Phelps Has Mixed Results in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, May 17 -- Michael Phelps moved out of his townhouse in Fells Point recently to allow a team of interior designers to remake the four-story, $1.7 million home in his own style, with black leather sofas, cement walls that resist scratching, and a room to showcase his growing memorabilia collection, including a vintage Johnny Unitas jersey and Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves.

Pretty soon, the place will hold a reconstructed swimmer, too.

At the Charlotte UltraSwim this weekend, Phelps brought out a blueprint of what he hopes to become as he trains for the 2012 Summer Games in London. Nine months after winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps dabbled in a revised swim program built around speed events while tinkering with a brand-new stroke that he hopes to shape into a reliable weapon.

The three-day tally: He won two races, lost two, swam with moderate success a morning heat of a brand-new event and declared himself, at the end of it all, a work in progress.

Some swims he described as encouraging. But others revealed flaws. After his second-place finish in Sunday night's 100-meter freestyle in 49.04 seconds, he dissected the performance using words such as "upset" and "awful" and "stupid."

"There were some happy times and, like tonight, some frustrating times," Phelps said about the race in which he finished second to France's Fred Bousquet (48.22). "It's something to motivate me to fix those things over the next few weeks."

Phelps, 23, began this meet by claiming gold medals in the only two events in which he also competed at the Olympics last year, the 100 butterfly and 200 free, but he lost his first race in nearly a year Saturday when he finished second to Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol in the 100 backstroke.

He finished eighth in the morning finals of the 50 free, then didn't bother to compete in that night's final, knowing he couldn't win it. On Sunday, the last day of competition, he posted the fastest time in the morning heats of the 100 free -- 49.50 seconds -- but swam a convoluted race later for the disappointing finale.

Phelps began the 100 final using his customary freestyle stroke, then changed about halfway through the first length to his new straight-armed freestyle stroke. In the last half of the race, he swam only the last 15 meters with the new stroke.

Because he is just learning the straight-arm, Phelps said, he wasn't concerned about the flip-flopping. But what did bother him, he said, were his poorly executed turn and finish.

"I wanted to break 49 seconds," said Phelps, who posted a 47.51 in the event last year. "To be five-hundredths off of it because of two stupid mistakes I made is kind of frustrating."

But it was, he said, also motivating. "I always train well and better after a meet," Phelps said. "If you come off a meet and you're disappointed and you have things that upset you, that's the best time to get back in the water and train."