I don't get all that tired from most meets, but it depends a lot on what I swim, how many days the meet is, the type of meet (eg trials/finals format is much more tiring, and "significant" meets at the end of a taper can be more mentally draining), and whether significant travel is involved.
Absolutely agree with Allen that meets -- especially mid-season -- should be viewed in the context of training. They are like high-quality workouts. So if I train the next day I'll usually do something other than quality stuff, especially if it was a multi-day meet. And I agree with the poster (maybe multiple?) who suggested that doing nothing can sometimes be worse than getting in and doing something, even if it is all easy.
As an aside: I remember watching the Tour de France when the commentators talked about what the riders would do on their rest days. What they would NOT do is just rest, they all went out for longish rides. They commented that if the riders took it too easy on the rest day, they would actually do worse on the following day. Of course, the TdF is not quite the same as masters swimming :) but I think there is something to the principle. Sometimes even during "heavy" training -- no meet involved -- I feel worse after a day off.
If you are having a hard time recovering from meets -- more specifically, if you are getting very tired by the end of the meet, to the point that you think it is affecting your times in your last event(s) -- then in preparing for your main meet(s) of the season you need to do one of two things: reduce the number of events you enter, or change your training to improve your ability to recover from multiple all-out swims.
Of course, there is the saying that nothing prepares you for racing quite like racing. That's true in practice, but it also means doing enough meets that you know what to expect at state champs, zones or nationals (or whatever). So doing meets is also "training" in that sense.
As far as CP's comment that meet yardage is significantly less than practice, that's a little misleading. Even so, you might be suprised if you add up all the yards you typically swim in a meet, including the meet warmups, warmup & recovery for each race, etc. I think last summer at Sr Champs, between trials and finals I swam about 6000 LCM each day for 3 days, that's nothing to sneeze at. Much of that was low-intensity of course.
But the reason I say it is misleading is that "yardage" alone is a poor metric of training volume anyway. They physical, mental and emotional toll of a meet is (or should be) greater than practices of the same length.
I don't get all that tired from most meets, but it depends a lot on what I swim, how many days the meet is, the type of meet (eg trials/finals format is much more tiring, and "significant" meets at the end of a taper can be more mentally draining), and whether significant travel is involved.
Absolutely agree with Allen that meets -- especially mid-season -- should be viewed in the context of training. They are like high-quality workouts. So if I train the next day I'll usually do something other than quality stuff, especially if it was a multi-day meet. And I agree with the poster (maybe multiple?) who suggested that doing nothing can sometimes be worse than getting in and doing something, even if it is all easy.
As an aside: I remember watching the Tour de France when the commentators talked about what the riders would do on their rest days. What they would NOT do is just rest, they all went out for longish rides. They commented that if the riders took it too easy on the rest day, they would actually do worse on the following day. Of course, the TdF is not quite the same as masters swimming :) but I think there is something to the principle. Sometimes even during "heavy" training -- no meet involved -- I feel worse after a day off.
If you are having a hard time recovering from meets -- more specifically, if you are getting very tired by the end of the meet, to the point that you think it is affecting your times in your last event(s) -- then in preparing for your main meet(s) of the season you need to do one of two things: reduce the number of events you enter, or change your training to improve your ability to recover from multiple all-out swims.
Of course, there is the saying that nothing prepares you for racing quite like racing. That's true in practice, but it also means doing enough meets that you know what to expect at state champs, zones or nationals (or whatever). So doing meets is also "training" in that sense.
As far as CP's comment that meet yardage is significantly less than practice, that's a little misleading. Even so, you might be suprised if you add up all the yards you typically swim in a meet, including the meet warmups, warmup & recovery for each race, etc. I think last summer at Sr Champs, between trials and finals I swam about 6000 LCM each day for 3 days, that's nothing to sneeze at. Much of that was low-intensity of course.
But the reason I say it is misleading is that "yardage" alone is a poor metric of training volume anyway. They physical, mental and emotional toll of a meet is (or should be) greater than practices of the same length.
