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?
Smilies are the third rail of things that adults should avoid.
Wait... that's a double avoidance... so they cancel out and you do like smilies after all!
:bliss::banana::bouncing::bolt::cane::bow:
I've taken a a week off on a few occasions and it takes me several workouts to get moving again. Especially in terms of my shoulders loosening up and feeling good. They definately atrophy if I don't swim for a full week. Recovery swims are great for staying loose and not letting this happen while your body heals from hard training.
There is a fine line between knowing when to suck it up and push it, and when to back off and recover.
Perhaps that depends on whether one has a tendency to overtrain or undertrain and for which events one is training. I can see where one might still be faster if they did not "suck it up." Let us not forget Tall Paul's "less is more" theory.
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...
I would have thought that brutal self-punishment in the pool entitles me to disregard any severe dietary restrictions out of the pool.
Wrong! Do not lie to yourself!
If it feels good, it is bad.
Do I schedule recovery weeks throughout the season?
I do 3-4 tapers every year largely just for this reason: the tapers serve as recovery. (I like swimming fast too, though I don't necessarily like the tapering process itself.)
If you don't want to taper this much, then yes I would do a recovery week ("long slow distance") every so often.
