preparing for swim meets



B

Beau

Guest
Hi everybody. I've been lurking here for a long time but never posted
anything until today. I have gained a lot of good advice from you folks
and I thank you for that.

In 2 weeks (April 27th) I will be swimming the 50m free (maybe back &
breast also)at the Senior Games here in my state of SC. Then in June I
will be swimming the 50m free at the Transplant Games in Louisville, KY.
I am mostly interested in improving speed at this time.

My form is said to be very good although I have not yet tried the push
the hands back 6 more inches of stroke as suggested here. For the last
year I have been mainly swimming about 1,100m for fitness only. After
about 40 minutes I then I hit the weight room for about 1/2 hour and
maybe about 20 minutes or so on the tread mill. I do this routine M-W-F
starting at 9AM starting with stretching.

To prepare for my upcoming competition I have now started doing 50m
sprints with a diving start and push turn. My 25m sprint free time is a
little under 20 seconds and I "assume" my 50m might be around 45-50
seconds. The 3 or 4 sprints with adequate rest in between exhausts me. I
then fitness swim afterwards. I have noticed I am totally exhausted when
I get home from my workout so I think I may be doing too much.

Any advice as for training in this short period of time would be
appreciated.

A little about me:
65 year old male, 6"2", 200 lbs. (not overweight), kidney transplant one
year ago and doing well. I am on a huge amount of medications like
immunosuppressants, blood pressure control, etc.. I was thinking about
taking only the immunosuppressants right before the race time because I
think the other meds interfere with my breathing and endurance. Due to
my long term kidney failure I have developed osteoporosis so I am
instructed to do weight bearing exercise like the weights and walking.

Thanks very much.

My Homepage: http://members.tripod.com/~beaulanger/
 
"Beau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

-snip-

> Any advice as for training in this short period of time would be
> appreciated.
>
> A little about me:
> 65 year old male, 6"2", 200 lbs. (not overweight), kidney transplant
> one year ago and doing well. I am on a huge amount of medications like
> immunosuppressants, blood pressure control, etc.. I was thinking about
> taking only the immunosuppressants right before the race time because
> I think the other meds interfere with my breathing and endurance. Due
> to my long term kidney failure I have developed osteoporosis so I am
> instructed to do weight bearing exercise like the weights and walking.

I hope you do not change your medication without your doctor's approval.

Good luck at your meet.

-S-
 
The Senior Games meet is around 9-10 AM tomorrow so I will only be
about 2 hours late with the other medications. However, I always take my
immunosuppressants exactly on time and would never deviate from this for
any reason. I'm too happy to be alive. :)

I was curious what most competitive swimmers do 2-3 days prior to a meet
in regards to food, working out and training, etc.?

Thanks. :)
Beau

Steve Freides wrote:
> "Beau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> -snip-
> I hope you do not change your medication without your doctor's approval.

> Good luck at your meet.
> -S-
 
"Beau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The Senior Games meet is around 9-10 AM tomorrow so I will only be
> about 2 hours late with the other medications. However, I always take
> my immunosuppressants exactly on time and would never deviate from
> this for any reason. I'm too happy to be alive. :)
>
> I was curious what most competitive swimmers do 2-3 days prior to a
> meet in regards to food, working out and training, etc.?

Most athletes do some sort of taper before a competition, anywhere from
doing a bit less than normal (uncommon) to cutting back significantly
(normal) to stopping training completely (uncommon). What you would do
depends on how you train - if you're not sure, I would consider cutting
the volume of your training in half for the week before a competition.
If you're swimming a long distance, keep some short sections in your
routine at your goal pace to keep the feeling of swimming at that speed
fresh. Many people, me included, find they don't necessarily feel their
best at a competition if they take off the day before, so I often take
off two days before then do some light training the day before.

The same theme runs through all sports here - you've done the training,
and nothing you'll do during the few days before a competition is going
to make you better because training effect takes more than a few days to
happen. The idea is to find what sort of things work best for you so
that you feel fresh and ready to do your best at the meet.

-S-
 
Thank you so much Steve. I did lay off swimming 2 days prior to my meet
this morning and lifted light weights 3 days before only. Also loaded up
on carbs the night before. It must have worked because I won gold in all
4 events and had good times.
They even had bowling this afternoon and, although I've bowled maybe
twice in 5 years, I bowled a 185. I think a gold for that too in my age
group. Yikes, I was smoking today. Must have just been one of those
days. :)
Beau


Steve Freides wrote:
.....
> Most athletes do some sort of taper before a competition, anywhere from
> doing a bit less than normal (uncommon) to cutting back significantly
.....
> The same theme runs through all sports here - you've done the training,
> and nothing you'll do during the few days before a competition is going
> to make you better because training effect takes more than a few days to
 
"Beau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thank you so much Steve. I did lay off swimming 2 days prior to my
> meet this morning and lifted light weights 3 days before only. Also
> loaded up on carbs the night before. It must have worked because I won
> gold in all 4 events and had good times.
> They even had bowling this afternoon and, although I've bowled maybe
> twice in 5 years, I bowled a 185. I think a gold for that too in my
> age group. Yikes, I was smoking today. Must have just been one of
> those days. :)
> Beau

Congrats! Keep up the good work.

-S-

>
> Steve Freides wrote:
> ....
>> Most athletes do some sort of taper before a competition, anywhere
>> from doing a bit less than normal (uncommon) to cutting back
>> significantly
> ....
>> The same theme runs through all sports here - you've done the
>> training, and nothing you'll do during the few days before a
>> competition is going to make you better because training effect takes
>> more than a few days to
 
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