I swam... LIKE A BOSS
Ahem.
Dudes, so I swam LIKE A BOSS at PNA Champs. I went in thinking, "Hey! This is highly experimental! So if I suck... there's always another meet! And if I don't suck... there's always another meet!" And you know what, you guys? I wasn't nervous at all. I don't know what it was, but I set foot in the aquatic center, and I was just chill. In zen mode. It's like something clicked. My dives were not shitty, my turns were pretty decent, and I felt like my strokes were on.
Saturday my first event was the 100 Backstroke. I broke 30 seconds off my time. 30 SECONDS! How does that happen? I mean, break a few seconds, that's not shocking. But 30 seconds? Jay-sus! I freaking smashed that time - and almost broke 2 minutes. Now I know what to aim for next time.
After that my events for the rest of the day were sort of like, whatever. It's not like I could pull off that awesome of a time split again. I did pretty well. I felt like I could've pushed myself harder in the 50 free, but whatever. My time for 200 free surprised me. I broke that by a few seconds. And then I swam the backstroke leg of the Women's Medley relay and it felt pretty awesome.
I was dead by the end of the first day. I took a nap on the bleachers while I was waiting for my carpool to get ready for dinner. Teammates laughed and said oh hey! she OD'd on Nutella!
Today was just rad. I took off something like 5 seconds off my time for 100 free. Coach says that was the best she's seen me swim that. I felt totally on. She won the Coach of the Year award! Kerry, one of my teammates and a good friend of Coach Shannon, told us that there'd be an awards thing after the 100 Free event. Some of the officials were poking around asking us about Shannon and how we thought of her as a coach, and that was a pretty sure sign that she was going to win something. So, without telling her, we congregated to the other side of the pool around the announcer's table. She sat down across the pool in the team area looking all confused and wtf, why is the team all standing over there? Kerry had a camera and a zoom lense ready so he could capture the look on her face when she finally realized she won an award. 'cos for her, that award came COMPLETELY out of left field. And so the announcers started listing her accomplishments, she's checking off stuff on her clipboard, and it slowly dawns on her... and we have it on camera.
I love my coach. She's so wonderful and the totally the reason why I suck less. She works so hard and she totally deserves the recognition. I think some people in the team are going to try to put this in the city paper :')
I also smashed my time for 50 Back by about 15 seconds. I placed second in my heat. I feel like I could've pushed myself a little bit harder (and won my heat, har de har har), but that's okay. I'm still really happy with my time. Even did a little FUCK YEAH! dance in the water once I saw the scoreboard.
The relays... they were fun. I like swimming the backstroke leg of the Medley. I don't really like diving during the Freestyle relay. I freak out a little when I see legs beneath me.
I'm so tired. I'm glad this meet was split up into two days, otherwise I'd be swimming 7 events all in one day. And then I'd really be feeling dead. In fact, I think I'm going to lie back, relax, and possibly doze off right now...
Click to viewDudes, so I swam LIKE A BOSS at PNA Champs. I went in thinking, "Hey! This is highly experimental! So if I suck... there's always another meet! And if I don't suck... there's always another meet!" And you know what, you guys? I wasn't nervous at all. I don't know what it was, but I set foot in the aquatic center, and I was just chill. In zen mode. It's like something clicked. My dives were not shitty, my turns were pretty decent, and I felt like my strokes were on.
Saturday my first event was the 100 Backstroke. I broke 30 seconds off my time. 30 SECONDS! How does that happen? I mean, break a few seconds, that's not shocking. But 30 seconds? Jay-sus! I freaking smashed that time - and almost broke 2 minutes. Now I know what to aim for next time.
After that my events for the rest of the day were sort of like, whatever. It's not like I could pull off that awesome of a time split again. I did pretty well. I felt like I could've pushed myself harder in the 50 free, but whatever. My time for 200 free surprised me. I broke that by a few seconds. And then I swam the backstroke leg of the Women's Medley relay and it felt pretty awesome.
I was dead by the end of the first day. I took a nap on the bleachers while I was waiting for my carpool to get ready for dinner. Teammates laughed and said oh hey! she OD'd on Nutella!
Today was just rad. I took off something like 5 seconds off my time for 100 free. Coach says that was the best she's seen me swim that. I felt totally on. She won the Coach of the Year award! Kerry, one of my teammates and a good friend of Coach Shannon, told us that there'd be an awards thing after the 100 Free event. Some of the officials were poking around asking us about Shannon and how we thought of her as a coach, and that was a pretty sure sign that she was going to win something. So, without telling her, we congregated to the other side of the pool around the announcer's table. She sat down across the pool in the team area looking all confused and wtf, why is the team all standing over there? Kerry had a camera and a zoom lense ready so he could capture the look on her face when she finally realized she won an award. 'cos for her, that award came COMPLETELY out of left field. And so the announcers started listing her accomplishments, she's checking off stuff on her clipboard, and it slowly dawns on her... and we have it on camera.
I love my coach. She's so wonderful and the totally the reason why I suck less. She works so hard and she totally deserves the recognition. I think some people in the team are going to try to put this in the city paper :')
I also smashed my time for 50 Back by about 15 seconds. I placed second in my heat. I feel like I could've pushed myself a little bit harder (and won my heat, har de har har), but that's okay. I'm still really happy with my time. Even did a little FUCK YEAH! dance in the water once I saw the scoreboard.
The relays... they were fun. I like swimming the backstroke leg of the Medley. I don't really like diving during the Freestyle relay. I freak out a little when I see legs beneath me.
I'm so tired. I'm glad this meet was split up into two days, otherwise I'd be swimming 7 events all in one day. And then I'd really be feeling dead. In fact, I think I'm going to lie back, relax, and possibly doze off right now...