I raced at PNA Champs near Seattle this weekend and all of my times were much slower than last year even though I trained for 11 months straight (Masters swim 3 days/week, weight lifting 2-3 days/week, with some cross-country skiing and biking on weekends). I stopped lifting 2 weeks prior to the meet but I swam up until Thursday before the Sat/Sun meet. Mostly did sprints on the Tues-Thur swims before the meet, about 2k meters all-up vs 3k meters for a normal workout. Plenty of sleep time. But I felt tired during the meet and ran out of energy on most events (200/500 yd free, 50/100/200 ***). Age = 51.
Should I have tapered more? I have no idea what caused my fatigue.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Seattle Jack
Thanks everyone for your great feedback. I’ve only been swimming competitively for a few years and the knowledge I continue to absorb from experienced swimmers like yourselves is amazing (and making this adventure very fun and rewarding!). My takeaways at this point are:
· I need to do more fast swimming practice throughout the year, not just weeks before the meet (like I did this year).
· I need to better manage my interval times in training. Map my 50, 100 times to what I’m trying to achieve in my races. I have not been doing this in masters workouts as I’m 1 of many in a lane all going the group speed.
· Swimming 3 x 1 hour workouts a week is maybe not enough. Use extra 2 workouts a week to focus on personal race goals like above. (Although I still want to do some weight lifting as I definitely felt additional strength from that – I’m a tall guy with long legs, skinny arms, not exactly MPhelps. J)
· Tapering is tricky and there is a good chance I screwed it up for this meet. I’ll rest and see. Next time, reduce volume gradually, maintaining intensity – but don’t do full out sprints 2 days before the meet.
· Eat more fruit/veggies, less martinis. J
Thanks again everyone, much appreciated!
Jack
Thanks everyone for your great feedback. I’ve only been swimming competitively for a few years and the knowledge I continue to absorb from experienced swimmers like yourselves is amazing (and making this adventure very fun and rewarding!). My takeaways at this point are:
· I need to do more fast swimming practice throughout the year, not just weeks before the meet (like I did this year).
· I need to better manage my interval times in training. Map my 50, 100 times to what I’m trying to achieve in my races. I have not been doing this in masters workouts as I’m 1 of many in a lane all going the group speed.
· Swimming 3 x 1 hour workouts a week is maybe not enough. Use extra 2 workouts a week to focus on personal race goals like above. (Although I still want to do some weight lifting as I definitely felt additional strength from that – I’m a tall guy with long legs, skinny arms, not exactly MPhelps. J)
· Tapering is tricky and there is a good chance I screwed it up for this meet. I’ll rest and see. Next time, reduce volume gradually, maintaining intensity – but don’t do full out sprints 2 days before the meet.
· Eat more fruit/veggies, less martinis. J
Thanks again everyone, much appreciated!
Jack
