Drop Dead Taper

Just be sure to down a full bottle of wine (by yourself, not shared) the night before the big race. Everything else is pretty much irrelevant, as Mr Smythe will tell you.

Hey Fort, Let me share what Maglischo's suggests in Swimming Fastest. Gradual tapers worked better than drop tapers. (Tested in triathletes) Drop taper is probably the best taper to use if tapering for 7 days or less. In general he recommends a pretaper of 2 to 3 weeks followed by a 3 week taper. The bad news is, I don't think Maglischo's research helps Master's swimmers at all. He studied sprinters averaging 50k/week in season, and recommends dropping down to 15k/week the week before and finally tapering off with warmups only twice a day the 3 days leading up to a mid week meet start. You don't even want to know what the mid distance guys are supposed to do. I think your drop taper is a good idea. First, you hate tapering, so why drag it out? Second, you are not all torn down from your swimming, so you don't need a long taper for your body to heal, you just need enough time to build up to maximum glycogen stores. That is only two to three days for most people. One thing Maglischo did point out was that you should sprint less during your taper than you do in season. The key being that you should be sprinting a good amount in season, so during your taper you still get some sprinting done, just less. Another thing Maglischo points out is the mental factor. So if you don't believe tapering works for you, there isn't much point in tapering. For anyone not familiar with Maglischo and Swimming Fastest (or the precursor Swimming Faster, the the percursor to that Swimming Fast), Maglischo is some kind of swimming research nut, who put together this super huge book consolidating the findings from all the research that applies to swimming. Lots of physics, math and references to studies and papers done in sports medicine and swimming. It is a great book if you want to look up when to initiate your *** stroke pull out (someone did velocity testing on elite breaststrokers using different pull out timings), but not so helpful if you just want to know how to go faster in general.

I know everyone has their own approach to taper and may taper for between 1-4 weeks. In every taper plan I've seen, the yardage always drops off gradually. Has anyone ever tried a "drop dead" taper? My college team did this the year before I got there and it was reported to be an unmitigated disaster. Swimmers added time from in-season, babies cried, atonal music was sung in the streets.

"...you shouldn't have anything left after a 100, unless the race is a 200." :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Hmmm .... maybe I'll try this. So no pace work during week one? I was just wondering about the drop dead as an alternative. Maybe I'll try it, just for fun, before another meet. Also, I really think women have to taper less than men. Smaller, less muscle mass etc. Although I do appear to have more muscle mass than Geekity. I've read that most elite men stop weight training much earlier than elite women when tapering. In season meet that I want to swim well at (looking for a time standard, top ten, whatever) I lift once (as opposed to twice) that week and go a bit lighter weights and less reps early in the week. Then take an extra rest day and back off on yardage just a touch. It seems to work well for me. I don't think I've got my longer taper as a master figured out. I was much stronger the week before Austin than at Austin. I swim a variety of strokes and distances, so aim for 200 as my distance. Can go a bit further or drop down and go 100's. I am going to track my workouts prior to Clovis better in hopes of dialing in my taper better. I'll let you know what I learn, but I really think that taper is very individual and that sprinters need the most rest and distance folks need the least. I tend to muddle along somewhere in between. Best of luck at your meet, Fort and let us know what you learn with your taper. --mj

Hi Fort, What Chris said, and Paul agreed on, is what we pretty much do at WCM. I, for one, have never really figured out my tapers either, although I have never really documented either. I probably should. I do remember at one nationals "hitting" my taper the last day of the meet. Good luck and study yourself! : ]

Thanks ladies. Always nice to hear from the chicks too. Sounds like we all are bit befuddled, with the exception of the 3 day mini taper. Let me know how Clovis goes, mj! Karen/Chris/Paul: Can you supply some sets you'd recommend for week 1 when you're doing really fast and really slow swims? Paul: I'm swimming the same line up as Austin: 50 free/back/fly, 100 back/fly/IM. Although I did finally make a little foray into mid-D recently. Ouch! Is anyone tapering their weights? It does seem that men knock off weights way earlier than women. One of my teammates quits 4 weeks out. Perhaps this is somewhat because men lift so heavy? I usually hate tapering, but I won't miss knocking off the weights for a couple weeks.

Fort, again its tough to answer questions being so far removed from the situation. For me if i was healthy and had a solid base and was training for the events you've listed I would do something along the lines of: - 3 weeks out stop dryland. Keep number of days in the water the same or add additional days where you get in and only do a light warm-up (for me that can be less than 500). I would be doing speed work 3x a week, lots of rest with longer recovery stuff in between sets. This would be the last week I would do dives. Every aspect of each workout would focus first on perfect turns and technique and continue the whole taper..harder than you think as you will find if you don't do it on a regular basis the concentration is a challenge. - 2 weeks out yardage stays the same. I would still do speed work 3x a week (recovery days every other day) but nothing over a 50...lots of variables, a few 50's at 200 pace...hypoxic pull sets. - 7 days out stop pulling, yardage drops to about 1500 max. warm up until I feel good..lots of fartlek swimming/turns - 3 days out no more than about a 1000...or warm up till I feel good. speed play 25's & a couple of pace 50's. Note...almost all my 25's are done as no-breeathers and I do a lot of hypoxic recovery swims.. know some people are not convinced that hypoxic does much but I'm a believer.

Despite the fact I only lifted once last week, I'm generally more consistent about my weights than I am about my swimming. How long you are off the weights and don't lose power and strength depends on how good your base is. If you have been consistently in the weight room for 6 months, then I would say you would be o.k. to drop them two weeks out. If you have been consistent for only two or three months, I've been told you need to gradually taper down the weights. Three weeks out, go to one set of ten of what you have been lifting. Two weeks out, go to 1 set of ten and do 2/3 amount of weight on each set. You can lift one last time a week from the meet and do one set of 10 of 1/2 the weight. Note that this has been what has been prescibed to me by PTs and apparently is very specific for WOMEN over 30.

Fort, about 5-6 weeks out I go into "maintenance mode where I stop trying to kill myself in the weight room and start reducing weights. I stop lifting 3 weeks out and the last week is fairly light. You already have my taper plan...it is a 3-week plan that is similar to Paul's in some respects. You want a 1-week taper and I think that's a little short. My suggestion to cut out cross-training 2 weeks out was meant as a kind of a compromise...you can keep your swimming yardage/intensity up but still get a little rest. You work out a lot. IMO you are not going to lose your conditioning in a 3-week taper. But if you want to experiment, go for it! I don't want to discourage you.