Three days left

I fly out on Wednesday of this week. It's officially TAPER TIME! What that means is fast training on longer intervals, feeling more awake, and fine-tuning all the elements of my race. Coach Salo is already in Japan with one of my Trojan Swim Club teammates, Ous Mellouli; Miguel Molina is in the Philippines; the US group is in Singapore; Tamas Kerekjarto left today; and Zoli is MIA. I'll be training with coach Jeremy Kipp tomorrow and am on my own from Tuesday until Dave arrives to Beijing.

Part of my intention with this weblog is not just to provide ramblings, but also to inform anyone interested in swimming competitively about the process with some basic descriptions of what I do and why.

Today I focus on taper workouts about two weeks out of competition. A taper workout begins to transition from longer, cardio-based workouts to shorter, faster-than-race-pace bursts of swimming and strength training. The reason for this is to prepare the body for resting but also to prime it for speed when it counts most - the competition. As Coach Dave says, the human body likes to maintain a lazy homeostasis; somewhat like a "blob." In order to counter the effect of becoming a "blob," our workouts are designed to remind our bodies to stay strong, alert, and awake by doing short swims at or above race pace. What this essentially says to the body is, "HEY! Don't forget what it's like to go fast, you'll need it!"

A sample taper workout might be a 20-30 minute warmup sequence with light swimming, kicking, technique drills and pulling followed by six to eight 10-second mad-dash sprints against resistance tubing tied to my waist. Or it may be a long warmup followed by a set of two to four race-pace 50m swims to remind myself what it feels like to swim a 100m butterfly when I'm more rested and alert. Those of you who have more questions on taper, post anything as comments and I'll try to respond when I return from China.

To maintain a lean body and keep my cardiovascular system in good order, I'll follow a taper workout in the morning with a light 30-minute or 1-hour bicycling session in the evenings within a certain heartrate. This allows me to stay in an appropriate body metabolism without wearing myself out.

Now I'm off to the Baheti's for dinner. Seeya!