Time to Chill Out: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Swim Tapering

Toward the end of your taper you should be sprinting only a few timed sprints at the end of an easy workout, say 4 x 25 and maybe a 50. Your times for these sprints should be a lot faster than in midseason if you are executing your taper correctly. If they are not, you need more rest.

As a distance swimmer, you should be doing only 3 to 5 x 100 pace and it should feel easy and sustainable. Take plenty of time to swim down after these end-of-workout sets, and you may exit the water only when your heart rate is down to normal active rest.

Taper workouts can involve lots of easy swimming, drills, kicking sets to loosen your legs, and pulling sets with buoy and paddles (do not use a tube as it adds unnecessary weight). Warm-up can be twice as long as your usual warm-up routine, and cool-down should be twice as long as well.

That may not leave much yardage for anything else, which is why most tapers can seem like little more than a warm-up and a cool-down! The point is to enjoy the opportunity to recover and feel good in the water, and put your hard training behind you in preparation for your big race.

An Example

Here is a sample taper workout based on someone who normally trains 3,000 to 4,000 yards a day:

800 warm-up
200 kick
400 pull (buoy and paddles)
3x100 pace @ 10 seconds rest (for a distance swimmer)

or

1x50, 2x25 @ 1:00 rest (for a sprinter)
300 swim down

TOTAL: 2,000 yards

During the last week of your taper, you should not need to take a complete day off because you should start feeling fast and smooth in the water. If not, swim easy until your muscles are warmed up, and get out. Try again the next day. Sometimes your body isn't used to all the rest it is getting, and as a result you'll feel restless during your bedtime.

You may also feel awkward in the water, but don't worry; you do not have to feel terrific until the day you race!

"Rest" Assured

Tapering also has a mental advantage: You should take the time to enjoy the benefits of resting on your laurels and relax, fully confident that you have done everything necessary to prepare for your race. The hard work is behind you!

Endurance athletes have been known to stress during taper time because their work ethic is such that they can not allow themselves the physical break that a taper requires. As a result, they continue training too hard, or they psyche themselves out by fearing losing shape with the rest they are taking. Even a month-long taper will not hurt your conditioning if you are an endurance athlete, so rest assured!


A former swimmer at Stanford University, Alex Kostich has stayed strong in the sport at the elite level even while maintaining a day job. The three-time Pan-American Games gold medalist still competes in—and wins—numerous open-water races around the world each year, as well as competing in the occasional triathlon and running race.

Related Articles:

Sharpening Your Swimming: Theories on Tapering

The Art and Science of Tapering Sprinters

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