Ande....having read your blog and a few others and seeing some of the times you've posted...as well as some of the mnd boggling in season/unrested swims going on this college and USS season I thought I'd bring up the topic of swimming fast in workout and in unrested meets.
Having always been a VERY slow workout swimmer as well as a poor untapered swimmer I'm always amazed at how fast others can go in those situations. But I have noticed that those same swimmers don't necessarilly have big drops for meets they rest and shave for.
So after seeing Michael Klueh from Texas go 4:11 unrested in the 500, my evil twin go 21.8/47.7 unrested (and at altitude), hearing you went 22.0 50 free and 2:00 in the 200 back at workout the question for everyone is what do you see in your own situations?
Note; one thing that a few of us have noticed is that big old clydesadle types like me usually are the ones that drop the most from resting....little jackrabbits like JS swim fast all the time and don't seem to take as big of drops rested.
I don't know about now (as a Master's swimmer) but I must have been a bit of a head case as a youngster. I had quite a lengthy plateau during my last year of high school and first couple of years in college. Fortunately my times were fast enough as they were to qualify me for the big meets but I did swim times equal to my best unrested and in the middle of the season pretty often back then. It was really frustrating. I once swam a 200 breaststroke in practice (race simulated situation swimming against a 200 IM'er) and I equaled my best time (an Olympic Trial qualifying time). I later proceeded to go to Olympic Trials (tapered this time) and swm slower. How sad is that?! When I finally did conquer that time I went 3 full seconds faster but it took me a couple of years. So (sorry for the yappy response) I think tapering was never a magic bullet for me.
I don't know about now (as a Master's swimmer) but I must have been a bit of a head case as a youngster. I had quite a lengthy plateau during my last year of high school and first couple of years in college. Fortunately my times were fast enough as they were to qualify me for the big meets but I did swim times equal to my best unrested and in the middle of the season pretty often back then. It was really frustrating. I once swam a 200 breaststroke in practice (race simulated situation swimming against a 200 IM'er) and I equaled my best time (an Olympic Trial qualifying time). I later proceeded to go to Olympic Trials (tapered this time) and swm slower. How sad is that?! When I finally did conquer that time I went 3 full seconds faster but it took me a couple of years. So (sorry for the yappy response) I think tapering was never a magic bullet for me.
