I have my big meet in over two weeks, Colonies Zones LCM Championships, August 23-24. I haven't tapered in a million years so I am not sure how much rest I should have.
I swim about 25K meters a week and the events at my meet are the 400 IM, 200 free, 800 Free, 400 free and 200 fly.
Should have cut my meterege to 3000 meters a day the first week(two weeks before My meet)?
On the week before my meet, should I just do the warmup, Do some sprints, etc. and call it a day?
Or, is this too much rest for 25K meters a week. I have done the two week taper in my age group days, but would do 10K yards/meters a day.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
You swim about the same per week as I do. I would suggest cutting to between 15-20K for your first week (I'd tend to the low end). Make more of this easy swimming, but with some speed and pace work. The second week cut it down to something like 10K total. I like to continue to do some pace work right up until the end. Fight the urge that tells you you're cutting back too much. If anything, most people probably don't rest enough.
Kirk, thank you for the last 2 lines of your post. I need that right now with my taper going into Nats.
Week 1: drop to 3,000 a day
Week 2: drop from 3,000 a day to 1,500 the day before your meet
ie 2,700 2,400 2,100 1,800 1,500
you're doing longer events
warm up
then do some
pace work or
descending sets or
racing in your racing suit
rehearse races / prepare to race
also include a few sprints
reduce quantity
increase quality
give yourself plenty of rest
you need to figure out how you taper best
some people perform best with
short tapers others do well on longer ones
experiment from season to season
if you read my blog
I am a fan of swimming fast in practice
I have my big meet in over two weeks, Colonies Zones LCM Championships, August 23-24. I haven't tapered in a million years so I am not sure how much rest I should have.
I swim about 25K meters a week and the events at my meet are the
400 IM, 200 free, 800 Free, 400 free and 200 fly.
Should have cut my meterege to 3000 meters a day the first week(two weeks before My meet)?
On the week before my meet, should I just do the warmup, Do some sprints, etc. and call it a day?
Or, is this too much rest for 25K meters a week. I have done the two week taper in my age group days, but would do 10K yards/meters a day.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I am loving the suggestions so far. I will have to do the best that I can with the pace work since I won't get a taper lane at my practice. I will have to improvise. I will have to experiment with my future tapers because I still don't feel any of my tapers worked properly in my age group days. But, I think that I have enough to go with this upcoming taper.
Ande, thanks for all your detail.
Kirk, you are so right about people not resting enough. A guy I train doesn't think that he needs so much rest for Nats even though he has been working hard all summer.
You swim about the same per week as I do. I would suggest cutting to between 15-20K for your first week (I'd tend to the low end). Make more of this easy swimming, but with some speed and pace work. The second week cut it down to something like 10K total. I like to continue to do some pace work right up until the end. Fight the urge that tells you you're cutting back too much. If anything, most people probably don't rest enough.
Kirk, you are so right about people not resting enough. A guy I train doesn't think that he needs so much rest for Nats even though he has been working hard all summer.
You know, I grapple with this every day. I had 2 meets this summer, swimming 4 events total. I went in to both meets with no taper and had personal bests in all 4 events. So now I worry that if I taper now, it will hurt me when I get to Nats next week. Who knew tapering could be so stressful!:dunno:
you don't need a taper lane
just tell your coach and tell your lane mates that you are tapering for a meet
then modify each practice as you see fit
mainly deleting sometimes adding
don't get in the way
I am loving the suggestions so far. I will have to do the best that I can with the pace work since I won't get a taper lane at my practice. I will have to improvise. I will have to experiment with my future tapers because I still don't feel any of my tapers worked properly in my age group days. But, I think that I have enough to go with this upcoming taper.
Ande, thanks for all your detail.
Kirk, you are so right about people not resting enough. A guy I train doesn't think that he needs so much rest for Nats even though he has been working hard all summer.
can't wait to start my taper tomorrow. This will be a good break from all the hard training that I started in January where I stepped up my training from about 10,000 yards a week to 20,000 yards or 25,000 meters(long course training) a week.
I agree with Betsy 100%. Although I've had a major case of the hungrys. I want to eat everything in sight.
I love to taper!
I agree with many of the comments...
*Sometimes you feel bad at the start of a taper
*You can taper even if you are the only one in your workout doing it. Modify the workout and do broken swims at race pace.
*You know you're ready when you want to do more because you feel so good.
It must work because all of my best times have been done at nationals after a good taper.
The eating situation is the only thing that I hate about tapering. You really have to cut down what you eat since you are cutting down your yardage/meterage.
