Pre Meet Advice

how do I warm up on the day of the meet? The best advice I've gotten on warmups is something like, "The purpose of the warmup is to prepare you, physically and psychologically, to race. Warmup in a manner and duration consistent with the purpose." When I'm warming up, I say to myself, "The next thing I'm going to do is race. Am I ready to race?" If the answer is yes, then I get out. If it's no, then, "What else do I need to do?" When I run out of things to do, then I'm as ready as I'm going to be, and I get out.

Make sure to stay relaxed and get a good night's sleep. First meets are great in that you will make some new friends and experience the awesomeness that happens as we all encourage and cheer for each other during the events. Stay hydrated and don't get too hungry, especially if there is an extended time between events. Bring a book or catch up on some work stuff if you'd like. Have a blast and let us know how everything ends up!

Stop all home exercise a week before an important meet. I usually stop weights about 10 days before. Keep swimming 4x a week. Do some dives if you can, sprints, fast turns, and lots of easy swimming in practice. Eat as normal making sure you get enough protein and calories. For warmup everyone is different. I swim maybe 2x 200 smooth, 8x drill/swim 50s, 3-4 dive sprint 25s and then 200-300 easy. I was afraid someone would say that. I am addicted to my morning exercise. If I miss it, I feel out of sorts all day. I did 15 minutes instead of 30 yesterday. I'll cut it out for the rest of the week. Perhaps I will do some light stretching and yoga. Dives and turns are important, too. Thanks for the advice!

should I drop the home exercise program in this final week before the meet? yes how much swimming should I be doing and what should I be concentrating on in the pool? 1200 to 1500 Speed with rest & great technique what should I be eating? Food, not too much not too little Doesn't really matter how do I warm up on the day of the meet? 500 fr easy 400 fr pull 300 K easy 200 drill 100 (done as 4 25's with rest, push off hard, 4 strokes fast, the rest of the way easy ) That warm up is about exactly what I would have done in practice before I tried to swim fast. The only difference is that I would have swum the whole 25 fast and not just the first four strokes. I like to know that I am close to my target time before I really go for it. I will dial my tempo trainer into my target time for a 25 and then try and get as close it as possible before I swim fast. Typically, I will only get there on the 3rd or 4th attempt after the warm up. Would this be too exhausting to do on race day? And a final question, Ande, if I may: how long before your race would you do this warm up? Thanks Ande!

The best advice I've gotten on warmups is something like, "The purpose of the warmup is to prepare you, physically and psychologically, to race. Warmup in a manner and duration consistent with the purpose." When I'm warming up, I say to myself, "The next thing I'm going to do is race. Am I ready to race?" If the answer is yes, then I get out. If it's no, then, "What else do I need to do?" When I run out of things to do, then I'm as ready as I'm going to be, and I get out. Good advice. I know what it takes for me to swim fast in training. I just need to have confidence and repeat those steps on race day. Thanks Swimosaur!

should I drop the home exercise program in this final week before the meet? yes how much swimming should I be doing and what should I be concentrating on in the pool? 1200 to 1500 Speed with rest & great technique what should I be eating? Food, not too much not too little Doesn't really matter how do I warm up on the day of the meet? 500 fr easy 400 fr pull 300 K easy 200 drill 100 (done as 4 25's with rest, push off hard, 4 strokes fast, the rest of the way easy )

Stop all home exercise a week before an important meet. I usually stop weights about 10 days before. Keep swimming 4x a week. Do some dives if you can, sprints, fast turns, and lots of easy swimming in practice. Eat as normal making sure you get enough protein and calories. For warmup everyone is different. I swim maybe 2x 200 smooth, 8x drill/swim 50s, 3-4 dive sprint 25s and then 200-300 easy.

Good advice. And that article is excellent. Really sensible. I tend to do too much and wear myself out, I think. I almost feel I have to swim the entire distance at race pace just to make sure that I am still up to the task on the day. Today, I warmed up doing an easy relaxed 600 m concentrating on my stroke and counting my strokes, working on my turns. I followed up descending 4 x 50 m: 36, 34, 32, 30. Then I did a similar set on 25 m. I hardly rested in between. Did a slow 50 m and then blasted out a 100 m from a push off. Went 63.01 in the wave pool and felt really disheartened because last week I went 61.xx from a push. But then when I thought back on it, I realized it was in the wave pool (my name for the kids training pool because it is only waist high and the waterline doesn't go up to the same level as the deck so the water sloshes around like in a box with high sides) and I hadn't really rested and I duffed my turns. Note to self: need to be more patient. Should I be trying to swim all out 100's this week or should I only stick to the shorter stuff. I am worried about my endurance on the second 50. I am worried I am going to lose it this week. Have taken everyone's advice and stopped the drylands. Last bit of cardio I did was on Monday and it was only half of what I would normally have done anyway. Thank you. You are not going to lose conditioning in a week.You want to think of it as tuning up. 100s aren't going to help you as you can't do them at race pace with a reasonable recovery.Doing the entire distance at race pace before the meet is like striking all your matches before the camp out to make sure they all work,you'll have nothing left.

My specific to sprinters advice: The week before is your time to keep it "long and strong" in practice. Normal sets should leave plenty of rest at a nice long and strong pace. You shouldn't get too winded on them, and not have much fatigue by the end of a practice. Do a bunch of buildup 50s. Switch to buildup 25s the few days before the race. Spend most of your time practicing turn progressions, pushoffs, streamlines, and starts. Do NOT do 30 minutes of starts 2 days before the meet. Do starts a full week before, you will end up sore from doing starts too long. Do a couple starts each day, underwater kick, breakout, and shut it down. 7 days out, wind down the kicking distances. 3-4 days before, you should be dumping the kick sets altogether. By 7 days out you really should be off the weights as well. Keep your warmup at the meet to loosening up the joints, and priming the muscles for a performance. Especially on meet day, even the day before, don't do any swimming that will result in any lactic acid buildup whatsoever, especially in the legs. No matter how bad you want to lay on it and feel the speed, keep it for the race. This would mean keep race pace strokes and kicking to under just a few seconds. Do a couple one length buildups. Push off, feel the glide, feel the adjustments you make so every bit of resistance to your form is minimized. Pop up, slowly ramp it up to 85-90%, get a feel that the speed is there, and then shut it down well before the far flags. I'll do 3-4 of these but never really applying full force or rate for more than 2-3 strokes before winding back down to warmup pace. I keep these "non violent" in intensity because its easy to get a pull in the back or shoulders that becomes mentally bothersome on meet day. This is not what I would be doing for a taper meet, but I would do this for maybe a meet where I wanted a little bit more performance, but not important enough for taper or shave. A normal meet I don't drop or change anything til 3 days before, then just wind down the kicking and go long the last day.

No dry land 7-10 days before the meet, you may do some stretching but not weight lifting. Eat as usual, more slow carbohydrates, drink enough water. Do sprints mixed with a lot of easy recovery swimming. Don't do too many sprints otherwise you build much lactate in your muscles. For warm up it's individual - this article may help - swim.isport.com/.../how-to-warm-up-for-swimming