I ask the question because when I returned to the pool last month after a three week taper for scm zones, I was swimming faster in practice than I had in decades. Now I cannot hold the same pace that seemed almost effortless just a week ago. So do I tough it out as usual until it's time to taper again, or do I schedule recovery weeks throughout the season?
I absolutely need recovery weeks. Take them after 3-4 weeks of hard training. Sometimes I plan my recovery weeks to coincide with resting for a meet. I also seem to do better these days on longer and more frequent tapers.
Recovery from what? I do not train enough to need to recover from anything.
At one time I did not think I trained enough to justify even a one week taper.
If you don't take recovery weeks, how do you maintain a high enough level of training readiness so that you are still improving? I find that by mid-week (especially after a really tough distance workout), my legs are absolutely dead - and each workout thereafter gets progressively worse/harder/more frustrating. Ideas?
Last night at practice, my brain was just not into it! I mentally pulled out in the middle of a set of 4 x 500. When I started up again my stroke was slow , even by my standards.
Leslie, this way leads disaster.
Longer and more frequent tapers?
Bolderdash!
The meaning of life is longer and more frequent episodes of brutal self-punishment in the pool, severe dietary restriction outside of it, and total ignoring and refusal to coddle any symptoms of discomfort and/or illness, be this real, non-delusional hypochondrical, or delusional hypochondriacal.
If life is not a ceaseless torment and uninterrupted tribulation, you are not a Real Swimmer.
--from The Manifesto of a Non-Complaining Non-Delusional Hypochondrac
Who Refuses to Surrender to His Nature
What about brutal self punishment in the gym?
I was under the impression that Sprinters were deemed a separate species that did not qualify as Real Swimmers anyway.
Like JimRude, on an intellectual level I don't train enough to deserve recovery, but on a physical level, my body seems to want all of the following:
at least one swim workout a week where I'm not paying too much attention to the clock or pushing myself hard,
ideally two days a week where I don't swim at all,
At least two major tapers a year, but probably some form of mini / drop-taper 3 to 4 times a year,
At least one, but probably more like 2-3 weeks a year where I don't swim at all
I'm becoming more a fan of trying to swim faster in a few sets in a few workouts a week than trying to just slog it through.
In all honesty, though, it's generally life getting in the way of my training that causes all except #3 above.
What about brutal self punishment in the gym?
I was under the impression that Sprinters were deemed a separate species that did not qualify as Real Swimmers anyway.
Brutal self punishment in the gym is merely an excuse to avoid brutal self punishment in the pitiless waters.
You cannot drown in the gym, or rather, you can, but it is what the pathologists call a "dry drowning."
Real Swimmers, be they distance swimmers, or sprinters, or the most chosen elite of them all, middle distance freestylers in their late 50s, live always in the shadow of "wet drowning"--this signature risk in their lives is, in fact, what makes them such compellingly heroic figures in the minds of gym rats and other terra-cognita-huddled land lubbers the world over!
Also you can't always trust how you feel. I've had practices where I was getting sick or sick or felt terrible, some I almost skipped but showed up anyway & swam much faster than I expected to.
That's a good point. There is a fine line between knowing when to suck it up and push it, and when to back off and recover.
i'll rest when i'm dead
Worked for Warren Zevon... (can't believe we don't have an RIP smilie)
