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?
That has been my experience as well. I was really referring to a recovery week during which I still swim but back off substantially on the intensity.
Our team does that after the hour swim. That plus two plus weeks of tapering leading up to the hour swim and I've lost more than 50% of the cardio benefit earned from all the hard training I put in leading up to the hour by the end... Even at my master peaks, I've not been training enough to merit more than a very short (less than one week) taper and almost no recovery afterwards.
As a kid, I definitely needed the recovery weeks after the big meets. But the intensity was WAY higher...
That has been my experience as well. I was really referring to a recovery week during which I still swim but back off substantially on the intensity.
Our team does that after the hour swim. That plus two plus weeks of tapering leading up to the hour swim and I've lost more than 50% of the cardio benefit earned from all the hard training I put in leading up to the hour by the end... Even at my master peaks, I've not been training enough to merit more than a very short (less than one week) taper and almost no recovery afterwards.
As a kid, I definitely needed the recovery weeks after the big meets. But the intensity was WAY higher...
