Scouting Suits and Strategies in Sheffield
24 October 2026
I made my way via the very comfortable LNER train up to the excellent Ponds Forge International Sports Centre on Friday for this year's Swim England Masters SCM Nationals, arriving well-rested, caffeinated and with a fancy new Mizuno GX-Sonic Royal MT racing suit (see this article to read more about this range):
In an ideal world, I would not have packed 4 races into two sessions, especially the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions, but the events I wanted to swim lined up that way on the schedule, so I was prepared to race:
Friday evening - 200 backstroke, 400 IM
Saturday morning - 200 fly, 400 free
There was a sufficient amount of time between races in both sessions (about 2 hours on Friday and about 90 minutes on Saturday) so I had time to cool-down, relax and re-warmup, but it was still quite a bit of aerobic racing in a short period! And, with my 400 IM finishing up around 8pm and then eating dinner after 9pm, I had an exceptionally hard time relaxing and sleeping Friday to Saturday morning ... my watch was not pleased and I think the score was generous for the 4:32 of sleep recorded from Friday to Saturday.
All that said, it turned out to be a great experience, a time to continue experimenting with race strategies and to see if this new Mizuno suit will emerge as my "tech suit soul mate." I produced one great swim, two good swims and one "educational" swim. Here's how the racing went:
200 back
Masters Best – 2:15.17 (2013, age 46)
50+ Best – 2:21.98 (26 September 2026, K2 Crawley)
Result – 2:24.03
Reaction -
After my great swim at the Crawley meet four weeks ago where I had split well (1:10.3 - 1:11.6), I had written in the blog post linked above, "It would be nice to see if I can dip under 2:20 at Nationals, but I'll need to push the first half harder."
So, I intentionally set out to flip at the 100 at about 1:09 and then hoped to continue powering through another 1:11+ split on the second 100. I executed that strategy perfectly through the 100, going 33.8 / 35.2 to be exactly at 1:09.0.
... but then the wheels quickly came off the bus and I was gasping for air coming off the 125 turn. I really thought I had been strong/fast while still being measured in my effort on that first 100, but clearly I wasn't. I ended up just dying the rest of the race, splitting 37.15 and then limping to the finish at 37.87.
That one hurt. And, even though the primary intention of entering the 200 back was to have one "warmup race" before the 400 IM ... and I had told myself before the competition that my time wouldn't matter on this ... this still stung. The time itself wasn't horrible in my history of racing this event, but the back half dying had me concerned for the rest of my events.
Fortunately, I had plenty of time to cool-down and reflect. And, I had a "phone-a-friend" (more accurately, text-a-friend) in Cate Jackson who messaged me after the race, helped me process it and, most importantly, helped me think about my race strategy for the 400 IM.
400 IM
Masters Best – 4:46.48 (2013, age 46)
50+ Best – 5:00.56 (26 September 2026, K2 Crawley)
Result – 4:58.63
Reaction -
I was pretty damn pleased when I squinted at the scoreboard and thought I read 4:59.63, as my goal going into the meet was to get under 5:00, something I've not done since 2016. Imagine my delight, when I got to my phone after cooling down and saw that the actual time was a second faster!
The main lesson I had taken from the 200 backstroke was that I had easy speed this weekend. I had been out a full second faster on the first 50 of that event vs the Crawley meet. The second learning was that, quite possibly, my fears of being over-tapered (given my sub-par training since Crawley due to lots of "life," travel and time zone shifting) were a reality and so I needed to be even more conservative in my energy output on the first half of the race.
Whereas my normal strategy is to "sleep through the fly" and then try to negative split each subsequent 100, I extended the "sleep zone" through the first 50 of the breaststroke. I intentionally tried to cruise 250 and only at that point did I start to actively push my stroke rate.
This appears to have been the right approach as I've steadily taken out the first 200 slower and slower over the last three swims, but then had so much more in the tank on the second 200 that I've dropped my time consistently.
July 11th - 1:08.2 / 1:15.2 / 1:28.6 /1:09.8 = 5:01.9
Sep 26th - 1:08.5 / 1:16.2 / 1:27.7 / 1:08.2 =5:00.6
Oct 24th - 1:09.1 / 1:16.8 / 1:26.6 / 1:06.0 = 4:58.6
This swim alone made my weekend. That's my seventh fastest** ever over 28 times racing this over the last 25 years. But, as happy as I was with it, I still plenty of room to be even faster next year.
