After racing in this mornings masters swim meet (more on that later) I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head out to Sultan for an Apple Cup. My last attempt to reach the Sultan Bakery was thwarted by flooding on Crescent Lake Rd near the High Bridge. Today I made it all the way to Ben Howard road before running into a line of flares and a few emergency vehicles. An aggressive driver in a pickup truck had knocked over a power pole and they expected the road to be closed for awhile... well, at least I got some solid miles in on the TT bike, mostly in aero position.
Backing up to the masters meet: I was impressed at how efficiently these folks run their meets. Nice work. They ran two 8-lane pools simultaneously in order to churn through the large number of swimmers. As soon as the last racer would touch, they already had the next heat standing ready behind the blocks. A few times I think that the last finisher was still getting out of the water (outside of their lane, at the ladder) when the next heat started. I doubt there was ever more than 30-60 seconds between heats. A well-oiled machine.
My races went reasonably well, given that I hadn't swam a meet since my Austin days. I managed a 5:19 in the 500 - one second slower than the USAT "B" Cut... I felt like I didn't really nail that swim but it was a good ice-breaker. Next up was a 4x50 free relay with three guys from the Pro Club Masters - Dave, Steven and Mike. I was never much of a sprinter in college so it was fun to get to do a short relay. I think I split a 25-low with a flying start... but it was fun! My 1650 felt really smooth and efficient. I split 33.xx for 26 of the 27 "middle" 50s (the first four and last two were faster) and totaled an 18:18. Up until *right now* I thought that was good for a B cut... but checking the USAT list again, it looks like I wasn't even close - 18:23 is the 1500 LCM cut; 18:01 is the 1650 SCY cut. Oh well. It was still a good swim, right?
Changing gears again, I snuck in a 6-7 mile ride in Bridle Trails park after my ride. The legs felt good, the cardio system felt good, the once-injured foot felt good... I didn't push the pace a lot but it was a little bit brisk at times. I also finally got around to taking some pictures of my favorite run-training venue around. If I have the time/energy then I'll try to get 'em up on this blog tonight.
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