
I'm kind of hoping we'll have another round of racing together in around 5 years....him post college but not so tied up with a new family and such. We'll see!
It's easy to thrash around in a 50. Even for the short distance, you want to keep your stoke long and your form good rather than trying to turn over really fast.
Rich is right, when you breath, you break your stroke and lift your head a little bit. I actually breathed about 3 times in a 50, once on the way down and twice on the way back.
Good luck! If all else fails, pull on the lane line. Maybe they won't notice (see Martin Lopez-Zubero setting the 200 meter back world record in 1991).
Should good....
I did try the dolphin kick thing today. I was surprised that was easier than I thought. Clearly saved time on my easy yards compared to not doing it. Maybe 2-3 sec per hundred. I assume it helped on the fast 50s, but I'm really just not that calibrated on effort/time, etc. on those. I got it down to a couple of breaths per 25. We will see!
Learned one other thing--- Very BAD idea to go to the Burrito Bar immediately (even if your mother is visiting from 1800 miles away and wants to get burritos for lunch) immediately before swimming really hard 50s.
Will be looking for the link to the video.
He had a great time (0.7 s PR), but I did a little better than I thought I would. RR and video to come. :-)
Score one for Big Will! Nice work. The trick now, picture up somewhere in the house. Comment on it every possible chance you get. Never race him again!
x2
x3
OK, here is video:
http://youtu.be/7b6dhN2L8BQ?hd=1
For fun, here is a race report:
Before the meet, I went ahead and warmed up with the youth swimmers. I got into the slow group and we were the home club, so that meant the really, really, really shallow lane. Like so shallow that I could touch the bottom with my fingers while we swam. But I was a good trouper. I did more butterfly and backstroke during that warmup than I've done in a long, long time. But it served its purpose.
The warmup starts were an important thing since I had not gotten to use the blocks. But there was a complication. I had found what looked like a brand new team suit from last season, and I threw it in my bag. Far too late, I realized this suit had no string! Ouch! First practice dive was not so good. Goggles came down and who the hell knows where I was in the water. I got about 3 more, though, and they got better. I was fully cognizant that I had no idea how to dive like the kids. I wasn't going to even try the "track start" leg thing those young whippersnappers do. All I remembered was to try to throw myself far and how not to have my goggles fall off. I realized that I probably couldn't be super smooth about the whole kick-and-start-swimming thing, but I'd do my best.
When it came time for the race, I was nice and was careful not to make T laugh or anythnig like that. I was pretty stone-faced, actually. :-)
I was kinda nervous with two heats left, and I think Timothy was too, but the heats go so fast... It was our turn, and I climbed up. They don't give you much time! No three minutes between waves! As I was getting into position, my main concern was keeping my balance and not falling off the block. :-) The start flashed and I reacted very slowly (i.e., as quickly as I could) and tried to fly forward.
As soon as I hit the water I realized there were way too many things going on in my head. Streamline. Were my arms tight on my head? How deep am I? Flutter...no dolphin.... No, go a little longer. Left arm first or right arm....Aack! There's just way too much to think about in like 3 seconds!!!!
By the time I got my bearings and started swimming, I could see Timothy on the left. I thought he was slightly ahead of me, but close. Damn, turn coming. Sh*t! Turn coming!! I messed up a stroke near the end. Push off. You can't turn so at least push off. Kick....ok swim now dammit! Forward! I finally got it together about the 30-33 yard mark and started thinking about only one thing: getting my hands way out in front of my quick and catching. At some point I thought I caught the boy.
I get a cheat breath on my touch turn, but I only took one more breath on the way back. I think I took two on the way out.
So, I managed to finish maybe half a body length ahead. My time was 32.18. I was shocked it was that low because I hadn't been able to do anything under 36-37 at the pool in workouts. I guess a little adrenaline goes a long way.
Anyway, Timothy (who leapt out of the pool much faster than me!) was a little disappointed to lose, but he has gotten a million laughs already watching my goofy start. We had a great hug and I made him take me out for pizza.
He wants to do it again in the Summer. We'll see. I think the next home meet is the same day as my early A-race in KS! If I wait a year, though, I'm definitely done for!
How did the other fathers do? It was hard to tell in the video.
The other father is a bit younger and an inherently better swimmer than me. He did a 29.xx - can't remember exactly - and also beat his son. So Old Guys Rule!
Timothy swam a relay split later this weekend that he claims would have beaten me, but I have the video!
@Michael - In retrospect, I think that's how most of us on my (not very good) high school team all started.. and least the the broad sense.... Not a nice slipstream dive like they teach my kids. And yes, I confess to having too many strokes per pool length as a normative feature of my swim. It's exacerbated when I am trying to go really fast. The flip turn thing is a thorn. I try it now and then, but I've never had the discipline to actually (re-) learn how to do it...and aside from looking like a dork perhaps...never really felt there was a driving need for the reason you point out. I'm not especially coordinated, and I've never felt like spending the pool time just to be like the cool kids. :-)
(2) You may be misunderstanding where the "cool kids" are. No one would have ever accused me, or just about anyone I have called a close friend, of being a "cool kid." I like EN because of the dorky-nerd quotient with whom I am comfortable.
(3) "Coordination" is not an excuse. I tell people that I do triathlons, truthfully, because I lack the hand-eye coordination for other sports. You won't find anyone less coordinated than me. Flip-turns just become second nature after a while.
(4) Relay splits add .7 seconds because you are moving when the incoming swimmer touches. That's why they only accept world records from the opening leg (flat start). So, you still win regardless.
...and yes, I know about the start advantage on relays, and about the first guy getting to count his split, etc etc... so I'm still steadfast. :-)