Taper - Am I doing it right? Thoughts and opinions helpful.
Former Member
Hello, Alex here.
Just thought I might drop in my taper schedule for my championship meet May 12th and 13th. A few notes are that I have been weight lifting since August mon-thurs, and swimming 5500 yards mon-fri since January. I'll list my weight lifting goals on dumbbell and leg extensions. I also plan on keeping my diet I've been having the same throughout the taper (cereal in the morning, pizza for lunch, who knows for dinner lol ) Another note is that I'm a mid distance swimmer (200 and 500 are my best events) Thanks for stopping by! :D:D
4 weeks before
April 15 - Rest
April 16 - Dumbbell Weights - 34 reps of 35, swim 5500 yards
April 17 - Leg Extentions - 36 reps of 45, South High Duel Meet
April 18 - Leg Extensions - 39 reps of 45, swim 5500 yards
April 19 - Dumbbell Weights - 38 reps of 35, swim 5500 yards
April 20 - Hornet Invitational Prelims
April 21 - Hornet Invite Finals
3 weeks before
** start sleeping 1 hour earlier every night
April 22 - Rest
April 23 - Dumbbell Weights - 42 reps of 35, swim 5500 yards
April 24 - Leg Extensions - 42 reps of 45, Centennial Duel Meet
April 25 - Leg Extensions - 45 reps of 45, 5500 yards
April 26 - Dumbbell Weights - 45 reps of 35, 5500 yards
April 27 - Swim 5500 yards
April 28 - College orientation (rest)
2 weeks before
April 29 - Rest
April 30 - no weights, swim 4100 yards
May 1 - no weights, County Duel Meet
May 2 - no weights, swim 4100 yards
May 3 - no weights, FFC Duel Meet
May 4 - swim 4100 yards
May 5 - Flip turn practice at 15 meter pool
1 week before
May 6 - Rest
May 7 - no weights, swim 2750 yards
May 8 - no weights, swim 2750 yards
May 9 - no weights, swim 2750 yards
May 10 - no weights swim 2750 yards
May 11 - ****PRELIMS****
May 12 - *****FINALS***** :bliss:
Lots of dual meets to work on getting your splitting just right.
Still time to work on those turns your coach says are killing you.
Have fun, swim fast!
Umm... do you have a coach?
Yes I do, and he is a big fan of the 100/50 taper. I heard the 100/75/50 taper is better, and I have discussed this with him. My coach is very open minded and if we find something helpful, like say here at usms.org we'll use it.
Can't wait till taper.. I kind of just wanna stop lifting weights now because I have slowly been decreasing time. Today I did 34 reps of 45 ibs in leg extensions, and went a 2:10 in my 200 free and a 6:20 in my 500. D:
I didn't touch weights at all in my high school years. We did dryland work, and medicine ball stuff, but no weight room stuff. My coach believed that was better to be done when your body was more physically developed (like college age) so as to not create injuries. After adding weights in college, I really increased in performance, but this is not 100% attributed to the weights. Also the increased training yardage, and focus on my distance/IM work as well.
Be careful with weights, I've seen many people get injured with them doing improper technique, or attempting more than they should be lifting.
My legs are just dead. I don't think it's too much about improper technique. Although stopping my weight lifting early does sound REALLY tempting :banana:
I just feel like if I do stop, I won't be expecting a big drop during taper. But then again if I do, I could definitely keep a 6 beat kick during my 500 and go 5:40's/5:50's
Just my opinion, but I'd say drop the weights, or at least drastically reduce them. For a 500, you're needing more endurance and cardio training anyway, rather than strength and speedwork. Talk with your coach. I'm sure they've been around the sport a while.
Can't wait till taper.. I kind of just wanna stop lifting weights now because I have slowly been decreasing time. Today I did 34 reps of 45 ibs in leg extensions, and went a 2:10 in my 200 free and a 6:20 in my 500. D:
I didn't touch weights at all in my high school years. We did dryland work, and medicine ball stuff, but no weight room stuff. My coach believed that was better to be done when your body was more physically developed (like college age) so as to not create injuries. After adding weights in college, I really increased in performance, but this is not 100% attributed to the weights. Also the increased training yardage, and focus on my distance/IM work as well.
Be careful with weights, I've seen many people get injured with them doing improper technique, or attempting more than they should be lifting.
My legs are just dead. I don't think it's too much about improper technique. Although stopping my weight lifting early does sound REALLY tempting :banana:
I just feel like if I do stop, I won't be expecting a big drop during taper. But then again if I do, I could definitely keep a 6 beat kick during my 500 and go 5:40's/5:50's
My opinions:
100 y free 57.98
27.21
30.77
better, but you can go 57-low with better splitting.
200 y free 2:08.42
28.35
31.44
33.72
34.91
still a lot of room for improvement here.
500 y free 5:53.61
31.36
35.02
35.57
36.32
36.21
36.05
36.03
36.23
35.74
35.08
Not bad at all! Congrats on going under 6 (your first time, yes?) It looks like you still had some in the tank at the end too. Maybe hit the gas about 75-100 earlier.
...Thursday I was not able to lift weights because the class wanted to play dodge ball. I also was late to practice because of an appointment, and as a result I was unmotivated on Friday and only swam a little over 600 yards compared to my 5500 yard average.
Yea, you kinda had a mini taper.
Lots of dual meets to work on getting your splitting just right.
Still time to work on those turns your coach says are killing you.
Have fun, swim fast!
Last meet I went to I finally got some best times! Don't know if the splitting was good enough though.
100 y free 57.98
27.21
30.77
200 y free 2:08.42
28.35
31.44
33.72
34.91
500 y free 5:53.61
31.36
35.02
35.57
36.32
36.21
36.05
36.03
36.23
35.74
35.08
Things that probably resulted in me having these best times (the meet was on Friday)
Thursday I was not able to lift weights because the class wanted to play dodge ball. I also was late to practice because of an appointment, and as a result I was unmotivated on Friday and only swam a little over 600 yards compared to my 5500 yard average.
I would be inclined to do the 100/75/50 type taper. When I was much younger I did some work under Bob 'heartrate Bob' Treffene. He said that a common mistake swimmers make is to reduce their workload too quickly. There still needs to be hard work during the taper. The reason for this was to keep the muscles and energy systems used to removing lactic acid as well as coping with it.
