Provincials: Day 3

It's finally over. It's been a long 2 and a half days but I made it out alive. I swam the 200free, 800free and 2 relays (freestyle of course) and I killed every single event.

So my first event today was the 200m free. I was really looking forward to this one seeing as me and Alex were in lanes 3 and 4 and that the 200 is really the distance right in between both our specialties. We both took the first 50 out in 30s and the first 100 in 1:04. Alex then started pulling away and was just over 1s ahead by the 150 mark. Luckily I was able to muster up a final sprint finish, out touching him by just under a second.

 Next up were the relays. Last for the morning session was the 200m free men's relay and just before the 800 began was the 200m medley mixed relay. As I did the days before, I didn't bother asking for my split times but after realizing they were posted online, I figured it wouldn't hurt to check. It turns out I went 26.72 for the morning relay and 26.23 for the second! I couldn't believe I actually managed to hit a 26 and it turns out I went 26.86 is the men's medley yesterday as well. I guess I still have some sprinter in me even though I haven't had a single practice focusing on sprints.

Last even of the day was the 800m free. After my relay I jumped in the warm-up lanes for a couple hundred meters because I felt a knot starting to form but I was able to get rid of it and I was feeling great. Of course, I was still nervous about this race so I went over to Ken and asked for a plan. The general outlines of it were 200 easy speed/300 hold or pick up a little/300 build for a strong finish. For the finish he referred to how I was able to catch Alex in the last 50 of the 200m and said that, similar to that, I should have a strong finish. He obviously didn't mean last 300m all out because I would have burnt out after 50m but he definitely made that clear. I ended up finishing in a time of 10:30.45 which I am really happy with considering I had convinced myself 10:40 was good enough. I'd also like to add that my splits were very consistent. I started in 34 and 39, then held 40s very steadily until the 500m mark where I progressively went from a 40.01 to a 39.11, finishing the last 50m in 36.36. It was a solid race and it felt really good. I noticed how important my kick (where I don't cross my legs over) was in keeping a steady pace so getting a stronger kick could only benefit me in the long run, whether it saves energy in a triathlon or gives me speed in a pure swim race.

Details for the day:

Breakfast:

• Vector cereal
• Apple

Lunch:

• Subway 6" turkey sub with lettuce and tomato
• Large chocolate milk
• Yogurt, fruit cup, granola bar

As I should have anticipated, the sub gave me some digestive issues. I was just lucky I didn't have to go during my races.

I'm glad I finished the meet on a good note. That 400 yesterday has left me with something to learn from which is good because if we never make mistakes, we will never learn.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

EDIT: I forgot to mention my sleep. I slept pretty well the night before. Probably only around 7-7.5hrs but that seemed to be enough to keep me going through day 3. I also had a 35-45min nap on deck during the lunch break.