Confusion with Tapering

I love to taper! Almost all of my best times have come in big meets that I tapered for. For me, the main concern is to practice swimming race pace. I need to know what it feels like to swim the pace I want for a 100 or a 200. I also do a lot of 25s to prepare for swimming faster 50s. Because you need to rest in order to maintain race pace, your workouts will decrease in yardage. Betsy

Originally posted by Fuzzimoto so are you supposed to do sets like 5 50s on the 2:00? or sets like 5 50s on the 35 and then rest for like 10 minutes? Depends on the workouts you are doing and is best for YOUR taper. When I was younger we would swim intense workouts of 15,000 to 23,000 a day with hard sets that averaged 1 minute interval per 100 yard. We also did weights for endurance (3 X 20 reps ) and run 5 miles. Our taper would last at least 2-3 weeks and by the last few days we would have dropped down to 1200 yards at most with sprints. I was a 100-200 yard swimmer. Now 20 years later I am back to swimming less than a year and my training and taper are going to be much different. I swim 2000-4500 yards now. I will probably stop weights 1-2 weeks before my meet and swim only 800-1500 those same last 2 weeks- I don't have as much conditioning built up or resting to do so I figure I would need to keep the ratio of distance up or I will lose too much feel for the water and strength. What type of workouts do you do? What are your events? Hope this helps.

so are you supposed to do sets like 5 50s on the 2:00? or sets like 5 50s on the 35 and then rest for like 10 minutes?

What type of workouts do you do? What are your events? I swim 100 breaststroke scy and 100 freestyle scy lately my workouts are about 4000-6500 yards 4 tiems a week because we have two meets a week... but usually we swim 6 times a week... (amount depends on the day because we swim in the morning 3 times a week so that adds on a couple thousand.) for workout wise.. we do alot of everything.. 50s 25 sprints 200s specialties and ims... and i aslo lift weights two times a week but its a very light amount of weights.. like 20-30 mintues a time see my problem A.K is that I think, personally, that i do worse when i get rest? its weird... one week i missed a couple practices and we had a couple meets so i had little practice (but alot of rest..) got my worst times all season.. the next week we introduced morning practices and i had doubled my amount of yards and swam twice as much as the week before.. had two meets that week also and got my best times (even though i went into my events kinda sore from the days before...) so now with tapering coming up im afraid that.. like last year.. im gonna worsen my time due to not getting enough yards in? any ideas?

I determine the time I want to do on a given race, then figure out 50 and 25 splits necessary. For a 200, I'll swim 4 x 50 with just 5-10 sec rest, holding that pace. Before I try another race pace, I'll do some easy stuff (active rest) like drills, kicks or pulls. Then I might try another 4 x 50 or 8 x 25. Another day, I may do the first 1/4 of a given race: the first 100 of a 500, the first 50 of a 200; or the first 1/2 of a race - the first 100 of a 200. For me to race well, I have to have confidence that I know what the correct pace feels like. 4 x 25 to prepare for a 100 really works, but you need someone on deck to get an accurate time. Betsy

Hi - I was curious to read about experiences tapering. It is a difficult thing however if you have an experienced coach he/she should be able to help you get the most out of your taper. The purpose of tapering is to fully rest your muscles so they will be the most powerful and efficient on race day. Often during the season our muscles adapt and get used to swimming tired, however the taper will build up the muscles after they have been broken down during the difficult training of the season (weights included). I have found that often times I feel sluggish during a taper and even begin to doubt how fast I'll swim on race day. However, with a little more rest my body adapts and tends to swim fast times effortlessly. It is my guess that you did not taper enough. I am not sure what your training is like, but with breastroke you probably need to do speed sets to get yourself used to swimming hard and fast. Breastroke uses large muscles groups which is one reason why you might need extra rest in order to fully allow those muscles to recover and reach their peak. You want to be sure you are converting endurance to strength during the taper without tiring those muscles. Allow those muscles to fully rest and you will be surprised on how fast you will swim! Be sure to talk to other breastrokers and ask what they do. I swim distance and know that my training and taper is much different than what you do. My taper is shorter and my focus is on pace vs speed.... Keep asking questions and listen to your body. My suggestion is to give yourself more rest and stay stroke specific. Good luck!

Some very good advice from the posts here "Fuzzimoto". One way to tell where your taper hits is schedule a meet and the another 1-2 weeks later and another after that - tapering the whole time. If ou can't find meets, do a mock meet by timing 3-4 events each weekend. I agree it sounds like you did not taper enough. I found this out once when we had our big meet and then another regular meet 2 weeks later, I posted personal bests.

i've always sort of, in the back of my mind, thought that tapering was whatever someone wanted it to be. tomorrow, I'm going to swim the one hour British lond distance club postal. I've lowered my workout distance since Friday. that's a taper. Taperingis very individual and dependent on what the taper is for. Swimmingis the great Mistery!

A taper should be tapered. If you are swimming the same sets at the end of a taper that you swam at the begining, then you aren't getting tapered really. By blasting all-out 50s right before a big meet, you are still tearing up your muscles and breaking your self down; you are not rested. The start of a taper should force you to pick up the speed of your stroke and the end of a taper should allow you to maintain your conditioning while truly resting your muscles and storing up the energy. Short, fairly intense, kick sets should help maintain your aerobic condition during the taper. Try to not swim anything hard over half a length (starts and turns) the last couple of days before the meet. I have a 4-week taper guideline (yes, those high-quality swims should start further out) I would be happy to share if you are interested.

Back when I use to swim it took me about ten to twelve years and an Olympic caliber coach to actually figure out a taper......it is actually quite difficult to hit a taper properly. A couple of things I did learn from both good and bad coaches : 1) Tapers are effective about once a year, twice max. 2) The taper starts as far as 4-6 weeks before and involves a gradual shift from the distance to speed work. 3) The last week before involves less meters/yards with more rest but generallly involves going no more than 90%. This prevents too much muscle breakdown but gets the muscle memory tuned to speed. 4) Stroke work and technique are important during this period to help the muscle memory for the big race(s). 5) Sleep and proper diet are very important also. Unfortunately trying this out once or twice a year can take a long time to get it right but when you REALLY get it right you will feel awesome and be amazed with your times.