Luke's Life: 2026

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Pacific Masters Swimming - 3^rd October 2026

A year later and about 4 lbs (a little less than 2 kg) heavier, I was back at the Pacific Masters Swimming Kerry O'Brien Short Course Meters Championships, hopeful to improve on my 2025 performance.

Despite some trouble with shoulder and elbow stiffness since my race in July, I felt I was in decent shape.

This was my first race in a tech suit. I was eager to learn if it would help me find more speed. During a couple of tests in training I found the extra compression very restrictive, especially during turns. (One study suggests the compound benefit of a tech suit plus a dome cap is about 0.27 seconds per push off the wall. [1] [2] There's very little data otherwise but all elite swimmers wear tech suits in competition, and a meaningful share of elite male swimmers choose Mizuno tech suits when they're not required to wear another brand. A bunch of Pacific Masters swimmers also wear tech suits.)

The weather was forecast to be hot: 100 F (about 37.8 C). Temperatures reached the mid 90s (about 34 C) while I was racing.

100 SCM Freestyle: 1:00.80 (splits: 28.21, 32.59) - video. (2nd of 6 in age group)
I was assigned to lane 5. Due to some on-deck architecture, lane 5 has a starting block significantly offset from center so the block is angled back into the lane...In practice, this was fine. My start felt good. My first length felt good until I lifted my head around 20 meters in. The rest felt very sloppy. My second turn was a disaster. I nearly surfaced under the lane rope and lost at least half a body length on the swimmer behind me.
Stroke count:
1: 15
2: 17
3: 17
4: 19
I finished 2.25 seconds faster than 2025, just under the predicted time from long course in July.
50 SCM Butterfly: 30.35 - video. (3rd of 4 in age group)
I hadn't focused on fly at all in 2026. I only raced it since it was immediately after the freestyle event. Some tests in training in early September suggested I hadn't gotten slower so I was pleasantly surprised to go 1.29 seconds faster than 2025.
Stroke count:
1: 9
2: 11

Equipment:

Suit: Mizuno GX-Sonic Royal Motion (MT)
Googles: Speed Vanquisher 2.0
Cap: Arena Aquaforce Wave Silicone Swim Cap

Personal notes for my next event:

I feel I'm reaching a plateau with my solo shared-lane-with-randoms training at the YMCA, so I'm looking for a masters team to swim with. I plan to trial with the YMCA team in the Presidio before the end of 2026.
I need to learn to maintain my freestyle technique under race-pressure and despite life events around and at these meets.

Results:

Possible next events:

February 6th: USF Valentine's Affair
March 21st: Short and Sweet Meet, Novato, CA
April 9th to 11th: Pacific Masters SCY Championships

Monday, July 27, 2026

Pacific Masters Swimming - 18^th July 2026

Illnesses at the end of 2025 and start of 2026 prevented me competing in MEMO’s Thrice is Nice in December and USF Valentine's Affair in February. I restarted swim-training in March and added basic weightlifting, progressing to the gym at the end of May. It took until around April to regain the weight I'd lost while sick. By the start of May I was swimming back on pace with my 2026 best, but I got slower in late May and June as I added more weight and weight-training days to my routine.

Based on my prior performance at 100m short course, I entered the 2026 Pacific Masters Swimming LCM Championships 100 long course meter freestyle with 1:05.14, much slower than my 1:00.96 in 2012. I only entered one event as I didn't want to spend the day waiting for just the 50 meter freestyle at the end of Saturday.

On July 1st I twisted my ankle. It continued to bother me through race day but two days before I swam ~63s for 100 yards without a dive, in a shared lane.

It was my first time at the Soda Aquatic Center in Moraga CA. The competition and warm-up pools are nice but the locker-rooms are quite small.

I practiced a couple of starts during the warmup (thanks to a coach from USF staffing a second practice-lane).

100 LCM Freestyle: 1:02.60 - video.
My start was slow, and still wasn't deep enough, but I kept my goggles secure for a change. I felt good during the first 50m, comfortably keeping pace with the swimmers alongside me. My turn wasn't great (no video evidence to learn from this time), but I had enough energy to push the second 50m harder. In hindsight, I think I could/should have gone faster on the first leg too. I was happy enough with my final time: 1:02.60; faster than October 2025, but much slower than 2012. (1:02.60 converted back to short course equates to 1:01.00 which is much faster than my 1:03.05 in October. Either my race in October was worse than I thought (maybe my flip turns were truly awful?), or I've gotten faster.) I placed second in my heat and in my age group.