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How to prepare your most important open water journey
How did that summer swimmers of 226ers go? Have you swam in sea even though the "Levantes" have not stopped this summer?
As I am sure that you have done and enjoyed it, for this article I will talk about how to prepare the most important competition of your open water season, that is, what is recommended for the pre-competence, competition and post-compensation moments.
Weeks before to the competition
One of the easiest tips and although I know that not everyone can apply by family or work is rest. It is important to rest well the weeks before, if not, one of the worst sensations that are is tired of the competition. This will make us lower the performance much more than we think. So you know, rest well!
At the training level, we have to do Tappering. What is tappering? Basically it is about reducing the training that we have done all year over 40-60% during the 2 weeks prior to the competition. This reduction makes you psychologically and physically You recover from the strong previous training that you have done in the previous months. Therefore, this great step of training a lot to train less makes a super compensation that helps without hesitation to our performance.
Days prior to competition
Once you are rested, you have made your two weeks of tappering and have to look at the nutritional appearance. We need to have charged carbohydrate reserves for competition. The more distance the journey is, we will have to have the most charged reservation, especially in journeys that exceed 5 km. This carbohydrate load It will allow us to demand more from our muscles during this type of distances (10-12 grams per kg of our body is recommended) adding to this diet proteins and fats (good, not a sponge cake of our mother J). We have to look for meals that maintain a high level of our glycemic index such as honey, cooked potatoes, rice or cereals for breakfast.
The night before the competition
Be from your own experience that is difficult, but relax everything you can, look at YouTube relaxation exercises to help you sleep better, get away from all iPad, iPhone, TV and everything that has a screen that shines moments before going to bed.
Another aspect that can help you is to prepare all day before so that tomorrow when you get up, do not have the stress of preparing all moments before leaving.
The morning prior to the competition
Everything is already made friend! Now we just need to continue with our good diet and load the body before swimming. To do this, 3-4 hours before the event we will take between 1-4 grams of carbohydrates per kg of our weight. A oats bowl can serve us, but you know, use a breakfast that you know that you digest well and feel good doing high intensity sports. We cannot look the other way and know that we all go to the cleaning after breakfast, it is normal that who says it does not happen to him, J. lies hydrate well at all times, carry your 226ers boat with water or isotonic since we need to recover what we are losing.
During the competition
They have already given us the exit and we have started swimming. We are already calmer and now only two things can Know when I will take my gel. Ideally, take between 60-90 grams of carbohydrates per hour, that is, a 226ers gel can serve us perfectly accompanied as much as possible with 2 water drinks at least. I say this because we all know the situations we are in the race: tension, you think that if you stop the group you go, nerve because you are well placed and you do not want to stop the rhythm. But it is important that you know that if you compete in 10kms for example, you have to stop!
Conclusion
In the world of sport it is very important to consider a word that you all know very well: PLANNING. Planning in an athlete has a lot of effort and sacrifice throughout the year. That is why some swimmers are neglected in the most important part of the year, the moments before the competition. They are like the last meters of the race, they are the ones you have to do with more desire and motivation. Both at training level and at the nutritional level. That is why you do not forget to make a good tappering weeks before your great appointment of the year, do not forget to make a good load of hydrates based on your body kg and above all rest very well during these previous weeks.
As I tell my Nadaconentreno training group on the same day of the test, "everything is done guys." "We have fought a lot throughout the year to get here, so we go out to enjoy swimming and open waters." The rest comes only and of course, you know that training puts each one in their place, never forgets that.
Nadaconentreno is a group of open water swimming training focused on swimmers and triathletes, located in Alicante. If you want to train this new season with us, visit www.nadaconentreno.com, send us an email to info@nadaconentreno.com o Write us a whatppp at 664,590,259. Nadaconentreno -"Swim for Your Dreams".
