I just went to my first two-day meet this weekend, and I had a really rough time the second day. The first day I was able to to get personal bests in 2 of my 3 swims and was only about half a second off in the other, but the second day I was 1-3 seconds off in all three races. I was also a little sore the second day, probably because there was no warmup pool. Is there anything I should have done so I could swim faster the second day?
Globuggie:
All the advice here is excellent and I will add one more point. I find the more two day meets with mutiple events that you can attend, the better. I just did two meets like that in the last 3 weeks and I was extremely tired but swam well in both of them but did better in the second meet on the second day. What happens in situations like this is you are performing everything at a very high intensity. You might not swim as much yardage as practice but the race intensity level makes up for that and more. For me I just don't think a practice situation come close to this because you are both physically draining your body and also you are mentally draining yourself because you have one race to think about and one race to give all your physical energy to get the best times possible.
If you don't go to meets that often, your body won't be used to the physical and mental demands that this activity creates. I agree that the older you get the harder it is to go thru with this and you must get to these types of meets to get used to the stress that it creates.
Globuggie:
All the advice here is excellent and I will add one more point. I find the more two day meets with mutiple events that you can attend, the better. I just did two meets like that in the last 3 weeks and I was extremely tired but swam well in both of them but did better in the second meet on the second day. What happens in situations like this is you are performing everything at a very high intensity. You might not swim as much yardage as practice but the race intensity level makes up for that and more. For me I just don't think a practice situation come close to this because you are both physically draining your body and also you are mentally draining yourself because you have one race to think about and one race to give all your physical energy to get the best times possible.
If you don't go to meets that often, your body won't be used to the physical and mental demands that this activity creates. I agree that the older you get the harder it is to go thru with this and you must get to these types of meets to get used to the stress that it creates.
