I've read nearly every taper thread on this forum, learnt how people feel like crap and freak out before their meets, I have read about their doubts and fears and the encouraging responses given by experienced users and still I have no idea of what I'm getting into :afraid:
I have been training very intensely for the last two and something weeks. My idea was to peak training then taper. From the 11th to the 24th of June I've swum seventeen times, ten of these workouts were high-intensity race pace stuff with lots of rest, and lifted weights four times. The other workouts were the usual 5km+ ones with my team.
There are two upcoming meets for me which are a week apart and I'm focusing on the second one which is more important.
I have never tapered though and I don't know what I'm doing, I thought that a two-week taper would be fine then I read that the second week is the one when you feel like crap so I fear that I will hit my taper after the meet :doh:
I tried to come up with some kind of a taper plan for these two weeks, the number on the left is the day. Ez/drill stuff is not reported.
24 4x25fr, 2x75fr, 2x50fly
25 OFF
26 OFF
27 2x25fr, 200fr broken
28 2x25fr, 100fly broken, 50fr
29 ?
30 MEET 50fr
1 MEET 50fr/100fly
2 MEET 100fr
3 MEET OFF
4 2x25fr, 75fr
5 2x25fr, 50fly
6 2x25fr
7 1000 ez/drill
8 MEET 200fr
9 MEET 200fly?
10 MEET 100fly/100fr
What do you think? Is it the right road? Should I ever do a full broken 200fr or 100 fly during taper? What should I do on the day before the first meet? :dunno:
I don't know how long it should be, I know that the duration of a taper varies with age, I'm 24 so younger than most here, I should be fine with less rest right? still I fear to miss my taper. If I screw up the second meet I'll have to explain my coach how I have ever come up with this crazy idea of resting, because you know "rest" is a swearword for him :bitching:
Thank you very much :)
Former Member
Don't swimmers sometimes have these magical swims after doing absolutely nothing for a couple of weeks?
All the best "Race Prep" plans decrease the work and increase racing practice. We prefer not to call this phase "taper" since most masters don't exactly swim enough yardage to justify that label.
Although there are definitely some Forumites who do!
Feeling sluggish in the water is normal. Feeling completely exhausted is not. The idea is practicing pieces of your race and strategies involved.
Regardless of what your race prep plan is in the pool, my advice is to work on your racing spirit and get it happy!
Sulking around the big meet grouchy, way serious, nervous and over-intense will likely kill the good times.
And I mean that in every sense of the word.
Don't worry about weird negative stares from your competitors or other swimmers. Someday - they'll catch on to the fun!
Good luck at the big meet and enjoy yourself!
The most important thing you can do in your taper is have confidence. Even with the perfect "physical taper", if you don't have confidence in it, it won't work. The worst thing you can do is spend your two weeks of taper worrying if it is working or not. Just have confidence that you/your coach did the proper research and that the taper you chose will work.
Okay I'm back from the first meet and I've got numbers.
Please note that although I swim 20+ km per week I have been swimming seriously for less than one and a half years so my times suck :bolt:
50fr: 30.98
50fr relay split: 29 high
100fly: 1:17.04
100fr: 1:09.51
I was expecting all of the times to be lower, especially the 100 fly, split it 34.1 42.9 :| and I didn't take it out too hard, the first 50 was very nice and relaxed but by the 35m I knew my legs would die coming back and so it was, I guess I wasn't rested enough yet. Last Monday I went 1:13 in a broken 100 fly, 34 and 39, the piano always seems to fall earlier in actual races for me.
Nothing to say about the 100fr, I just think I need to go faster because it's slow if compared to the 50 time.
Now I'm back to my taper, I still have to find out which events my coach has signed me up for this weekend :bump:
Good swims. Now you have some decent seed times as measure.
Like yourself I entered the sport as a non-swimmer, but it took me 24 months to do the LCM 50 in 30 seconds. Nevertheless, at that point in time a year ago (2 yrs exp) to now (3 yrs), no improvement has happened so I'm in a process of fixing that at the moment.
Chow!
My shedule has changed, I'm not swimming the 200 fly at the meet but my coach has signed me up for the 50 fly on the first day, this leaves me without any events to race on the second day. Should I still get in the pool and do a very light 400/600 of ez and drills or just sit back and relax?
Yesterday I swam a 50 fly at 100 race pace and went 33.5 which is .6 faster than the 34.1 split of the 100fly at the first meet :applaud: Consider that our LCM pool doesn't have blocks so I had to dive in from the wall with a crappy grab start and my stroke didn't feel very smooth, it was a pretty solid swim. It should be even better this weekend especially if I decide to shave and to wear a jammer. Things are looking bright right now :)
