Close-to-home nationals

USMS Summer Nationals went about an order of magnitude better than Spring Nationals did. I got myself into PT the week we got back from San Antonio, and it was such a smart move. Even though I was still in PT for this meet, my body was in a much better place than it has been in a while.

The Good: I managed to go 4.5 seconds faster in my 200 back - I was just hoping to be under 2:40 this year, so to go 2:36-mid was a whoop-worthy swim. Also, I managed to drop over half a second from 2021 in my 100 free, and ran down Anne from CONN to win! This time was also 3 100ths faster than my team record for the 25-29 age group!!!

The Bad: I was only relatively close to my 50 times from 2021. I didn't get to do as much lifting because of being in PT, so being just a few tenths off by 2021 times was okay but still a bit disappointing. At least I know what I need to do over the fall.

The Ugly: Starting off with a time in the 100 back that was a smidge slower 2021 was not the start I was hoping for. I was in a shite place the whole first day of the meet, and felt nothing about that race or the 50 fly. The only bright spot about that might have been that I slept amazingly well leading into the 200 back day, so that was a surprise.

Overall, I came home from RIchmond with some optimism for Worcester in December. My performance here was better than I had expected, and much closer to how I expect to swim in any given year at a shave and taper meet.