21 November 2022
I almost never get to exactly implement the taper plan I exactly want, but I at least started today on the plan, practically perfectly doing the first workout in a three-week taper plan from one of my old age group - and now longtime Masters - coach, Mark Kutz. Mark's plan starts at a pretty high volume - 23,000 yards in week #1 - and, as I'm sprinting at my meet, I've decided to extend my taper to four weeks, to give me time to fully come down from the volume and be ready to sprint.
I did make one change in today's workout from what Mark had written. Originally, the first main set was 20 x 100, descending 1 - 3 and going the fourth one easy. I wanted to repeat my 3 x 300 test set, so I just carved that out of the first set:
Though I went a recovery workout yesterday, I was still feeling Saturday's double workout, allowing me to be better than I was about 8 weeks ago on my 3 x 300, but nowhere near where I was in April:
My best performance ever on this was back in December of 2016 when I went 3:08+, 3:09, 3:08+
2022-04-07 - 3:13, 3:13, 3:13
2022-09-26 - 3:31, 3:29, 3:31+
2022-11-21 - 3:20.0, 3:22.4, 3:20.5
I did enjoy getting to see my splits from my smart goggles afterward:
1:04.1, 1:07.1, 1:08.8
1:05.0, 1:08.6, 1:08.8
1:05.5, 1:08.3, 1:06.7
On the 50s kick, I played around with dolphin kick, flutter kick, and dolphin-flutter, both on my back and with a board, to see if I could determine what might be fastest when I eventually do my 400 kick for time in December. While not definitive, my straight dolphin and dolphin-flutter are definitely faster than my straight flutter.
I had a blast blasting the 25s, going 5 rounds of 6 with a fast fly, back and free in each round. I went rounds #1 and #2 on 1:15 per pair and the remaining rounds on 1:30 per pair. I was feeling fairly speedy:
Fly averaged 14.2 with a peak speed at 13.9
Back averaged 14.7 with peak speed at 14.5
Free averaged 13.2 with peak speed at 12.4
Not a bad 5,000-yard start to my extended taper.