And, a huge shoutout to Gareth and Jefferson, my physiotherapy team at A2Z Elite Health and Performance, because I swam the breaststroke with zero knee pain and that leg accounted for 2/3rds of my time drop since July.
Another highlight of the evening was getting to see the pool "at rest" before I headed back to my hotel, reminding me of so many years as a distance swimmer "closing down" pools with the last event of the night:
For swim pool nerds, both of these courses end up being identical. The women were swimming in the nearest pool and then men/open category in the farther pool. The start for each course is at 2.0 meter depth but then the pool slopes down to 3.0M in the middle at the bulkhead. You can see the colour variation in the nearest pool where the slope starts. The 2.5M width lanes make for relatively little wash from the other swimmers. The 25M width diving pool is the warmup pool behind the banners. Swim England manages the capacity of this meet well so that it's busy with lots of energy in the building and packed full of competitors, but there's still plenty of space to warmup/cool-down and sit.
Onto Saturday morning's events, officially the 2nd and 3rd best events (in my mind) on the complete competitive program:
200 Fly
Masters Best – 2:15.35 (2011, age 44)
50+ Best – 2:23.47 (October 2025, Swim England SCM Nationals)
Result – 2:23.62
Reaction-
As with the IM, I employed my "sleep strategy" through the 150, trying to control my pace through stroke count. The goal was to be at 7 SPL through the 75, then 8 SPL to the 150 and then let it rip. In reality, I was more like 5-7-8-8-9-9 and then I think 11 and maybe 14 on the last length.
And, while I really thought I was loafing the first 50, I was still out too fast at 33.25, then was solid enough at 36.80 (1:10.05) - 37.36 - 36.21 (1:13.57).
I was pretty chuffed with this swim, as it's right on the 2:23.47 I went last year following a period where I only trained for butterfly, whereas this year my training was far less specific.
With that said, I see a lot of room for improvement in this race. As much as I've loved my shorter-volume, speed-oriented workout approach (e.g., I've averaged 12km per week of swim volume since European Champs), I am planning a more traditional aerobic base period from November through January, inclusive of a lot of fly work, as I'd like to get conditioned enough to feel I can race this whole event, versus pace it.
400 Free
Masters Best – 4:19.70 (2005, age 38)
50+ Best – 4:27.19 (2025, age 58, Swim Ontario Provincials)
Result - 4:27.55
Reaction -
I continued with my conservative front-half, turning at 2:13.74 at the 200 (almost three seconds slower than I had gone out back in mid-September) and came back with an almost picture-perfect even split:
Leading into the meet, my goal was to dip into the 4:26 range, but I was still quite happy with this time as the 4:27.19 time from 2025 was the very first race of the weekend. And, furthermore, I can see, from the too-slow second 100, the seeds for not just a 4:26 swim, but a path to a sub 4:25 swim.
Suit Summary
I had sought out this Mizuno suit because there's a cultish love for this brand amongst a segment of the current elite swimmers (e.g., Cam McEvoy, Caspar Corbeau, others) and I've been trying to find a suit that I really love. These suits are harder to find, and the latest model is only available in Japan. I procured mine through an eBay seller there and, in the realm of tech suits, it wasn't too expensive (£220 plus £60 in UK duty, about USD 375 in total) even via this route.
Whenever possible, I like to race in a "dry suit" for each race, so I wore the Mizuno on my 200 backstroke and 400 free, and competed in my FINIS Hydrox jammer (which I got last year before European SCM champs in Lublin) for the IM and fly. There's definitely more "give" in the FINIS suit, both due to suit construction and the fact I've raced in it multiple times before, but it still held up quite well. I quite liked the Mizuno suit, but might have gone one size too big (XL) as it was a bit too easy to put on. But, with the faff of getting the Mizuno (at least the latest models), I'm not sure I want to risk getting a size lower and then having it be too small.
As I often do, my FINIS suit, having seen me through three championship meets (Lublin, Bratislava and Sheffield) and a couple of IMs at other meets (Stockport, Crawley) will now become an 'in-season' suit for racing, along with TYR suit from 2025 that still holds up well enough for that purpose. I'll reserve the Mizuno for next year's championships, but will also get one new tech suit, so I both have a backup and can alternate suits when two events happen in the same session.
The search for my "tech suit soul mate" continues.
** Excluding a super-suited 4:39.78 from 2008
