Emergency advice request!

First of all, many thanks for all the excellent advice. Bill Tingley e-mailed me his recommendations directly and said I could post these here on the forum after the meet to see what, if anything, actually helped. Here's what Bill said about competing semi-sick: Jim, After working with Masters swimmers for 24 years, swimming sick is not something new. Some things to consider. Are you swimming for place or time?. If it is place, then look at the heat sheet and choose the events that are the easiest to score high in and focus on them. Swim thru the rest. If it is time, then you will need to focus on what you have been training for. If you have been working on sprinting, with start and turn work, pick the events that are the furthest apart. If distance events are the focus, set your pace a shade slower than normal at the front of the race and build the event for a strong second half of the distance. You should not swim all of your entered events at maximum speed. Your energy loss will become greater, the more events you try to swim. Choose and focus on your best event. You may need to scratch or swim thru some events. Rest will be the key factor. No walking and socializing, unless they come to you. Keep warm. Loss of body heat is loss of energy and when you are not 100% then that loss of energy is greater then normal when racing. Watch your resting heart rate. If it is unusually high at rest, then you are working hard to fight recovery from a race and your cold. More rest will bring it down. Without knowing how you have been trained, these are no more than suggestions. Keep an eye on your heart rate. It will be a good indicator of how hard your body is fighting your cold. Good luck Bill Tingley Head Coach, Lakeside Masters Louisville, KY Now for the results... As Matt predicted, I actually surprised myself, at least in one event. I set our Y region's 45-49 record for the 1000 with an 11:33.85. This was particularly unexpected because three days before, I was so tired I was having trouble holding 6 x 100s at 1:15 on a 2:00 interval! In virtually everything else I swam, my times ended up being only slightly worse than my best. As one person pointed out, there was no rhyme nor reason to what I swam well. My 100 free and fly were both at least 1.5 seconds off my best; but my 50s were both very close, with a 50 free relay split being almost a new PR. In terms of the advice, I think the items that helped the most were: Not worrying about my performance so much, i.e., mentally reconfiguring my hopes and expectations...(Bert's asterisk advice) Realizing the difference between swimming for time and for place (I took it easier on events where the competition was lacking--thanks, Bill.) Wearing a hat and wool socks and keeping warm (GZoltners et al.) Drinking lots of fluids and stretching and resting in between events. I also tried the following home remedies: 1) instead of drinking my usual 3 - 4 cups on coffee in the morning, I bought some caffeine pills and drank these with orange juice. 2) i warmed up extremely slowly 1200 yards before the distance events, then another 600-800 before the sprints (it was a two day meet with a couple hours between the a.m. 500 and 1000, and the p.m. relays and regular events.) 3) I forced myself to eat a Powerbar (nasty tasting object) before the distance, then another one before the sprints. The main thing I guess I hope to tell myself from this experience is that being sick (assuming it's not horribly, high fever, Albert Camus Plague-type sick) doesn't have to ruin your performance. The enforced taper may actually, as Matt suggested, compensate at least in part for the run down energy levels. Again, thanks. If any of you guys are going to Y nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, I'd love to meet you.

First of all, many thanks for all the excellent advice. Bill Tingley e-mailed me his recommendations directly and said I could post these here on the forum after the meet to see what, if anything, actually helped. Here's what Bill said about competing semi-sick: Jim, After working with Masters swimmers for 24 years, swimming sick is not something new. Some things to consider. Are you swimming for place or time?. If it is place, then look at the heat sheet and choose the events that are the easiest to score high in and focus on them. Swim thru the rest. If it is time, then you will need to focus on what you have been training for. If you have been working on sprinting, with start and turn work, pick the events that are the furthest apart. If distance events are the focus, set your pace a shade slower than normal at the front of the race and build the event for a strong second half of the distance. You should not swim all of your entered events at maximum speed. Your energy loss will become greater, the more events you try to swim. Choose and focus on your best event. You may need to scratch or swim thru some events. Rest will be the key factor. No walking and socializing, unless they come to you. Keep warm. Loss of body heat is loss of energy and when you are not 100% then that loss of energy is greater then normal when racing. Watch your resting heart rate. If it is unusually high at rest, then you are working hard to fight recovery from a race and your cold. More rest will bring it down. Without knowing how you have been trained, these are no more than suggestions. Keep an eye on your heart rate. It will be a good indicator of how hard your body is fighting your cold. Good luck Bill Tingley Head Coach, Lakeside Masters Louisville, KY Now for the results... As Matt predicted, I actually surprised myself, at least in one event. I set our Y region's 45-49 record for the 1000 with an 11:33.85. This was particularly unexpected because three days before, I was so tired I was having trouble holding 6 x 100s at 1:15 on a 2:00 interval! In virtually everything else I swam, my times ended up being only slightly worse than my best. As one person pointed out, there was no rhyme nor reason to what I swam well. My 100 free and fly were both at least 1.5 seconds off my best; but my 50s were both very close, with a 50 free relay split being almost a new PR. In terms of the advice, I think the items that helped the most were: Not worrying about my performance so much, i.e., mentally reconfiguring my hopes and expectations...(Bert's asterisk advice) Realizing the difference between swimming for time and for place (I took it easier on events where the competition was lacking--thanks, Bill.) Wearing a hat and wool socks and keeping warm (GZoltners et al.) Drinking lots of fluids and stretching and resting in between events. I also tried the following home remedies: 1) instead of drinking my usual 3 - 4 cups on coffee in the morning, I bought some caffeine pills and drank these with orange juice. 2) i warmed up extremely slowly 1200 yards before the distance events, then another 600-800 before the sprints (it was a two day meet with a couple hours between the a.m. 500 and 1000, and the p.m. relays and regular events.) 3) I forced myself to eat a Powerbar (nasty tasting object) before the distance, then another one before the sprints. The main thing I guess I hope to tell myself from this experience is that being sick (assuming it's not horribly, high fever, Albert Camus Plague-type sick) doesn't have to ruin your performance. The enforced taper may actually, as Matt suggested, compensate at least in part for the run down energy levels. Again, thanks. If any of you guys are going to Y nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, I'd love to meet you.