It's a Wrap on British Nats!

15 June 2025

But, first, a word of thanks to our sponsors for a most excellent weekend of racing:

I don't know what it costs for the organization(s) that put this on to rent this world class facility for the whole weekend, but I think I can speak for all the participants to say how much we appreciated it. It's a delight to race in such an iconic pool and to have the setup such that we had ample room to watch, to relax, to chat, to warmup and cooldown. Beyond the facility, all of the volunteers ran this event with clockwork efficiency and the utmost of professionalism.

As for my racing today, it was a mere single event, but it's a doozy: the 800 meter freestyle. While I have raced the combined short course versions (800 SCM or 1000 SCY) over 25 times across my "masters career," I have only actually raced the 800 LCM freestyle once - fittingly, back at the 2012 USMS LCM Nationals which were held in another iconic (albeit temporary) pool, the 2012 USA Olympic Trials pool in Omaha, ahead of the London Olympics:

I was a much younger man then, and that was a year of incredible training for me. I knew I had no hope of matching the 9:17.36 from then today, but I felt like I could approach 9:45.

Like the 400, I was experimenting with breathing every two strokes and used the same approach to get some "bilateralism" in: 15 breaths to my right on lap 1 followed by breathing to my left; 14 to my right on lap 2, then left; etc. In addition to adding some variety and having some balance, this also makes it easy to count my laps!

This thing hurt, hurt, hurt - mainly in my core - but I was able to lock into a good pace and hold it, with my 200 splits being 2:23.6, 2:27.7, 2:27.8, 2:26:5 and the detailed splits:

All in all, I finished quite happy with the end time ... and I now have a baseline upon which to improve.

I road the Tube home in that delightful endorphin-hazy-buzz I always get at the completion of a great competition, tucking into Richard Osman's new book ("We Solve Murders"), and, when not reading, plotting my training plan for this coming week ... as I race again next Sunday at the AP Masters Grand Prix with a fun lineup of the 50 fly and 100 back before my focus event, the 200 fly!