madness to the method
So. Conferences. Still not sure how I feel about this whole Being Done Forever nonsense. But.
Friday was my 500. It was terrible. Hurt the wrong way (breathing/muscle ache pain rather than muscle exhaustion pain) and didn't have a good song in my head. Didn't make it back to finals (top 8). Didn't make it back to consols (top 16). Got to cheer on Maggie and Sasa, which was good, but... the 5 is kind of my event. It's one I like, that I'm usually good at. 5:32.10, 18th overall.
Friday night I watched Maggie and Sas come back in finals; I swam a leg of the B 200 free relay. 50 free, split a 26.65. My relay in 14th, the A in 7th. Girls in 3rd by the end of the night.
Saturday was the 200. This is usually weaker than my 500 or mile; it actually felt a lot less like I had been beaten up (than the 5 did). Yay for getting better, bit by bit. Dropped 2 seconds from this season's time; still a good 4 seconds off my best ever, but yeah. 2.05.07, 20th overall. Again, didn't come back for consuls or finals.
But, the lovely thing about Saturday is that there's the 800 free relay - so I got to do another 200 anyway! Longest relay ever; each person doing 8 lengths of the pool. Means you really have to pay tons of attention to the person in front of you. I got bumped out of the A last minute, which I'm not really bitter about (I think?) because Maggie was, as Cas put it, on fire, and I was, as was implied, not. So B relay, 2.04.13, almost another full second dropped for the season. Cool.
Sunday was the mile. (or 1650, or 66 lengths of the pool. I get to have so much fun subdividing this one into doable chunks in my head... 11 is a magic number, as are all multiples of 10, 20, and anything else that catches my fancy.) Actually felt human going into this one. (And wasn't hacking up my lungs in warmup, yay) Still, wasn't super fast, but was better than I've swum it this season. 18.57.42, and 16th. I had been seated 10th. *sigh*. Sas had a brilliant race, though. She was seated 9th, busted into the top heat, to 5th. (18:30)
Sunday night was the senior ceremony; they gave us more flowers and we recognized that we had made it through all 4 years. And then Cas and Sue put me in the A 400 free relay - and not just the A relay, but anchoring the A relay, which is where you stick the person who is going to bust it out and bring it home. And... it nearly made me cry that I could swim this mediocre-ly all weekend and they'd still be willing to stick me there, where it matters - and that I asked Cas if this was what was best for the team, and she just smiled and said yes. So my last race was the last event of the meet, the last heat the women swam, and the last swimmer in our relay. I busted out a 56 mid, and the relay came in 7th.
We got back to campus in the snow and promptly threw a party. Gotta love this team. Funny hats all the way.
*sigh* my kids think I'm dying. Occasionally, being female sucks. Today it sucked worse than it has in quite a while. Not quite a full-system reboot, but ibuprofen is supposed to (and usually does) cancel out vomiting. Alas. So much for getting observed today... I got to go visit the nurse instead, and went from pasty-and-green to mostly-normal-colored. And then came home and ate chocolate and went to the studio and was fine. Go figure.
(Also I walked into a wall while I was walking backwards shushing them... and I got mixed *pwahaha* and *oh no! are you ok?* reactions. But that was earlier.)
Friday was my 500. It was terrible. Hurt the wrong way (breathing/muscle ache pain rather than muscle exhaustion pain) and didn't have a good song in my head. Didn't make it back to finals (top 8). Didn't make it back to consols (top 16). Got to cheer on Maggie and Sasa, which was good, but... the 5 is kind of my event. It's one I like, that I'm usually good at. 5:32.10, 18th overall.
Friday night I watched Maggie and Sas come back in finals; I swam a leg of the B 200 free relay. 50 free, split a 26.65. My relay in 14th, the A in 7th. Girls in 3rd by the end of the night.
Saturday was the 200. This is usually weaker than my 500 or mile; it actually felt a lot less like I had been beaten up (than the 5 did). Yay for getting better, bit by bit. Dropped 2 seconds from this season's time; still a good 4 seconds off my best ever, but yeah. 2.05.07, 20th overall. Again, didn't come back for consuls or finals.
But, the lovely thing about Saturday is that there's the 800 free relay - so I got to do another 200 anyway! Longest relay ever; each person doing 8 lengths of the pool. Means you really have to pay tons of attention to the person in front of you. I got bumped out of the A last minute, which I'm not really bitter about (I think?) because Maggie was, as Cas put it, on fire, and I was, as was implied, not. So B relay, 2.04.13, almost another full second dropped for the season. Cool.
Sunday was the mile. (or 1650, or 66 lengths of the pool. I get to have so much fun subdividing this one into doable chunks in my head... 11 is a magic number, as are all multiples of 10, 20, and anything else that catches my fancy.) Actually felt human going into this one. (And wasn't hacking up my lungs in warmup, yay) Still, wasn't super fast, but was better than I've swum it this season. 18.57.42, and 16th. I had been seated 10th. *sigh*. Sas had a brilliant race, though. She was seated 9th, busted into the top heat, to 5th. (18:30)
Sunday night was the senior ceremony; they gave us more flowers and we recognized that we had made it through all 4 years. And then Cas and Sue put me in the A 400 free relay - and not just the A relay, but anchoring the A relay, which is where you stick the person who is going to bust it out and bring it home. And... it nearly made me cry that I could swim this mediocre-ly all weekend and they'd still be willing to stick me there, where it matters - and that I asked Cas if this was what was best for the team, and she just smiled and said yes. So my last race was the last event of the meet, the last heat the women swam, and the last swimmer in our relay. I busted out a 56 mid, and the relay came in 7th.
We got back to campus in the snow and promptly threw a party. Gotta love this team. Funny hats all the way.
*sigh* my kids think I'm dying. Occasionally, being female sucks. Today it sucked worse than it has in quite a while. Not quite a full-system reboot, but ibuprofen is supposed to (and usually does) cancel out vomiting. Alas. So much for getting observed today... I got to go visit the nurse instead, and went from pasty-and-green to mostly-normal-colored. And then came home and ate chocolate and went to the studio and was fine. Go figure.
(Also I walked into a wall while I was walking backwards shushing them... and I got mixed *pwahaha* and *oh no! are you ok?* reactions. But that was earlier.)