Robert Masih’s Provincial Swim Report
It is the end of March and the start of my racing season. Every year I compete at the Masters Swim Ontario Provincial Swim Competition. It was hosted by the London Silver Dolphins at University of Western Ontario this year.
I find that the commitment to compete at this event is a great motivator for me to get out to my swim workouts through the cold and dark winter months. Swimming was my first sport so this is a sport with which I am very comfortable. In recent years I have started competing in the Individual Medley (IM) events as well as the Fly races. I enjoy the technical challenges of the IM races which includes competence in all 4 strokes (butterfly, back stroke, breast stroke and fly) ;the turns of each stroke as well as the switches between strokes. I also like to believe that by working all the strokes I am less likely to develop overuse injuries of the shoulders. (Over the spring and summer months I move into doing more freestyle in anticipation of the triathlon season.) Looking for new challenges in the past two years, I embarked on a journey of developing a strong butterfly. I am quite enjoying this stroke and it is great for developing the core muscles.
I was one of a group of 12 from the Laurentian Masters Swim club out of Sudbury who drove down to London this past Thursday. Racing started that night with one of my key races the 400 IM. This would be my third year racing this event. I had been working my fly quite diligently with the hope that if I strengthened the fly, I would be less fatigued going into the back,breast and free. I was a bit tired after the 6 hour drive down to London but hoped that would disappear once I got into the water. My fly went well and I was still feeling strong going into the back stroke. The back is my weakest stroke and I knew the important things included maintaining a strong kick and keeping my head well back. The back stroke flip turns are the toughest but they went well and I got at least 10 feet on the glide coming out of the turn. My breast stroke had been weak in previous years and I had spent a lot of time improving it this year. My stroke had become much more aggressive and I was getting a good glide. The last 100metres of freestyle are tough coming at the end of the 400IM. I focused on maintaining a strong kick and ensuring that I was really pulling through the water. My final time was 8:00min which was actually 3 seconds slower than last year. However I felt that technically my performance was much better and I know I have the potential/ability to improve that time.
The next morning was my other key race; the 200m butterfly. It was quite successful. The key in a 200m race is starting comfortably and building through the course of the race. My fly was now strong enough that I could actually adjust the speed/pace at which I was swimming. Those team-mates watching indicated that I maintained strong technique throughout. My final time was 4:10min and I feel I can improve this time now that I am developing confidence and knowledge as to how hard I can push myself in this event.
One hour later was my 100metre IM. I was concerned that I might have been fatigued from my fly race but this race turned out to be one of my most successful. Only having to do 25m of each stroke, I was able to push each stroke to the max with a final time of 1:45min (an improvement from 1:50 last year!). Later that day was my 200m breast stroke. This was my first time swimming this event and I had signed up for it to push myself to work on this stroke. I did not know how it would go but it went surprisingly well. The first 100m I focused on technique and maintaining strong kick, pulling the water and ensuring a long glide. The last 100m I just built to finish with a strong final 25m. My final time was 3:53 with which I was quite pleased.
That night there was an excellent buffet dinner and dancing for all the competitors. We didn’t do much dancing but we all certainly had healthy appetites!
The following morning was the last day of the competition. I knew from previous years that I would be tired and I was. I think everyone feels the same way as the ‘energy level’ was much more subdued. My morning started with the 100m fly. It was tough and I struggled. Nonetheless my time was only off by 1 second from the previous year’s performance of 1:50. Twenty minutes later was my 200m IM. I was quite concerned how that race would go but decided that I could leave everything in the water as this was my final race. A team-mate suggested I really keep the fly easy and then build. That is exactly what I did and I had a very successful race improving on the previous year’s time by 4 seconds. The morning finished up with my participation in the mens 4×50 freestyle relay. The relay races are always fun and this was a nice way to finish up the morning.
I had elected not to swim in the afternoon session as I wanted to get on the road for the long drive home.
All in all it was a great weekend. I would encourage everyone to consider competing at the Masters Swim meets. The individual heats are seeded so that you are swimming against others with approximately the same seed time. However results are by 5 year age groups. I ended up taking in a number of 4th/5th and 6th place ribbons for my age group. The Masters Swim Meets are a lot of fun and very supportive no matter one’s ability or age.
Robert Masih
April 2nd, 2013