I had the opportunity this weekend to once again swim at the University of Minnesota’s Aquatic Center for the 2009 Minnesota Masters State Swim Meet.

My swim club, SEMS, only had two swimmers this year at the meet. Up until a few days ago the team was planning on having several additional swimmers (and there were even rumors of a men’s relay team) but due to illness and work (darn work, always getting in the way; although, these days, just having work is a blessing) issues a larger turnout was prevented.

The meet started Saturday evening at 6:00 and concluded Sunday morning with an 8:30 AM start. The late evening early morning thing is less than ideal but, none the less, was fun. Now that SEMS no longer has evening practices I very rarely have the chance to actually swim with the team. It was fun to swim and hang out with Jill again (this lady can really swim). I think she owns just about every women’s team record and has many state records to her name as well. We joked about swimming a relay but figured that someone would catch on if we alternated our way through a medley or free relay event.

I swam six events in total, three each day. All the freestyle events, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1650. I threw in the 200 IM just for the halibut. All in all I was pleased with the results. I had three personal bests and was very close with the others. My goal was to work on pacing and felt I achieved my objectives. Honestly, I do not spend nearly enough time in the water to expect to see any great improvement. My training plan calls for about 2-1/2 hours per week in the pool. I would need to double that effort to see any real gains. To put things in the Ironman perspective, the swim is 2% of the total distance and about 8% – 9% of the total time I’ll spend on race day. My training, obviously, reflects that fact.

The 1650-free was the last event of the meet. The 1650 is a fun but scary event to swim. If things do not go well it can feel like it will never end. But if you swim it right it can be exhilarating. With the prerace strategy from my coach, Sharon, and with my daughter, Alexandra, counting for me, I was able to shave 27-seconds off my best 1650 time. So it was a nice way to close this year’s competitive swimming season.