My first taper as a masters swimmer will be for Nationals. In my youth, I always had huge drops after tapering for a big meet, but that was 25 years ago and frankly, I can't remember how it was done. In addition, those tapers were after 70,000 yards/week. Now I'm only doing 20-25,000 yards/week.
Any suggestions?
Don't think about it as you're "only" doing 20-25K per week. Your body is still plenty fatigued and you will benefit greatly from a taper. I'd suggest a bare minimum of one week, and probably two would be best. My general plan lately has been to drop total yardage by 25% the first week and another 25% the second week with a lot of that yardage being easy, recovery swimming. Work in some speed and pace swimming, but don't overdo it. The last couple days before the meet should be more or less a meet warmup. Don't be afraid to rest!
Don't think about it as you're "only" doing 20-25K per week. Your body is still plenty fatigued and you will benefit greatly from a taper. I'd suggest a bare minimum of one week, and probably two would be best. My general plan lately has been to drop total yardage by 25% the first week and another 25% the second week with a lot of that yardage being easy, recovery swimming. Work in some speed and pace swimming, but don't overdo it. The last couple days before the meet should be more or less a meet warmup. Don't be afraid to rest!
