I have talked to people and they say things like "yeah but once im tapered ill lose another 4 seconds or such"
I searched through the forums and didnt see much explaining what tapering is except that it is a rested period before a meet.
Last year i consistently swam 1 12s (100 scy ***) and then i tapered for almost my last two weeks to get my best time before the last meet of the season. But i ended up gaining a second in that meet and swam a 1 13...
so what kind of sets are you supposed to do while tapering? when we tapered as a team we swam short yards on long intervals... like 50s on the 2 minutes. I was tlaking to a couple kids today about their tapering and they said they do hard sets but a lot of rest between sets to build your pace up.. like 100s on the 1 15 but after the set, rest for like 10 minutes and then the day before the meet you do like one small hard set and then rest.
The kid i was talkign to ended up dropping like 4-5 seconds off a 100 after tapering...
So really my question is what kind of sets are you supposed to do for tapering? and is tapering SUPPOSED to quicken your time? cause to me it seems i swim the best the day after i have a really long hard practice
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.
I am quite interested in your taper plan. If you can post it, I am sure many people would be happy to see it.
Hi everybody,
The taper period is very important in order to get the best result on your meet. The taper is however very individula and also very much depending on what distanses you swim
My typical season looks like this:
a) start up period
I try to get back into swim shape after a break. This usually takes a few weeks - focus: easy swim & technique
b) Basic training
During this period I continue to focus on technique and above all cardio training
c) Speed traning
The longer in to the period I get the more speed I try to incorporate into my training. This means anaerobic training. I really liked to swim them around and a bit loger than my actual race. So If i focus on 100 free, I used to swim 75's, 100's and 150's above threshold pace. In addition to this I lik to add sprints in order to wake up that part of my system as well.
d) Taper
This is where I want to see the reuslt of all my efforts. In order to get the muscles back in busines I decrease my workouts week by week. More and more focus on swimming on race speed. The focus is not on getting tired and exhausted, but to swim at the right speed. As I only swim 50 and 100m on meets, I tend to let the cardio training go, only keeping some short aerobic series to maintain and to recover from sprints/anaerobic.
The last week or two I really only focus on speed drills a few all out 50's. Apart from that only technique drills and easy cardio swim.
Good Luck,
jan
