From what I understand, the main meets are end of April and end of August. Is it safe to say that the "season" runs from January to August? Is it common to take 2-4 weeks off following that last event? Would "in season" involve 5-6 practices a week and "off season" involve 2-3 practices a week?
Thanks!
I can't speak for anyone else,but for me there are 3 "seasons";SCY ending at Spring Nats, LCM ending at Summer Nats, and SCM generally ending the first weekend in Dec(the SPMS meet). There is not enough time between SCY and LCM and between LCM and SCM to take time off.My "off season" is about 1 month after SCM. I still swim 4X/wk then,but only long,slow stuff and no BR kick, to let my knees recover.
I agree with Allen that we have three main seasons - SCY, LCM and SCM. I've rarely found it feasible (life gets in the way as does motivation) to train hard for all three seasons in the same year. In general, I try to pick one or two seasons each year to focus on where my goal is to swim fast; I use the other season as an 'off-season.' For me, that off-season is almost always LCM, both because it's too darn hot to train in AZ in the summer and because LCM is ... too darn hard to train for. I've only recently re-discovered the benefits of taking a couple of weeks out of the water and I try to do that at least once every twelve months.
