I'm just curious if people vary what they do in a meet warm up vs. a regular warm up. Something I never got the proper hang of during my fastest swimming days was 1) what MY best taper was and 2) what MY best meet warm up was. It was always do as I was told. I always suspected my tapers were too short (based on anecdotal evidence of feeling a week after championships like I was indestructible and could have shattered my times if the meet was that day) and never had a clue if my meet warm ups were sufficient, as we were typically left to our own devices to splash around.
Figuring that people's workout warm ups will roughly reflect the events they are training for, do you do the same warm up at a meet as you do in practice? How do you decide if your meet warm up is working for you?
Yeah, there's often that gray area for me in practice, too between warm up and pre-main set to main set. Yesterday I had a lot of easy swimming with 4 short lactate tolerance sets thrown in and I paid close attention to see if I was "ready to go" for the first lactate set or if I kept getting better with each one. I didn't think I felt ready to go when I finished warm up but I stood at the end and "loosened up" for a minute or two before the first lactate set and every single set was a slam dunk, each one equally great. So, the warm up I've been using will be good for racing. The trick is, will I actually be able to do it at a meet...just swimming can be tough enough at some meets but when varying speeds and intervals are involved that would make it even tougher. I should practice an "oh crud the pool is full" warm up on a regular basis to get used to different types of warm ups.
Yeah, there's often that gray area for me in practice, too between warm up and pre-main set to main set. Yesterday I had a lot of easy swimming with 4 short lactate tolerance sets thrown in and I paid close attention to see if I was "ready to go" for the first lactate set or if I kept getting better with each one. I didn't think I felt ready to go when I finished warm up but I stood at the end and "loosened up" for a minute or two before the first lactate set and every single set was a slam dunk, each one equally great. So, the warm up I've been using will be good for racing. The trick is, will I actually be able to do it at a meet...just swimming can be tough enough at some meets but when varying speeds and intervals are involved that would make it even tougher. I should practice an "oh crud the pool is full" warm up on a regular basis to get used to different types of warm ups.
