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Behind the Blocks: NCAAs or bust tracks the training and development of former All Met swimmers working towards the goal of making the NCAA Division I championship meet in March during the 2013-2014 season. Each week the swimmers will post a personal blog about training with their respective school’s swim program and the daily challenges of life as a student-athlete at the D1 level. Check back every Tuesday for new blog posts, and join us throughout the season for a behind-the-scenes look at some of the country’s elite collegiate swimmers and swim programs.
Eva Greene is a junior at the University of California-Berkeley. She started her swimming career with the Tuckahoe Tigers in the NVSL and continued with McLean High School where she was MVP from 2008-2011. She was named PVS Swimmer of the Year in 2009 as a member of Machine Aquatics. Read all of Eva’s blog posts here.
In my previous blog post, I discussed the very planned out and systematic way I prepare myself at a competition, as well as the importance of a pre-race routine. I wrote out each step, the specific activities, and the way they were supposed to get me ready before a race.
The funny thing is, this “planning” proved to be pretty pointless, unsuccessful, and honestly a bit of a waste of time. As I said, swim meets and races are all about learning through trial and error, and I certainly learned a lot at our meet at UNLV. Here’s the story:
We arrived at UNLV on Wednesday night to check out the pool before competition was to begin on Thursday morning. Pretty typical. An 8-lane, 50-meter indoor pool with limited deck space and spectator seating, but it was going to get the job done. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Complete results: UNLV Fall Invitational
The next morning we returned for the first session of the meet. Everything went smoothly as we each got ready, raced, and completed the first session of the meet. Again, totally normal. I even swam a season best in my 50 free and felt rather confident for the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t until the end of finals that day that things started becoming slightly difficult.
The issue was the inescapably poor air quality in the facility. It started out as feeling a little stuffy and warm on deck, but it quickly escalated to something much worse. I’m not exaggerating when I say people were having asthma attacks after races and were running outside to grab a breath of fresh air whenever possible. Coughing, sneezing, burning eyes; you name it, we felt it. At first, we thought it was just us since we swim outside year round, but chatter around the deck indicated that every athlete was struggling.
No amount of planning could have prepared me for this surprise element, not even my 10+ years of swimming indoors. The conditions were definitely less than perfect, and the meet turned into a total mental game. The biggest obstacle was figuring out a way to get ready to race without allowing the constant thoughts of “wow, I really can’t breathe right now” or “there’s no way I’m going to finish this…” interrupt my desire to swim my best.
To overcome to this challenge I had to make adjustments, react to the conditions in a productive way, and focus on the big picture. So instead of doing my stretching on deck, I went outside. To cope with breathing difficulties, I took a few extra minutes between warming up and racing to stand outside and calm down with some deep breaths. The more energy I wasted on talking, thinking, or complaining about how hard things were, the less energy I would have during a race.
So I kept to myself, hung on to my inhaler, and did everything possible to stay positive.
I’m happy to say I surprised myself. Conditions aside, I had a great meet and even had a few best times, which are few and far between when you’ve been swimming for 14 years. This meet proved to be a challenge, but it taught us all a lot.
As athletes, we’re so used to controlled situations and routine: practice, meets, and even classes have boundaries that keep things normal and comfortable. When hiccups or road bumps get thrown in there, making adjustments is key to making it work.
Greene’s results: 10th in 100 backstroke (finals: 55.90, prelims: 56.01); 18th in 200 backstroke (finals: 2:05.70, prelims: 2:06.12); 29th in 100 free (finals: 52.29; prelims: 52.76); 50 back (relay split: 26.45); 100 butterfly (prelims only: 57.74); 50 free (prelims only: 24.94)
The amount of support and encouragement on my team never ceases to amaze me. In the midst of this mess, we maintained composure and had a fantastic meet. As a team we refocused after stumbling over this little bump, and made the most of an uncomfortable situation. We even got to enjoy dinner on the Vegas strip on the last night before heading back to the Bay to reward our hard work.
This week the Bears head to Knoxville, Tennessee to compete at Nationals. I’ll be staying back in Berkeley to deal with the seemingly endless amount of schoolwork that keeps appearing on my plate, but I’m always cheering loudly for my Bears.
*Deep breath* … one more week of class, three more weeks until the end of the semester, and 20 days until I go home for winter break. The home stretch. It’s hard to believe this semester is nearly over, but that means training trip, duel meets and Pac-12s are right around the corner! That’s the fun stuff. Where we get to show how hard we’ve been working all fall. Be sure to follow Cal as we compete at Nationals this weekend, GO BEARS!
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