Do you rest for meets? I'm not talking about taper meets, just your run-of-the-mill local meets.
I almost never do. OK, I might do 4,000 yards instead of 5,000 or something the day before, but usually I tend to "swim through" anything other than a taper meet. I'm starting to think maybe this is sort of silly. In some ways I almost feel like I'm afraid to swim too fast in season. Like I don't want to shoot my wad before the big meet or something. I have a feeling this is pretty common in swimming. We've been trained to believe everything is a build up to that one big meet.
A lot of this stems from high school and college swimming, I think. Those seasons are pretty short and you've got a lot of meets packed in. You can't afford to sacrifice training sessions to rest for meets (or at least that's what most coaches think). There's no question it's considered a sign of weakness for a college team to rest for a dual meet.
These days I probably average about six competitions a year total. Do you think it's going to affect my overall training if I'd rest a couple days before some of these?
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For me, it depends on where I am in my training cycle and my objective for the meet (which somewhat ties to where I am in my cycle.) I do about five meets in a SCY season, one about every 5 weeks.
My thinking is:
1. I just don't find any value racing dog tired, so I try to rest up a little for every meet, and
2: My meet objectives are to see a progression in race speed as the season goes on.
So, this is kind of my way of building rest into my program:
Early season training means establishing endurance base. The first two meets are usually small/development meet in the middle/end of this. I may rest only the day before (cut yardage from 5,000 to 3,500 to 4,000) and drop the last lifting rotation that week. I just want to see "where I am" relative to race speed.
From there, as I start to get into more of a quality training phase, for the next meet I'll take an extra day off mid-week, followed by a day or two where again I 'll do 3,500 to 4000 yards a day. I'll drop the last lifting rotation again.
When I get to the race prep phase (say 4 weeks before taper starts), I'll cut back yardage to 3,000 a day all week, even less the day before the meet, take one day off mid-week, and drop my last lifting rotation.
Then it's off to a two-week taper before the "big one" (1,500 to 2,000 yards a day, no weights.)
I don't swim a whole lot of meets (four since February), but I rest some for all of them. Two weeks for the February meet, a few days for March and May, and a week for the June meet. I noticed that I always returned to training with renewed energy - lifting more weight, sprinting faster in practice. I don't swim a lot of yardage, but I hit the weights hard and usually do at least some sprinting in each practice, so it takes its toll. And I'm not doing the whole 'train until you are broken down' thing we all did in our youth. Life is too short. I think that, as we age, resting a few days (or a week) here and there can be very good for swimming fast, as well as overall fitness.
For me, it depends on where I am in my training cycle and my objective for the meet (which somewhat ties to where I am in my cycle.) I do about five meets in a SCY season, one about every 5 weeks.
My thinking is:
1. I just don't find any value racing dog tired, so I try to rest up a little for every meet, and
2: My meet objectives are to see a progression in race speed as the season goes on.
So, this is kind of my way of building rest into my program:
Early season training means establishing endurance base. The first two meets are usually small/development meet in the middle/end of this. I may rest only the day before (cut yardage from 5,000 to 3,500 to 4,000) and drop the last lifting rotation that week. I just want to see "where I am" relative to race speed.
From there, as I start to get into more of a quality training phase, for the next meet I'll take an extra day off mid-week, followed by a day or two where again I 'll do 3,500 to 4000 yards a day. I'll drop the last lifting rotation again.
When I get to the race prep phase (say 4 weeks before taper starts), I'll cut back yardage to 3,000 a day all week, even less the day before the meet, take one day off mid-week, and drop my last lifting rotation.
Then it's off to a two-week taper before the "big one" (1,500 to 2,000 yards a day, no weights.)
I don't swim a whole lot of meets (four since February), but I rest some for all of them. Two weeks for the February meet, a few days for March and May, and a week for the June meet. I noticed that I always returned to training with renewed energy - lifting more weight, sprinting faster in practice. I don't swim a lot of yardage, but I hit the weights hard and usually do at least some sprinting in each practice, so it takes its toll. And I'm not doing the whole 'train until you are broken down' thing we all did in our youth. Life is too short. I think that, as we age, resting a few days (or a week) here and there can be very good for swimming fast, as well as overall fitness.
