Fort, your a stud and a rock star and you had a great meet...I think you are going 100% in the right direction. My point to you was that IMHO you weren't feeling fatigue at the end of the meet because you tapered to much...but rather because as all of us get older the reality of swimming so many events is that were going to feel it...hard...no matter how in shape and how much we rest/don't rest. Dennis Baker said at worlds that 1 event per day was it...pure focus, pure commitment to excelling at one thing...I admire that and am moving more and more in that direction.
Listen...anyone who is a workout animal and is clear that is what they want to be I'm all for it...I struggle in my own training because I love to workout and less is more is a struggle for me....but I look at my own motivation/goals as a spectrum and remind myself that trying to train quality when completely broken down doesn't work.
At the far end and the single biggest priority for me it's social, then racing, followed by general overall conditioning. So when and if I workout it tends to follow that order-progression. What I choose is completely different that a lot of folks and thats fine and what this is all about. I bring up the points I'm making because of the discussion being somewhat slanted towards competing...and if you want to improve in this area and are serious about it what many people are doing won't work.
Aw thanks. I still have loads of things to improve on. (Starts and turns for instance!) That helps keep me motivated.
I also think it's beneficial to occasionally try new things and mix up the training. I was all about the monofin in the fall, switched to mega kicking in the winter and then went back to speed training. Think I'm going to spin more this summer when it's too hot to run.
I'm with Geek on the working out. Hate sitting around tapering. The way I get around it somewhat is by taking an occasional break from meets. After swimming in or planning to swim in meets in meets in March, April, May, June and August this year, I'm taking a major break. Maybe only one meet between Nov. and early March. That way I can train without fretting about rest. It also allows me to "bank" some time at home before I put in a request for travel. lol I'm gunning for Indy.
Agree with you, Paul, on the excessive events. I almost scratched the 100 IM on Sat. Might have been better off if I had. I always have the urge to swim more events, but I have to curb that urge if I want maximum speed. I found my 100 fly-50 back double pretty arduous on Sunday. 40 minutes was just not enough recovery time for me, and no one in my backstroke heat had swum the 100 fly. In general, everyone looked pretty weary by the end of the meet. I think the 100 free could potentially have been much faster.
(S)he: You are hot speedster chick. If you want to keep doing the distance events, train away!
RE: dara torres
on the supplements....www.mark-warnecke.de/amsport
there is a english flag icon to click on to read the web page.
i read the ingredients and it is similar to several of these so called recovery and aminoacid fixes in europe. I used to drink this orange crap when i lived in italy and all it did was race my heart(100% caffeine) and give me extreme stomach cramps(creatine). it was sold as a recovery aid.
So here's the challenge/question...can any of you put aside the first and primary motivation that keeps you training which is fear of fat....and train specifially to RACE fast...not workout fast?
I've gained weight by training more, so I don't think fear of fat is the primary motivation. So let's add "fat" in with slow and old. :laugh2:
Seriously though, how do I get in the mindset of being happy training hours a week (even if it's just say 3 hours a week) for a race that is a few minutes or a few seconds? What should my motivation be to train to RACE fast?
I figure I had better enjoy the training most as it's 95% of my swimming experience. I look forward to each practice for the sake of the practice. The meets are ancillary.
Funny that I see a bunch of the Dara worshippers on here bashing this....guess they missed her interview last night which touched on the massive quantities of this kind of stuff she takes.
I like Dara. Doesn't mean I want to be her or train like her.
Ahhh...but haven't we been chiding you a bit on training to hard with the kiddos? Based on what you've shared with us you already are training harder than her...granted you may not be dropping a $100k a year on massage, chiro, personal trainers and supplements but are you telling me you don't wish you could recover a tad faster than you do right now? If you had that extra income and the freedom to train like she does would you?
Getting old and wanting to train hard get progressively more challenging, the fact is training smarter and resting more become the more important factor as we age...and there are a LOT of people out there who feel supplements (legal and illegal) help this...in Dara's case it means 6+ different bottles set out with some products that can old be bought in Germany that I've never heard of.
