A Rested Body Is a Rested Mind

Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012
Time: 5:50 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Long Course Meters
4 days to Olympic Trials

6x(3x50)
1. kick on 1:10
2. 25 drill/25 swim on 1:00
3. swim on :50

400 with pull buoy at ankles
25 scull/25 swim

4x100 back on 1:50 (avg. 1:35)

1 min. break

4x100 free on 1:45 (avg. 1:20)

6x50 on 1:15
No. 1 and 3 breathe six times
No. 2 and 5 breathe four times
No. 3 and 6 breath two times

Total: 2,400 meters (70 minutes)

My biggest fear with tapering is getting out of shape. This is essentially what happens when you overtaper. You rest your body so much, doing so little work that your level of conditioning eventually starts to wear away and you lose strength and endurance.

If I'm swimming well during taper, I fear that I could be starting to peak, and might get out of shape if I rest too much. That's why I turned up the juice just a little bit today on the 100s. I wasn't going faster than aerobic speed, but I probably didn't need to go that fast. On the opposite end of getting too much rest, you can not get enough rest, and your body can't perform at the level it's been training for on the day you need it to perform. I rarely  have had that happen to me, but I have overtapered a lot, mostly in college when double tapers were common. You would taper for the conference meet and get your NCAA cuts, then keep tapering for NCAAs two weeks later.

My body doesn't feel too great today, but in about two hours after I write this, I will be lying on a massage table, getting a nice pre-meet massage from Tod Miller. His pre-meet massages work very well in that they flush out any kinks in my muscles, but also get my nervous system in racing mode. The pressure he puts on my body isn't as hard as he usually does. It's just enough to feel relaxation, and a little rejuvenation. It helps that Tod is an athlete (triathlete, to be exact), so he knows what athletes want before the big event.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is getting home and turning on my Wii. I've been taking shorter work days this week, and with not much of interest on television, I've started playing a game I bought a couple of months ago, called Lego Indiana Jones. It's addictive, and I'm on a level that's seemingly impossible to finish! I was thinking of taking my Wii to Omaha with me, but I probably won't have a lot of time for playing video games, especially after I swim the 100 breast. Then, I'll be back to work for Swimming World, and the hours will be so long that the last thing I will want to is play video games when I get back to the hotel.