Drop Dead Taper

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. Never even contemplated a 3 week taper. But I have been working out more than I did around Austin. Did rather a longish workout for me just today. I have cut out running/spinning 3 weeks prior before ... I do find that it's essential to rest the legs. I haven't lifted since Sunday, so if I don't lift this week, it's almost 3 weeks out. So I guess cutting out cross training is just part of a longer taper. I was really more focused on how to cut back the swimming correctly. And I guess whether I should taper weights. I know Ande thinks sprinters should just keep lifting ... I didn't actually say I wanted a 1 week taper. I was wondering if anyone had done the 7 day drop dead taper. But I like experimenting, though perhaps it's better not to experiment too much with a travel meet. Perhaps Albatross? That might be the perfect meet for an experimental 7 day drop dead. I could come back from Auburn, train hard for 3-4 weeks and then give it a whirl. I have a friend who has done this taper before with success -- and she's almost exactly my size and shape. Much as I'm not fond of tapering, I think it's easier in the winter than the spring-summer-fall. Elise: I think I've been fairly consistent with weights since Austin -- almost 9 months. I've only stopped to rest for meets.

it's all about experimenting and figuring out what works for you figure out what you need to do to swim as fast as you can you don't have to have it all figured out try stuff write down what you did observe the results crap like "trust your taper" doesn't work for you you're a fretter to me it's easiest to have faith in your ability by swimming fast in practice if you swam fast yesterday and the day before and the week before and the month before you'll probably swim fast tomorrow or a week from now I understand what I need to do to taper for sprints not so sure on distance events I like the idea of actually racing your event many times in a season to practice what you're actually going to do Short tapers can work great and take out much of the guess work you rest a little and get that initial pop long tapers can be tricky because you may go through a feel like crud phase I think a taper is a place you can arrive at and maintain rather than something you want to precisely hit the day of your meet to me that is risky I'd rather be tapered a week or two before my big meet when taper time rolls around I'm going to look back to how I prepared for 2008 SCY nats, it's very comforting when you swim your best pracitce times of the season right before your big meet don't trust your taper, test your taper, times will tell practice times translate to meet times BUT you don't have to swim your actual events fast in practice, just parts of them, broken swims, pace 100's, 15 meter break outs, 25's, 50's, 75's, 100's, 150's, maybe a 200 or two if you do longer events. Work on pacing and easy speed. Work on correct splitting, get plenty of rest. Also I know I'll be faster when I'm getting stronger, doing more reps with heavier weights. It's not good to lift super heavy right before a meet, taper down your weights reduce sets, reps and weight as your meet gets real close. ande

I just finished a 2 week taper. I cut my swimming way back and stopped all weights and running. The last three days was pretty much nothing at all coupled with a ton of sleep every night. This worked quite well for me, I think. My only reservation about what I did was that I had two great "back to the grind" workouts on Monday and Tuesday after the meet. Maybe it was a carry over or maybe I missed my taper by two days. This drop dead is an interesting idea. I bet if you couple that with a lot of extra sleep, it could be quite effective. I don't see any validity in the point about losing water feel and balance if you taper for a few extra days. Given most of us have been swimming since we were six I find it doubtful that it could be so easily lost.

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! Will do. I have to figure out what I am swimming. My best events are back to back to back - 100 ***, 200 IM, 100 fly. I can do 2 of them, don't even want to try 3 back to back. I'll decide once I've done a couple of yards meets this spring and see how I'm feeling in various strokes. I stop weights 2 weeks prior to a big meet and taper them the week before. --mj

Fort, in college we had a meet in between the beginning of our 2-week taper and championships. I was a sprinter doing the 50-100-200. Invariably, the mid-taper meet was significantly slower than meets I did during the hard work months of 9000+/day. I felt flat. No ooomph at all. Added ~3% to mid season times. Not sure what happened physiologically, but every year we thought "Oh, great, a mid-taper meet...should be fabulous" when we saw the schedule. However, the championship times always came down significantly as well after that. So *I* won't do less than 2 weeks for a taper for weights or the pool. Good luck.

I would think at this point in the season, you would only rest before, not a true taper. I don't follow a normal or conventional "season." I use periodization, but sometimes on shorter cycles than most. I do speed work throughout the season. I don't feel compelled to only taper for Nats or whatever, and I'm not attending this spring anyway. I have used the 3 day mini-taper with good results. In fact, I use it for most meets. I think, in general, my longer tapers have been as Geek describes: 2 week, cut back yardage and intensity somewhat gradually and do almost nothing the couple days right before the meet. Haven't done this since Austin actually. Tried before Zones last summer, but was sick for 2 weeks and it wrecked my meet. I looked back at what I did the week before Rutgers/Zones in Dec. for which I rested some: M 2500 T 2200 W 1900 Th 1500 F 1200 Sa nothing Sun swam 3 events This seemed to work reasonably well, though I felt like utter crap at the meet. Really awful. I usually train a bit less than 20K with a fair amount of cross training (run, spin, lift, been lifting more lately). I'm swimming 6 events in 2 days, only 50s and 100s. And very funny, Michael! I meant I ran out of gas on the last 25 of my 100s. Quick: I think it's a mistake to do real speedwork right before a meet. Better to do it throughout the season.

Lot's of factors to consider Fort...how much you've been training both in the pool and dryland as well as what events your training for. In general I've found that 7 days is the absolute wrong amount of time to rest for a sprinter/middles distance specialist...that is usually the point when most people feel their worst as the body is "healing" and adjusting to the change in work load. IMHO what I think is a better bet is either a 3 week or 3 day taper.

don't trust your taper, test your taper Great post, Ande! I think this could be a new SFF tip. I do fret about longer tapers. Sometimes it sucks to train alone and go only on instinct.

What's the physiology or other reasoning behind this? No idea. Honestly, the main thing swimming has taught me is that whatever theory I come up with will be proven wrong as soon as possible. Just in experience, we train with a rest in December, ratchet things up through training trip in February, taper for the end of March (10 days), swim hard in April and then do another ten-day taper for Nationals. Pretty much across the board people swim faster at Nationals. (We do swim more races for the March meet, but the effect shows even in the first few swims, which shouldn't be affected by that.)

In general I've found that 7 days is the absolute wrong amount of time to rest for a sprinter/middles distance specialist...that is usually the point when most people feel their worst as the body is "healing" and adjusting to the change in work load. I agree totally. After 7 days I was growing very very worried about what was going on with my body, I felt terrible. It wasn't until day 10 that I felt things starting to come together. I also did the unthinkable. I didn't drink any alcohol for two days before the meet or the night between meet sessions. That was worse than the taper itself.