Fatigue Cost Me Race Times?

The most obvious question to me is, did you also swim 3 times a week and weight train 2-3 x's/ week last year? If you swim 3 times a week, I think it is hard to swim fast at a 2 day meet swimming 5 events. Your body is used to a day off after a swim day, so even if you are rested, it is hard to do that many fast swims with warmup and warm down for five events in 2 days.:2cents:

They have yet to post the PNA Champs results from last weekend. I actually beat my best 100 *** time by 0.4 seconds in the first race but expected more, felt tired, and got much slower every race after that. Excellent advice going forward, and thanks for the kind offer to review video. Thanks much! the fact that your 1st 100 was slightly faster is a positive development, I know you can make dramatic improvements, it's simply a matter of: + How bad do you wanna be good? + How much training time, effort, & $ are you willing to dedicate to this project? + How smart fast & often you train? Also if you can make technique improvements and make em stick your time improvement will be proportional to what the changes do for you. You might enjoy The Breastroke Lane

What exercises do you feel are the most beneficial in strengthening the muscles that make you swim faster? Sorry if this should be another thread or is already covered elsewhere. Two very good books on this subject that are available on Amazon: Complete Conditioning for Swimming by Salo and Riewald and Swimming Anatomy by Mcleod, but youhave to figure out what it is you want to imporve. Also see dryland training blogs by Jazz Hands, Ande, Fotress, and others.

+ actually get stronger from lifting weights, strengthen the muscles that make you swim faster What exercises do you feel are the most beneficial in strengthening the muscles that make you swim faster? Sorry if this should be another thread or is already covered elsewhere.

See how you feel this week and next. If you feel strong and energized, I'd say you should have tapered a little longer. Another possibility is you didn't do enough variation/sprinting during your 11 months of training. Training at the same speed teaches your body to go that speed. Unfortunately, its a trial and error thing.

I need to do more fast swimming practice throughout the year, not just weeks before the meet (like I did this year). I think you're onto something here. The key to swimming fast is to set aside days to practice fast. I had a similar experience thinking that if I practiced hard enough the times would drop. Not necessarily so. My former college coach essentially said that I was becoming a great workout swimmer rather than a racer. Finding a race gear one or two sessions each week will surely bring about the desired results. Don't be too disappointed. On a positive note, every perceived setback ultimately leads to success.

I agree with what has been said so far. It could be that you didn't rest enough, but possibly you didn't train enough. Obviously you've exercised a lot, but three days per week 3K per session isn't a lot of actual swimming volume. My experience is that other forms of exercise don't necessarily translate to helping with your swimming training. You've got to put the time in at the pool and I think four days a week is the minimum. Your experience may vary, but that's mine. And how did you train? Were you training to race? If your goal in the 500 was, say, to break 7:00, did you hold repeat 50s under 42 seconds and repeat 100s under 1:24? Lastly, it is possible you just had a bad weekend. I've certainly had meets where I've trained hard, thought I was rested and ready to go, but just felt flat. It can happen.

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 Jack, How have your swim and weight workouts gone over this past year? Have you been able to lift the same or better sets? This would indicate what's going on with muscles. Also, what about swim reps/sets in the pool? Have you been holding times or better? If the answers are yes weights and swims are holding or better, then it was either just a tough meet (as an adult, there are lots of personal things impacting how i feel and swim) or not enough taper. Below is summarized information about tapering from: Complete Conditioning for Swimming: Taper (Salo and Riewald) Basically, it won't make up for poor training (although some may wish so), one to three weeks typically, typ. longer for sprinters esp. using HIT and shorter for distance swimmers (adjust to previious workload), reduce the volume of swimming gradually but not the intensity (maintaining intensity is critical), it's a catchup time and not a time for additional training, females typically need less time than males, older swimmers need more time than younger, don't keep eating as if you were swimming the same volume, taper may or may not improve "feel" for the water so don't expect it, and don't be surprised if you feel sluggish in the middle of it as your body catches up with the workload. : Taper (Salo and Riewald) Basically, it won't make up for poor training (although some may wish so), one to three weeks typically, typ. longer for sprinters esp. using HIT and shorter for distance swimmers (adjust to previious workload), reduce the volume of swimming gradually but not the intensity (maintaining intensity is critical), it's a catchup time and not a time for additional training, females typically need less time than males, older swimmers need more time than younger, don't keep eating as if you were swimming the same volume, taper may or may not improve "feel" for the water so don't expect it, and don't be surprised if you feel sluggish in the middle of it, as your body catches up with the workload. Lastly, from Friel's book on tri training, he mentions that when you reach middle age (what ever that is, but 51 sounds close :D), you inevitably begin to lose muscle mass. Fairly recently they've discovered that one of the primary reasons this happens is because of increased kidney function with age (you pee more) and that increases the loss of Nitrogen, which is critical for muscle retention and development. Friel indicates that you can slow the losss of nitrogen down by eating more alkaline foods (generally fruits and veggies) and eating less acidic foods (some proteins). Not all foods in these groups are alike, and of course you need to eat the proper amounts of protein, fats, and carbs for training. If I can copy/pdf the table of food alkaline/acidic indicies, I'll attach when i get a chance.

That's why it's good to have a waterproof camera. You may never know if form broke down unless there is footage of current and old technique

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