I have a swim meet coming up this weekend Nov 1, Nov 2. I haven't raced in almost 6 years. I have, however, been swimming all the time. The meet restricts each competitor to only two events. Each event is a timed final. I guess they do this to save time. I have entered the 50 m and 100 m free. The last time I raced these events I went 26.15 and 59.01 respectively. Back then, however, I did more training than I am doing now.
Recently, I have been swimming 4 times a week, averaging about 1500 m to 2300 m per session. In the mornings I follow a home fitness program which involves some very vigorous cardio, dumbbell work, body weight workouts, etc. It can be really exhausting and leave my muscles sore for a couple of days afterwards.
My questions are:
should I drop the home exercise program in this final week before the meet?
how much swimming should I be doing and what should I be concentrating on in the pool?
what should I be eating?
and probably the biggest question of all,
how do I warm up on the day of the meet?
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.
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.
