I am swimming at nationals in San Antonio. Have had a solid season of training, focusing on sprints, particularly. (50 fly, 50 free and 100 IM at nationals.) I swam in a local meet over the weekend; rested a little, but not much, beforehand. Felt tired and a little sore, due I think to high intensity stuff in workouts. I had very little backend on 100s and 200 IM, but I attribute that to being a little run down.
My question is this: how much sprinting should I do over the next month? Feel as if the sprints (lots of 25s fly and free, especially) have helped me edge toward higher turnover, and I'm pleased about that. I want to be sharp but not tired in San Antonio. I have been swimming 10,000 to 12,000 yards per week through the first quarter. Any insights welcome.
I'm more of a distance swimmer, but I think the focus would be about the same. As I close in the Meet that I decide I'm tapering for I slowly move from training to more race pace workouts and I keep increasing the amount of rest.
So the day before I'm down to just a 100 sprint and a 50 sprint.
As a sprinter, I've got to disagree with this and agree with Steve's thought that you should rest the CNS. If you are regularly doing race pace and HIT work in your practices, as all sprinters should, then you need to decrease intensity during your taper, not do more. I usually do a taper that is something like: 3 weeks out: drop all weights and drylands; 2 weeks out: decrease yardage slightly, decrease intensity substantially with mega rest on fast stuff & eliminate lactate production sets; 1 week out: reduce more. The last 5 days before a taper meet, I would mostly be floating around, maybe going from 2000 to 800. I would have a couple days of complete easy swimming and a few days where I only do a couple fast 25s and bursts. The idea of doing a "100 and a 50 sprint" the day before is horrifying! You're tired from all the sprinting in practice, so taper is the time to rest and have fresh legs.
I'm more of a distance swimmer, but I think the focus would be about the same. As I close in the Meet that I decide I'm tapering for I slowly move from training to more race pace workouts and I keep increasing the amount of rest.
So the day before I'm down to just a 100 sprint and a 50 sprint.
As a sprinter, I've got to disagree with this and agree with Steve's thought that you should rest the CNS. If you are regularly doing race pace and HIT work in your practices, as all sprinters should, then you need to decrease intensity during your taper, not do more. I usually do a taper that is something like: 3 weeks out: drop all weights and drylands; 2 weeks out: decrease yardage slightly, decrease intensity substantially with mega rest on fast stuff & eliminate lactate production sets; 1 week out: reduce more. The last 5 days before a taper meet, I would mostly be floating around, maybe going from 2000 to 800. I would have a couple days of complete easy swimming and a few days where I only do a couple fast 25s and bursts. The idea of doing a "100 and a 50 sprint" the day before is horrifying! You're tired from all the sprinting in practice, so taper is the time to rest and have fresh legs.
