Firstly, apologies if this has been brought up before. I'm sure it must have been covered at some time over the years.
I'm in the 70-74 year age group, and on October 28th I'll be swimming a 1500m freestyle, and hoping for a good time. I'm training twice a day, covering between 7,500m and 9,000m daily.
The question is - How long should I allow for the taper? I feel as though I could train right up to the event. Do you think a short taper of about 3 days would be sufficient, or does it need to be longer. I'd be keen to hear how you would approach this.
Thanks
Wow, that's a lot of yardage! Good for you, you'll be strong for this for sure.
I'd look at doing about 10-14 days of taper, decreasing your yardage, but increasing the speed in short intervals (e.g 5x200 or 10x100s at specific intervals fast) to keep the muscles twitching. You want to do the taper so your body has enough time to heal and so that you feel like you're going to explode with energy the day of the race. The last week before taper, I wouldn't do more than about 2500-3000/day at the high end and get lots of rest.
Wow, that's a lot of yardage! Good for you, you'll be strong for this for sure.
I'd look at doing about 10-14 days of taper, decreasing your yardage, but increasing the speed in short intervals (e.g 5x200 or 10x100s at specific intervals fast) to keep the muscles twitching. You want to do the taper so your body has enough time to heal and so that you feel like you're going to explode with energy the day of the race. The last week before taper, I wouldn't do more than about 2500-3000/day at the high end and get lots of rest.
