I am looking for some advice.
I have recently had a battle with a kidney stone. That thing has completely messed up my training in the last month. I just got my stent removed this week that I have had in for two weeks. The amount of time I spent training the two weeks prior to my initial surgery was kind off hit or miss depending on how I felt that day.
My question is, how should I handle my training for the next two weeks? This will be my first trip to nationals and I am very excited. I will be swimming the 500, 200IM, and the 100 IM. I have really put the work into this up until my body decided to pick the wrong time of year to not cooperate.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I think you've got two options. Either you just taper right now and hope the work you put in before your health problems carries over, or you could get in a solid week of work, then do a one week drop taper. If it were me, I think I'd do the second option. It's probably more mental than physical, but I'd feel like I need to put some aerobic work in because of the 500 free. I wouldn't go nuts this week, just do some longer sets with short rest. Also do some speed work, but emphasize the longer aerobic stuff this week. Again, you're not looking to kill yourself. Then one week from the start of the meet drop down the yardage drastically. Do some pace work for your 500 and speed work for the shorter event. Think about your IM transitions, your starts, etc. I'd probably do no more than 3,000 yards one week out and then drop it to a meet warmup, maybe 1,500 max, the final day or two before Nationals. One thing is for sure and that's that you'll want to feel rested going into the meet.
Mentally don't beat yourself up. You're probably thinking you've got to make up for lost time, but a better attitude is probably just to accept that you're at where you're at. In masters this a good attitude to have, because there's usually something that throws a wrench into your training! At the meet your goal should be to swim the best races you can. You might be surprised how well you swim. Good luck, Joel!
I think you've got two options. Either you just taper right now and hope the work you put in before your health problems carries over, or you could get in a solid week of work, then do a one week drop taper. If it were me, I think I'd do the second option. It's probably more mental than physical, but I'd feel like I need to put some aerobic work in because of the 500 free. I wouldn't go nuts this week, just do some longer sets with short rest. Also do some speed work, but emphasize the longer aerobic stuff this week. Again, you're not looking to kill yourself. Then one week from the start of the meet drop down the yardage drastically. Do some pace work for your 500 and speed work for the shorter event. Think about your IM transitions, your starts, etc. I'd probably do no more than 3,000 yards one week out and then drop it to a meet warmup, maybe 1,500 max, the final day or two before Nationals. One thing is for sure and that's that you'll want to feel rested going into the meet.
Mentally don't beat yourself up. You're probably thinking you've got to make up for lost time, but a better attitude is probably just to accept that you're at where you're at. In masters this a good attitude to have, because there's usually something that throws a wrench into your training! At the meet your goal should be to swim the best races you can. You might be surprised how well you swim. Good luck, Joel!
