O K Be real - how many meets do you really swim a year/ season ?
Including state & national meets ?
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Former Member
Usually 2-4 SCY, 2-3 LCM (both including 1 taper meet) and 0-1 SCM. I take a break for most of mid August thru late September, with pool closures, back to school, etc.
For those who do more than 6/year, how do you train through the different training cycles, taper, meet, recover?
I usually do 2-6 timed swims/month as part of workout, 99% of those off the blocks and racing other people on the team.
Let's see, I did 11, I believe. One was SC Nationals, one was Zones and 2 were age group meets. I only taper for Nationals. And I always drink my protein after I'm done with a meet and try to get in the pool for a workout the day after a meet to "work the kinks out." Makes me feel so much better.
Should I taper for the state meet & then nationals .
It depends on your goals,but if you want,give it a go.Several times in SCM I have had 2 meets I wanted to swim fast at.With 2 tapers I sometimes could swim well at both,but usually one suffers.
Should I taper for the state meet & then nationals .
Depends on how you want to do, how your body responds and how you feel.
Personally I swim just as well not tapering if the meet is 1 or 2 days. If it's a longer meet, like Nationals, my body does better with a taper. I do not recommend doing what I did in Nov. I swam in a practice from 7-9, sitting out a lot of the practice but still swam 2800. Then drove to the meet pool, which was 10 min away and raced 200, 500 and 1000 in about an hour. Needless to say it was not a good meet for me.
Illinois state meet is april 7 -10 & Nationals are the 3rd week of april. I think that I will lay off a few days after the state meet , build up for 10 days & then taper.
I'm new to competitive swimming and have only been on a masters team for 16 months. Since I'm old and never swam in meets before I've been averaging 2 per month "in season". I had to get meet experience with starts, turns, pacing, etc. Still just a novice. In 2010 I did 14 meets (11 in ILL, 3 in WI). I didn't really taper much except for the state meets and the Senior Olympics. I plan to swim 2/month from Jan-May with the National Senior Games in Houston in June. I'll taper on the drive down & hope to finish in the top ten in all my 6 events there.
The last meet I swam in there was a cheater. Here he is pre race and I also videod theactual meet. YouTube - True Adventures of Chad: Swim Meet
OMG!!! That was too funny!! :rofl:
