From the thread on tapering:
For the last few weeks, I experiment with a meet warm-up.
I've never raced that much, and haven't been to a meet in a couple years except to watch, however, the thing that always bothered me most about meets was actually trying to warm up. I found it virtually impossible to do anything useful in a lane with 13 people, five of whom are chatting at the walls, and the other seven of whom were (trying to) do something much different than I was or doing it at a much different pace. I frequently would give up after a few minutes and just get out.
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I find that it gets a bit less congested after sprint lanes open up, or in the warmup pool if there is one. Using gdanner's tip number three helps, too. :D
If you're a real stickler for lane space in warmup, the trick is to NOT use Nationals or big regional meets as taper meets. Come to any of our Arizona state championships: we always have GOBS of warmup lanes for any of SCY, SCM or LCM championships.
However, if you do want to go to a big meet, here's what's worked for me (YMMV):
Figure out what your optimal pre-race warmup time is. For me, I like to warm-up for about 20-40 minutes (depending upon the race distance, time of the year, space) and then have 20-25 minutes before my race is scheduled to go off.
What this meant at Nationals is that I never was in the competition pools for the general warmups, but did all my warmups in the warmup pools.
In the week or so leading up to the meet (longer if you can), practice a warmup routine that consists of hard efforts between 12.5, 25, 37.5 and 50 yards.
Rid yourself of the notion that you'll get to do faster/pace 100s
Accept that you'll likely not even get to do faster/pace 50s
Simulate the likely warmup session you're going to be able to do at the meet during workouts and learn what works best to get you revved and ready to swim.
Unless there's something really funky about the blocks, the walls or the backstroke flags, I don't think there's much value/need to go off the blocks during warmups. Exceptions:
New blocks like the ones with the track start wedge that you might not be used to,
Funky placement of backstroke start grips that you might not be used to
I more or less make the best of it and allow extra warm-up time since with all the congestion it takes me longer to get what I need. I've had lots of really good swims at our state meets because of abundant warm up space and - my big requirement for fast swimming - HEAT!
As odd as this might appear to others, I wonder if wetsuits are allowed to be worn during warm up.Just make sure chaos isn't around ... and stop during the National Anthem ...:bolt:
Warming up can be an absolute nightmare. Like other people have said, get there early so that you can get a good 400-500 in before it gets crowded.
After you have done that it isn't too hard to do a set of 50's where you build your pace. If there are slower swimmers in front just go past them.
By then the sprint lanes should be ready to go to to some simple sprint efforts and then you should be good to go.
It can be really annoying sometimes but it is really just a matter of loosening up and getting a good feel for the water.
At nationals, I find it helpful to warm-up as soon as the pool opens. You can get in 400-500 in peace. If my event is late in the day, I leave and have breakfast. When it is time to race, I'll do a short warm-up in the crowd.
As someone else mentioned, I have done a complete warm-up as a series of 25's. It can be done if you don't let yourself get irritated by others.
1. Use the warmup pool during the regular warmup, when most people are using the competition pool. I can even get some pace work in sometimes.
2. Unless you are really not a morning person, come early and warm up during the slow heats of the 400 IMs or 400/500 freestyle events. I was in the warmup pool for the first few heats of the men's 500 and even managed to get in some 100s pace. (Of course this was on the last day of the meet, which is often less crowded.) If you are a Gold Medal sponsor, come early and warm up and then have breakfast.
3. I often need to warm up my legs more before leg-intensive events, in which the legs seem to attract lactic acid like ******* does flies. If space is limited, try vertical kicking bursts (tip from Rich Abrahams) to get the lactic acid removal machinery started before the race.
4. About the need to use the blocks, I never need to do so for diving but usually like to get in some backstroke starts. Partly this is psychological, but I have slipped on too many starts to trust touchpads, and if I don't trust the touchpad I get tentative. If the lines for the sprint lanes are very long, sometimes I'll just SET UP for a backstroke start in the non-sprint lanes (obviously you cannot actually DO a start), just enough to convince myself that I won't slip in my preferred positions for placing hands and feet. With good pads you can pull yourself clean out of the water and almost stand up without your feet losing their grip.
5. In the name of all that is good, avoid the wamup pools during the 50s unless you absolutely have to use them. During those events you have a large number of people racing in a relatively short amount of time, and they all seem to think that a 30-sec race requires 30 min of warm down. The pool is always VERY crowded during the 50s.
6. As it does with so many things, coffee helps this too. Also keep your muscles warm.
