Sunday is my first opportunity to swim a US Masters Swimming Nationals Qualifying Time in breaststroke — basically the only stroke I think I have a snowball’s chance in hell of swimming a qualifying time in… this year. 

Frequent readers will know that I swam in my first post-high-school swim meet just two short months ago. In that meet I swam the 50 breaststroke event, but opted out of swimming any longer breaststroke events because I hadn’t been training regularly and my endurance was crap. In that meet I swam the 50 yard race in 40.26 seconds. Not too shabby for someone who hadn’t been training.

For those of you with no context for swimming times, you can check out the full USMS National Qualifying Times here. Right now I’m just focused on these three times:

• 38.22 (50 breast)
• 1:23.32 (100 breast)
• 2:58.03 (200 breast)

On Sunday I swim the 50 and the 100 breaststroke. And yes, you read that right, I need to drop at least 2 full seconds (and a couple hundredths) off my time in order to beat the qualifying time for my age group. Now, 2 seconds may not seem like a lot, but it’s actually a pretty large chunk of time for such a short race.

As if that weren’t enough to worry about, I haven’t raced 100 breaststroke since high school and I’ve never raced 200 breaststroke (not a high school event). I’m pretty sure my best time for the 100 breaststroke in high school was 1:18 or 1:19. Do I need to remind anyone that was 18 years ago? (Ugh. I did not need to do that math. That can’t be right. When did I get so old?)

I’m nervous. So I’m writing about it and obsessing. Can you tell?

In preparation, all this month I’ve been increasing the percent of my workout that I swim “in stroke” because that’s what the coach at the stroke clinic I went to told me to do. She basically told me that I had great form (my mom is laughing right now… I’ve always had nearly perfect form, but fast and form are not the same thing). She couldn’t really find anything to tweak and suggested I just need to build endurance.

Annoyingly, breaststroke is the slowest of the competitive strokes and swimming more of my workout as breaststroke (instead of fast freestyle) means workouts take longer. And are exhausting. But some sets are starting to get easier, so I think I’m building my endurance and I plow ahead and hope this is all going to pay off.

So why is this worth it? What does swimming a qualifying time get me? Basically nothing. See, you can actually enter up to 3 events at Nationals without ever swimming a qualifying time. Anyone can go, no matter how slow they are, and compete. You’ll likely get your ass handed to you, but you can go. If you want to enter more than 3 events, you need to have “qualified” in any events in excess of your 3 “free” entries, up to 6 events total (note: not actually free). 

This year Nationals is in Indianapolis, IN. It’s kind of a great excuse to visit my family in Chicago and take a quick drive down I-65 to race and see the pros in action. I am pretty sure that Olympic athletes don’t compete at USMS Nationals, so not that kind of pro… but definitely some swimmers there can say they are *almost* as fast as Rebecca Soni. 

On the other hand, the Pacific Region (the one I belong to) has a regional Championship race. I think all the regions probably have their own. The Pacific Masters Short Course Championship is held in the Bay Area and will definitely attract some fast swimmers (judging from previous years’ results online). So, I’ve made this deal with myself, I’m not going to Indy unless I “qualify.” If I don’t qualify, I’ll leave it all in the pool at my regional Championship and be happy with that.

Even if I don’t go to Indy, I can still achieve my goals:

1. Swim a qualifying time in at least one breaststroke event. (Probably do-able)
2. Swim a time that lands me in the “top 20” times for my age group for at least one breaststroke event. (Probably do-able if I do #1)
3. Swim a time that lands me in the “top 10” times for my age group for at least one breaststroke event. (Stretch goal… )

So, by now you all think I’m completely nuts. Maybe I am a little obsessed. What can I say, I like competing.

Anyone placing bets on how I do this weekend?

Predictions for times? (I’m seeded at 40.26 for the 50 and 1:23 for the 100).

Bear with me on what will likely to be a boring post about swimming and gear… I feel compelled to admit something in print… I am beginning to really like my Pace Pal.

What’s a Pace Pal, you ask? It’s a waterproof pace clock that this sixty-something, masters swimmer created, patented, and put into production, and Greg (my thoughtful, loving husband) bought me one for Christmas. You can check it out here.

Please understand, this is totally out of character for me… I’m not a gear-head. One of the reasons I like swimming is it requires almost no gear. Cap and goggles are cheap. Bathing suits still cost less than running shoes. The only catch is that you need to have access to a pool. Lucky for me, my generous employer pays all but $28 a month of my fancy gym membership (gym: Equinox). $28 dollars is about 4 swims at the local high school pool. Bonus, at the gym I also have access to excellent yoga classes (another activity that requires minimal equipment… in fact, come to think of it, all my preferred activities don’t require socks and shoes… it all makes sense now… I hate wearing socks and shoes…).

How did I get so far off topic? We were talking about my Pace Pal…. right. Okay. So, my gym, awesome as it may be, has selected a ridiculously over-priced digital timing clock for the wall. The clock designers clearly prioritized form over function. The clock doesn’t show cumulative minutes and has a unacceptably short battery life. My biggest complaint about swimming at the gym last year was that the clock was either broken (dead battery), or temporarily removed from the wall (likely so maintenance could replace said dead battery), on most of the days I chose to swim laps. This happened often enough that my “maker” / “hacker” hubby threatened to just make me a timing clock that I could take with me to the pool so I could swim the workout sets I had planned and not have to worry about last minute workout changes due to lack of functional timing technology.

