Taper Workouts

I searched the past threads to try and find some answers to my questions about prepping for a "taper" meet. We are an uncoached masters team and I have been writing most of the workouts throughout the year, but when it comes to tapering I am a bit lost as to how to put an appropriate workout together as we close in on our biggest meet of the year. I realize that everybody tapers differently, but what I am looking for is just a general idea of what to do. We have been averaging 4000 yards 4x a week. I've read about the 100:75:50 ratio in terms of volume, but I also would like to understand what kind of workouts we should be doing. Volume wise we were going to do something like this: 4 weeks away from the meet - 3750 3 weeks away from the meet - 3500 2 weeks away from the meet - 3000 week before the meet - 2000 Any assistance (maybe an example) is appreciated.
Parents
  • I am clueless about tapering. Even though I did swim a lot when younger, my training was irregular due to injuries. I was terrified of losing what little conditioning I had when my big races were supposed to be 500 & 1650. Now, I am up to 20,000+/week. I always work hard, but how prepared can I be for a 1650 on that little mileage? Anybody have ideas on how to taper when you don't have much to taper from? I'm in the same boat as you. It is hard to basically cut way way back when you know it requires a huge effort to put in a good 1650. What I do is about 2 weeks out just do all race pace sets and slightly reduce yardage. That way I am pounding my body somewhat less but still maintaining the conditioning and "pace knowledge" that is essential for the race. The last four days before the race I really cut back a lot and only do a few race pace yards, around 2500. Two days out it is just a bird bath and nothing the day before. I also agree with Fort that you should not save your race pace for the end. While I do almost exclusive race pace at the end, I probably do 75-80% race pace for the three months prior as well. I have no idea if this is correct or even what is right for me. But, it has yielded my best results.
Reply
  • I am clueless about tapering. Even though I did swim a lot when younger, my training was irregular due to injuries. I was terrified of losing what little conditioning I had when my big races were supposed to be 500 & 1650. Now, I am up to 20,000+/week. I always work hard, but how prepared can I be for a 1650 on that little mileage? Anybody have ideas on how to taper when you don't have much to taper from? I'm in the same boat as you. It is hard to basically cut way way back when you know it requires a huge effort to put in a good 1650. What I do is about 2 weeks out just do all race pace sets and slightly reduce yardage. That way I am pounding my body somewhat less but still maintaining the conditioning and "pace knowledge" that is essential for the race. The last four days before the race I really cut back a lot and only do a few race pace yards, around 2500. Two days out it is just a bird bath and nothing the day before. I also agree with Fort that you should not save your race pace for the end. While I do almost exclusive race pace at the end, I probably do 75-80% race pace for the three months prior as well. I have no idea if this is correct or even what is right for me. But, it has yielded my best results.
Children
No Data