Hi All
So with many of you starting or soon to be starting your tapers for your main competition of the season. I thought it would be interesting to hear about certain things you do on taper, or things you don't do.
For example during hard training I always take the stairs over the elevator when given the choice. Another one I do is with 2 weeks to go before my taper meet I always wear shoes when I leave the house, no more sandals. I feel my legs are looked after better by walking in shoes than with sandals.
Let me know if you have some things in your daily routine that you switch up and why you do it?
I walk as little as possible during taper.As a breaststroker, having fresh legs is very important.I especially hate to walk at the meet,and more particularly don't want to walk upstairs.I don't understand how some people can be fine about sitting at the top of the bleachers if they have to walk up and down them several times during the meet. At pools like Federal Way and Indy I always take the elevator.
Guys, imagine situation that you are tapered you feel easy but then day or two before the meet you had a hard day. Just a realistic situation you have a long exhaustive trip to the meet driving or in the bus. After that you feel like you didn't taper. Your actions? If you expect possibility of such situation is it better not to taper?
It always seems that when I go to a taper meet, I have to walk for miles at the airports.I always think that I have blown my taper(I am pretty paranoid about tapers and am always sure I have blown my taper.When we had the shiny suits I was convinced that the struggle to put on the suit blew my taper.) I find that if I do an extra long,but very slow, warm up the day before the meet that I am usually loose and ready for the meet.
Is attending a meet when you're not near ideal conditioning worthwhile? Would you still taper for it?
I tried that for the Pacific Zone SCM Championships.I was not happy with my performance.
Guys, imagine situation that you are tapered you feel easy but then day or two before the meet you had a hard day. Just a realistic situation you have a long exhaustive trip to the meet driving or in the bus. After that you feel like you didn't taper. Your actions? If you expect possibility of such situation is it better not to taper?
If you expect possibility of such situation is it better not to taper?
I don't think so. Your body is still rested and that's really what you're attempting to do with a taper.
It always seems that when I go to a taper meet, I have to walk for miles at the airports.I always think that I have blown my taper(I am pretty paranoid about tapers and am always sure I have blown my taper.When we had the shiny suits I was convinced that the struggle to put on the suit blew my taper.) I find that if I do an extra long,but very slow, warm up the day before the meet that I am usually loose and ready for the meet.
Thanks Allen! Great to know that I'm not alone. Usually it's a long trip to the meet when I spend most time sitting that makes me tired and affects my performance most of all. In best case I try not to compete at the day of arrival, just come for warm up and swim about 2000m easy pace with many drills same as you do and then spend most time in the bed. In such case I feel refreshed and perform well on the next day. But in some cases I have overnight trip and have to compete after arrival. That's unpleasant because the first day is hard and even if I have a good sleep after first competition day I cannot perform as good as I can on the next day too.
Is attending a meet when you're not near ideal conditioning worthwhile? Would you still taper for it?
My coach told if you taper without conditioning the only thing you get is even worse conditioning. If you work on conditioning too late you get tired and perform loaded - bad if you want to show good performance.
From my experience it's better to continue to work on basic endurance and to do speed work but without building lactate. This might help for 50 and 100, but 200 or 400 without conditioning most likely will be painful.
Travel isn't going to "blow" one's taper. Sure, you might be a little groggy after spending a few hours in a car or airplane, but you're still tapered. I've flown to Nationals several times and swam events on the same day with no noticeable negative impact on my performance.
Traveling internationally where there's a significant time change is going to complicate things, but you're still going to benefit from tapering. You just need to (ideally) arrive a few days before the competition to rest and give your body time to acclimate.
