long distance swim tapers

When I swam in college (distance swimmer) what worked best for me was a nice 4 week taper. Dropping morning swim practices the first week. Then for weeks 2-4 dropping 500 yards every other day, down to 3000 yds. I'd continue lifting until week 3. As the yards dropped, the intervals increase. Didn't work as hard for the entire set ; but max effort was greater on the last repetition(s). Started to really focus on drills/stroke technique - fine tuning. Getting a feel in the water for swimming really fast. LOTS of pace work. Everyday would do 5x100s trying to hold the pace I wanted for either the 500 or 1650. Or I would do 4x50s holding the pace I wanted for my 200. But like gull80 said, unless you're training a lot of yds. per week, a taper for a 1500 is not too wise. Other mini tapers that work for me are, taking a day off before I swim. Say in mid season I want to go for a good time in the 1500; the day before the meet I won't practice. This does not yield life time bests for me, but often will be a very fast swim.

When I swam in college (distance swimmer) what worked best for me was a nice 4 week taper. Dropping morning swim practices the first week. Then for weeks 2-4 dropping 500 yards every other day, down to 3000 yds. I'd continue lifting until week 3. As the yards dropped, the intervals increase. Didn't work as hard for the entire set ; but max effort was greater on the last repetition(s). Started to really focus on drills/stroke technique - fine tuning. Getting a feel in the water for swimming really fast. LOTS of pace work. Everyday would do 5x100s trying to hold the pace I wanted for either the 500 or 1650. Or I would do 4x50s holding the pace I wanted for my 200. But like gull80 said, unless you're training a lot of yds. per week, a taper for a 1500 is not too wise. Other mini tapers that work for me are, taking a day off before I swim. Say in mid season I want to go for a good time in the 1500; the day before the meet I won't practice. This does not yield life time bests for me, but often will be a very fast swim.