I'm Ready

Date: Friday, June 22, 2012
Time: 6 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards/Meters
3 days to Olympic Trials

Meet warm-up (about 1,400 yards)

Broken 100 breast (short course meters) :30 seconds rest between 50s
29.3 + 32.0 = 1:01.3

200 warm down

I woke up this morning feeling like complete crap. Nothing felt very good. Was it because I got a massage yesterday? I usually don't feel my best the day after a session with Tod Miller, because he does a great job of spreading out my muscles, and it takes a while for my body to re-adjust. This morning, I also didn't feel awake despite nearly nine hours of sleep, and it took a lot of effort to get motivated to do my broken swim today.

I needed to do the broken swim today. I always do at least one broken swim the week before my race, and I hadn't done one yet this week. Usually, I feel better after doing my typical meet warm-up, but I still felt groggy and heavy.

Besides all that, I was very pleased with my broken swim, especially since I had to swim it in short course meters. My stroke rate had to change a little bit to account for short course, but I think I handled the transition well. I felt pretty good going into the final 25, but my body wasn't used to having to do that fourth pullout, and my lungs were wondering why I was holding my breath!

The time is a little faster than I have ever gone in a short course meters race in Masters, which would convert to a low 1:04 in long course. That's a very good conversion considering my physical state this morning. And despite the way the swim went, I feel ready to race at Trials!

As I write this, about eight hours after workout, I am starting to feel better physically. It's easy to get demoralized when you're not feeling good physically so close to the big meet, and I was fighting the doubting voices in my head all day today. But the thing about taper is that each day is unpredictable, at least until the final two days before the meet. It's my hope and expectation that tomorrow and Sunday will be very good in the pool.

I am getting on a 7:10 a.m. flight to Omaha tomorrow, arriving a little after noon. I will go to the pool in the mid-afternoon and do a very light swim, probably no more than 2,000 meters. I might mix in some breakouts of 15 meters, but only two or three. I will be getting the kinks out from travel, and then doing absolutely nothing the rest of the day.

Sunday will be the final test of how the meet will go. I will do a fast 50 from a dive in the competition pool, a tradition that started when I was 22 years old. I had always had a disastrous first swim in my taper meets, and I figured the best way to start the meet right is to do a fast swim the day before the meet starts. That way, I'm getting my "bad swim" out of the way. Most of the time, this first swim is good, and that's what I am hoping for on Sunday, to take the good vibe into Monday afternoon.

I cannot guarantee I will have Internet access through Monday afternoon, so this may be the last blog post before I swim the 100 breast. The timeline estimated the swim to take place between 1 and 1:30 p.m. Central time. I am so happy about that, because I'll get to sleep in and take my time getting to the pool. I'll warm up around noon and be ready to go!

Send lots of positive vibes my way. every little bit helps!