Taper Tinkering

Athletes are scientists whether they know it or not. Constantly tinkering, adjusting and changing training loads, recovery, interval lengths, intensity, and the list goes on. If you are self-coached it becomes even more important that you take note of your response to certain stimuli and the timing of such so that you can produce your peak performance when it matters most. I have found that one of the hardest things to plan perfectly has been the taper portion of the training cycle. Scheduling the hard work is easy, but when it comes time to back off I find it more complicated to time the peak. That is why I have been using various taper strategies this season in an effort to nail down the one that works best.

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Fundamental Long-Course Swim Sets

The third and final segment of these swimming posts serves to outline three of the major swimming sets that make up the majority of my work in the pool. These three sets, along with the drills outlined in my previous post, should put you well on your way to getting stronger in the water and improving your swim split. Improving swim fitness also transfers over to the bike and run segments. Being confident in the water, exiting faster, and being less fatigued pays huge dividends in long-distance racing.

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