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Taper?
Laurie
New Member
Doing 12 mile swim 3 weeks from this weekend, tide assisted in salt water ( 6 hour cutoff). Longest training swim has been 4.75 hours in local “lake” with some current ( with and against me) and chop. Unable to access open water this weekend due to holiday/ boat traffic. Should I do long swim ( 5+ hours) in pool this weekend, wait til next weekend and do 5+ hours in open water or start now with taper? Had no issues/ pain with the 4.75 hours I did last week.
Comments
I would start coming down now and such a long swim really shouldn’t be necessary. The purpose of a taper is to rest and doing such long swims at this point are counterproductive. You want to ramp down before a long race, not ramp up.
Thanks so much for the info, let’s me relax a little! Good luck in future ventures. I am also a back surgery survivor!?
When I swam the English Channel I was blown away by people who were adding yardage up to the day of their swim.
One fellow swam 8 hours one day and then added 30 mins/day up to 12 hours (which was his anticipated Channel time). Guess what? That guy didn’t make it. I wonder why.
If you’re training up to the minute if your swim; you’re doing it wrong. Front-load your yardage after a reasonable time of ramping up. After a mandatory two week break after a training year I would start off at about 3000 yards/day and add 500/day until I hit 10000. I was fortunate to be a faster swimmer and could carve up that distance in 2:30.
About 2 weeks out of a race I would drop 1000/day until I hit 5000 and then 500/day until I hit 3000 (my minimum yardage).
I was in England a week before my Channel swim. I started off at 2:30 in the AM and with an easy 30 minutes in the PM. I dropped 30 minutes each day and swam 30 in the AM and a cool 15 minutes to get the jitters out.
I was highly criticized by some of the locals, which is why I trained in the very early AM before anyone else showed up.
I did the work before I showed up and I believe that you should as well. I’m addition, I rarely ever did open water training swims in excess of 3 hours. I felt it wasn’t very useful to me.
11 back surgeries so far, so I’m done. It’s a drag that I’ll never swim again. I stay involved by volunteering with a USS team and spouting some occasional nonsense here.
Kick some ass and report back.
Chris
Unlike you I’m super slow but I’m very efficient. I have slowly built up yardage/ time and avoided any injuries by focusing on good form. I think with good form and a good fueling plan I can definitely do the distance. If I don’t make the cutoff that’s just one more goal to work towards. I look at this as an adventure, not a race. I was told never to run again after many years of Ironman and ultra running so I get where you’re coming from. Will report back after my adventure! Thanks for all the help.
That right there is pretty much the key to every athletic endeavor. Great post!
Often overlooked by many.