Swim Tappering 101 by Darian Townsend

Over at Floswimming swimmer Darian Townsend posts about tappering.  Since this is a taper week it's an interesting topic for me and others.  On deck you hear lots of various stories and experiences from other swimmers about tappering.  All of which conflicts with each other.  Townsend (pictured below) has his own theory based on his experience in Beijing and then on the FINA World Cup Swimming.  Here is what he had to say:

After Beijing I simply kept in touch with the water, only swimming once a day of no more than 5000 yards and I also played water polo 3 times a week. The results have been amazing. I am now ranked 1st this year in the world in 100 I M, second in the 200 IM, 3rd in the 200 free and 5th in the 100 free. Going into the meets I had no idea of what to expect, I really hadn't challenged myself too much in practice, so I was really guessing at how I would swim.

I can honestly believe that all the training I did for Beijing paid off, it didn't get me the results I wanted in Beijing, but a couple months later it paid off at these meets where I had no expectations.

So for those of you who think you can't swim fast in more than one shave meet, take a look back at all the training you've done, all the laps you've swam, all the miles you've run, all the weights you've lifted and then ask yourself, surely I can swim fast more than once!

Now for some USMS Regional SCM Championship isn't a big swim meet to taper up to.  I know a few of those and they only taper for Nationals in May.  But for me I do taper because after Regionals is the December blahs and Holiday time off.  So this is the last big meet of 2008.  Come some time in mid-Jan of 2009 I'll start ramping it up again and start thinking towards Nationals.  But for now I'll enjoy sleeping in tomorow and having a day off from swimming.  Even after my light swim workouts these past few days.