I didn’t realize he was actually serious. In the spirit of Christmas season gift giving, he was attempting, in secret, to actually execute this plan of his, to make me a portable time clock. At some point in his research (he is a master Googler…), he stumbled upon the Pace Pal. Once he realized that someone had already created this thing that I so clearly needed, he ordered one for me.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my Christmas present to discover a brand new Pace Pal, just for me. It was a sweet thing for him to do, but the Pace Pal is much larger than the portable time clock I had fleetingly wished for so many months earlier (and promptly forgotten about). It also comes in this professional-looking plastic suitcase that would make me look like an even bigger tool when commuting as I do via public transit (I mean, I already wear this goofy knit earflap hat… you have to draw the line somewhere…). Also, you just don’t walk onto a pool deck in a gym carrying your own digital time clock. Especially when the one on the wall is apparently working fine (of course it would be, now that I don’t need it….). I could imagine the looks I would get and I felt like a poser just thinking about bringing this thing to the pool.

On the other hand, it was such a thoughtful present, and I knew it wasn’t cheap, and he kept asking, “Did you bring your clock to the pool today? When are you going to bring it?” in such an eager and hopeful voice. I felt guilty not bringing it with me.

So, one day, after I’d been back at the gym for a week and the New Year’s crowd had thinned a bit (fewer witnesses), and after I had competed in my first swim meet since high school (slightly less poser-ish), I broke down and took the Pace Pal with me to the gym. I had scoped out the usual crowd and calculated the potential embarrassment to be within tolerable levels, but I still refused to carry that silly little plastic suitcase. I removed the clock from the box, left the weighted stand nestled in the foam, and slipped my new Pal into my swim bag. The clock by itself is actually quite lightweight and thin. It doesn’t take up much room at all, or add much to the already heavy load I have to haul daily to and from the office via transit (I’m looking at you, Macbook Pro…).

I admit, I was a little embarrassed walking out of the locker room those first few times, wearing my bathing suit, carrying my cap, goggles, water bottle…. plus this, almost notebook-sized, clock. People stared a bit more than normal. I probably looked like a pretentious fool. But, after a few days, either they stopped looking or I stopped caring. I didn’t notice because by then this little Pal had become dead useful.

At this point, after almost two weeks using the Pace Pal (propped on the deck, not underwater… still can’t bring myself to lug that base around…), I’m hooked. I actually called my husband this morning after leaving the gym and said, “okay… I have to admit it… I am starting to really love this clock. Thank you.” (He is sweet enough that he didn’t once say, “See! I told you so!” — or at least not to me directly…)

So, now, thanks to my little Pace Pal friend, I know exactly how depressingly not fast I am. I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to reach my goal of swimming a nationals qualifying time in any of the breaststroke events this year. Also, I’m pretty sure that I will be hovering near the bottom of the pack at the freestyle quadrathon I registered to compete in this weekend (the entire meet is just four events: 50, 100, 200, and 500 yrd freestyle).

Technically, you can swim any stroke in a freestyle race, but most people choose to swim front crawl, as it is typically the fastest of the competition strokes (breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke — in my order of preference). After observing my times in practice this week for the 200 yard distance, I have seriously considered swimming breaststroke instead of front crawl for the 200 yrd event. It’s pretty sad when you begin to think your front crawl is arguably not that much faster than your breaststroke.

It’s fine. I’m just doing this to have fun and get more experience racing because I love to compete. Still… I love to compete more in events I know I’m competitive in… it’s both a blessing (more training time…) and a curse (long time to wait…) that the meets where I can compete in breaststroke aren’t until March.

After watching this interview with the Pace Pal inventor, I really have nothing to complain about (spoiler: he survived a heart attack and went on to swim two World Records for his age group). If this clock helps me to make anywhere near the endurance improvements that he made, it will be more than worth the money, and the (it’s all in my head, right?) embarrassment.

(anyone who stuck through to the end of this post, you deserve a loyalty prize… thanks for humoring my swim-mania…)

Yesterday I swam in my first swim meet since high school. I chose sprint events because I’m not really in top form right now. I haven’t been training seriously, just sort of messing around in the pool a few times a week. Oh, and I took the entire month of December off. Actually, make that the entire month of December and half of November. So, I wasn’t really expecting much. 

I did more or less exactly what I expected I’d do in terms of times. However, I am most proud of my breaststroke time / results. Surprisingly, I haven’t lost that much speed since high school (although that may say more about my high school swimming career, and why I didn’t swim in college, than it does about my current level of fitness). I ended up finishing first in my age group, and third overall in the 50 breast — and I wasn’t even in the fast heat! Because I had to guess at my seed time, I ended up in an outer lane in the 3rd of 4 heats. The two women who finished ahead of me were in the fast heat. If I had been in that heat… Oh, and my goggles were entirely filled with water for the whole race. So, if I had been able to see, and if I had been in the fast heat… who knows… 

As a side note, Greg (the best hubby ever) was such a good sport about this. He drove up to the meet with me and hung out and watched for the entire thing. In case you haven’t had the opportunity to attend a swim meet, let me just tell you, unless you’re swimming, they’re not that interesting. He even videoed my races on his new phone so I can critique my starts / turns / form. I’m not entirely sure, but I think he maybe even enjoyed it.

This little reminder of the taste of competitive swimming got me all fired up. Since yesterday I’ve been trying to figure out what other races I should enter. I’m pretty confident that my main events will be the 50, 100, and 200 breaststroke. But, I’m game to try some distance freestyle as well. I’m thinking about entering a 1500 freestyle race this coming weekend. 

The next opportunity I have to race breaststroke isn’t until March. This week I’m stepping up my training to get ready. I already have all my workouts planned for the week.

Don’t worry, I’m sure this swimming obsession will wear off soon….