I've noticed in the last few years that my 100 SCM breastroke can vary by over 3 seconds between practise meets (as I'd call them) and nationals (therefore 5-6%).
My team mates don't vary so much. I've also not yet done a PB/PR in my main events outside of Nationals. I'm usually happy to get 'in the ballpark', which is a vague range of a couple of seconds depending on when I'm swimming.
I put it down to more of a willingness to race tired during the rest of the season, which not many of the masters I know will do. For example, on Saturday I swam 200 IM, 100 *** and 100 free in an evening session for the training effect, 48 hours after doing weights then lactic tolerance (which was a complete meltdown!). Most of my masters team mates would back off even a small meet / time trial to see what they could do.
Even though my training programme is not all that heavy, I still make sure that I taper over a good couple of weeks - spending time at race pace but ensuring recovery (particularly in the last week).
What's your approach to racing and tapering and how much do your times vary over the season?
I also don't do that much yardage ,but do it high intensity and swim through my non-taper meets.I do a 3 week taper and for LCM average dropping 1 sec+ for a 50 M Breaststroke,2-3 sec for a 100 and 10 sec for a 200.
I aim to peak twice a year for our UK LC and SC masters. Each of the 2 peaks is preceded by a taper, a competition phase and prior to that general training. My taper last 3 weeks, competition phase 4-6 weeks, and general training the rest of the year.
I've found that competing during the training period results in poor times - 3-4 seconds per 100 outside PB time. Competition phase times are 1-2 seconds outside, then the peak after progressive taper usually close to or breaking a masters PB (fingers crossed).
The taper period is a gradual decrease in yardage down to 50% final week,but keeping the same level of intensity with race pace every other day.
