University of Minnesota Athletics
Keeping up with Kierra: Blog #3
12/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Coming off her NCAA title in the 200-yard breaststroke this past March, Minnesota's Kierra Smith is taking the season off from collegiate competition to train for a spot on the 2016 Canadian Olympic team. Get inside the mind of a champion in the third installment of her blog for gophersports.com.
224s, Seattle, Michael Phelps, Omaha, Silver Medals, Montreal... it's all here.
The evening of Saturday, December 5th, at USA Winter Nationals in Federal Way, Washington was when I stopped celebrating 2:24s. Not that long ago (16 months) I was under 2:25 in the 200-metre breaststroke for the first time, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
What had looked like an unattainable milestone was finally reached in prelims on the last day of Pan Pacs in Australia and everyone around me was excited. Hugs, congratulatory texts, likes and retweets from so many people made the day extra special. That day on the Gold Coast I was fully tapered, rested and shaved and was walking around on cloud nine feeling pretty invincible.
After the USA Winter Nationals race, my club coach Emil was watching from home on his computer or iPhone and phoned me on the drive to the hotel. He told me my swim looked funny and thought I looked too skinny. Yes, I'll admit the too skinny quip caught my attention because I've never heard anyone say that before and I thought my mechanics were spot on. The scale reads 157 lbs which is right where I want to be, and I'll drop to 153-155 after Winter training camp. I think he might have been watching the wrong race.
I felt really good in the morning posting a 225 and thought I could go out faster at night (I did), and hang on for a 223 (I didn't). The strategy was working for the first 190 metres, but then I blew a tire, flipped over and caught on fire.
Despite what you read in those motivational self-help books, the body can't always do what the mind thinks it can. I can read the calendar and know it's crunch time but sometimes the legs just don't want to kick anymore.
I went to Seattle with Jared Anderson, who's a Minnesota breaststroker, and Tyler Gerst as our coach. Tyler coaches and recruits for the Gophers and is plugged in all the time, following meets all over the country on his phone. Jared is a senior writer for SwimSwam.com and has a lot of street cred as a writer because he swims every day, lifts weights and walks the talk.
Between Jared and Tyler I think they knew every swimmer in the pool. They certainly get their money's worth from the Meet Mobile app. I learned a lot from Tyler about what recruiters look for at a swim meet and they don't just look at the clock. They notice how you interact with your team and your coach. Rolling your eyes when mom or dad says something silly is a big no-no. They notice if you reach your hand over to congratulate the person in the adjacent lane. Big bonus star if you thank a volunteer. A sub-par swim to a recruiter is an opportunity to see how you react afterwards. I've read about what college recruiters look for when I was going through the process, but I never really believed it until I saw it happen over an entire swim meet. Best advice I got about recruiting is if you are having a conflict with your coach, go fix it. Like right now! Say sorry. No one cares if you were right. They're good guys to go to a meet with and it was nice to be away from girl drama for a week.
Tyler likely sensed I was feeling a little beat up after the race and stepped up by tweeting out a photo of the silver medal. #workworks.
I don't think there's anything more exciting in swimming than watching someone get their first Olympic Trials cut and seeing their faces as they look up at the scoreboard. This scene happened again and again in the morning heats and the watching other people's personal triumphs will never get old. I enjoyed hanging out in the pool lobby when moms and dads would hug their teenager trying to fight back tears, and usually not succeeding, celebrating an important swimming milestone. For most American swimmers, Omaha is the ultimate prize, and if the excitement of watching lobby celebrations with swimmers and their parents doesn't rub off, there's something wrong with you.
The King County Aquatic Centre became the Church of Michael Phelps on the last day. The men's 200 fly was the last event and watching Phelps take over that race in his home country was something I'll never forget. It was a sold out pool with people standing and cramming for position. No one left early after their swim. Every single person was screaming, cheering him in and the applause lasted a long time after he won. I imagine it was what it would have been like to watch Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky or Muhammad Ali compete live. No way for me to tell if Phelps was happy with his time, but he did reach over to the guys beside him to congratulate them, and slowly climbed out of the pool and subtly put his hand on the lane 4 timer's shoulder as he walked by.
Won't ever forget that.
Kind of a blah time in my schedule. My next race is in February when I'm scheduled to compete at the Canadian Western Championships in Winnipeg. Easterns is going on at the same time in Montreal so I might call an audible at the line and go to Montreal instead. Although Winnipeg is a lot closer geographically to Minneapolis, a flight to Montreal costs $300 less. After that I'll head back to Kelowna because everyone here will be gearing up for Big Tens and NCAAs and I won't get enough LC training in. All could change though.
Thanks for reading… I really appreciate the kind words I hear now and then when I bump into one of my blog readers. They mean a lot.
You can see 2016 on the best before date when you buy milk now so as far as I'm concerned it's here already. Happy New Year everyone!
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