Help with Taper for 1650/1000

Thanks guys for all the great taper ideas. I am reading them tonight and going to try to lump them together and come up with a plan. I will probably stick to the 2 week/25% cut-back per week plan. The week before I will be really busy at the AAHPERD National Conference in Indy. Maybe that will help me with my taper blues! I won't help me stay off my feet though! I know I am entered in way too many events. This is the Indiana Master's State Meet. Our club traditionally tries to win the meet with a skeleton crew of swimmers doing a ton of events! The relays are what really kill me. I will also have problems swimming my mile followed by 1 or 2 age groups of 400 medley relay(I'll most likely do fly), then the 200 free. I am glad the mile is the 1st event on the 1st day. It's my favorite event and at least it won't be effected by the other swims!

Thanks guys for all the great taper ideas. I am reading them tonight and going to try to lump them together and come up with a plan. I will probably stick to the 2 week/25% cut-back per week plan. The week before I will be really busy at the AAHPERD National Conference in Indy. Maybe that will help me with my taper blues! I won't help me stay off my feet though! I know I am entered in way too many events. This is the Indiana Master's State Meet. Our club traditionally tries to win the meet with a skeleton crew of swimmers doing a ton of events! The relays are what really kill me. I will also have problems swimming my mile followed by 1 or 2 age groups of 400 medley relay(I'll most likely do fly), then the 200 free. I am glad the mile is the 1st event on the 1st day. It's my favorite event and at least it won't be effected by the other swims! One other thing to think about as you contemplate your taper yardage and intensity is how much you'll be swimming on your meet days, inclusive of warmups and warmdowns. If your meet days are going to look like 4K yard days, I'd be cautious about tapering your yardage down too much. That is, you don't want the week before to look like 1500 to 2000 yard workouts and then surprise your body with a 4K to 5K day 1 of the meet. For me, on a meet day when I do a mile and other events, I can easily push close to 5K as I tend to do about 1.5K to 2k warmup, probably 400 to 500 cool down after a mile and 200 to 300 cool down after each other race. In the end, though, your past experience is probably the best guide.

Bob...lots of good advice her, the best (IMHO) probably being reconsider 10 events in 2 days. My own thoughts regarding resting for the 1000/1650 with that amount of yardage would be to not drop down below 2000-2500 per workout, rather increase the rest intervals...let your body "heal". Also make sure you continue to work 50's & 100's at race pace/tempo (1650/1000) and some variable speed play 25's work (from middle of pool with turns) for your shorter events...I mix in longer/hypoxic pull sets between pace work. I part ways with Patrick on the amount of warm-up he does (2000)...I follow the "warm up till I'm warmed up" theory, its not set and it can be as little as 3-400yds and never over 1000...don't "leave your race in the warm-up pool". Rest your legs (I practice starts all season and stop 2 week out from my meet), grab naps if you can, watch your diet....have fun.

I part ways with Patrick on the amount of warm-up he does (2000)...I follow the "warm up till I'm warmed up" theory, its not set and it can be as little as 3-400yds and never over 1000...don't "leave your race in the warm-up pool". Bobinator, Paul's actually right here. I think I'm different from many people in that I need (like?) a lot of warmup to get my engine running. Also, for my distance races, I prefer it close to the actual race. A lot of it is still relatively restful, though. Here's my planned warmup this weekend when I'm going to try to swim a fast 1000. I'll aim to do this so that I get out of the pool about 30 minutes before my race (I do like to dive in for a race dry): 1 x 600: 200 fr, 200 IM k/d, 200 fr -- very easy 8 x 50: on ~1:00, 2 each stroke, 1 kick, 1 drill/swim, still pretty easy 4 x 100: on ~1:30, descend from moderate down to target pace, ideally about 2-3 seconds drop per 100 1 x 50: easy 8 x 50: on ~0:50, 4 IM build, 4 free at target pace 1 x 50: easy 2 x 25: on ~0:30, 1/2 lap sprint, 1 each stroke 1 x 50: easy Even though I'm racing free, I like to warmup all strokes as I think (absolutely no scientific data to back this up) this warms up a greater range of muscles. The above warmup probably ends up taking me about 40 minutes with rest between sets.

Personally, if those were my two focus events, I would eliminate some of the others. Me too. 10 events, yuck.

Thanks Patrick for the warm-up advice. I've always been a bit confused about that too! I am going to scale yours back a bit but do something on the same line. I don't think I've ever warmed up enough for my mile. If it doesn't go well I'll cut back the next day on the 1,000. I think I'm going to limit the taper to 1 week as well. I never really thought about the total first day yard-age. I liked Pauls advice about keeping the yard-age up but increasing the rest!! Thanks and I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Me too. 10 events, yuck. It's really lots of fun! Our team tries to beat ISF every year. We are a much smaller team so we do all the individual events and as many relays as we can. I'm happy the mile and 1,000 are the first events both days. I figure I'm as rested as I can be at the beginning of the day. The remaining events I just do what I can do and enjoy the water party!! :angel: