This question is about the intensity of the pre-race warm up rather than the distance covered.
How hard do you swim in your warm up? 70%, 80%, 90% effort?
My thing is that I like to descend my times in practice. If I want to swim a really good 50 in practice, then the 50 prior to the ALL OUT, RACE PACE, FOR YOUR BEST TIME effort should, ideally (for me at any rate) be within a second and a half of that time. I have to work myself into a sprinting frame of mind. I need to do at least three or four fast ones before I go REALLY fast. On the first I might concentrate on the catch, the second keeping my head down, the third my legs and on the fourth the turn. Then on the final one I put it all together and go ALL OUT. I think it is as much about getting myself into the right frame of mind as it is about physically warming my body up to the full sprint.
But I have very little Masters Meet experience. In fact, I have only swum in two Masters meets. At the first one (just over a year ago) I didn't really know what to do and at the last one (six weeks ago) there were so many kids in the pool I gave up and didn't warm up at all.
I am swimming again this weekend. I don't want to over exert myself and was wondering what other sprinters do for their warm ups.
I am not worried about warming up for the 200 free, though. A relaxed 500m followed by some fast but controlled 100's with good rest in between always does the trick for me.
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Former Member
I think it depends on how your body reacts to warm-up, recovery, and energy exertion. If you are a quick recovery person who can output a lot of energy multiple times in a row, then go for the gusto with the huge warm-ups. Personally, I take it slow at first, build to max intensity for one sprint (or two depending on the event), and take it back down for an active recovery prior to getting out of the warm-up pool.
I think it depends on how your body reacts to warm-up, recovery, and energy exertion. If you are a quick recovery person who can output a lot of energy multiple times in a row, then go for the gusto with the huge warm-ups. Personally, I take it slow at first, build to max intensity for one sprint (or two depending on the event), and take it back down for an active recovery prior to getting out of the warm-up pool.
