TAPER!!!!

It's almost that time of year again.  That time of year when TAPER FOR SWIMMING IS IN EFFECT!!!!  For those of you who do not know what taper is allow me to explain.  Taper happens at the end of the season and it is the most glorious thing to hit this planet period.  The two best things about taper season is that you get to finally see the sun and you do less work.

I remember the weeks before taper last swim season like it was yesterday.  Morning practice almost everyday at six in the morning before school, almost falling asleep from being so tired, good times.  Once the hardest weeks had come and gone it was time for the descend in the amount of work.  Eventually the team started to get out earlier and earlier, which was very nice.  I even got to see the sun, which it seems sad that seeing the sun is such a big accomplishment.  However when one has spent the last few months inside and not seeing the sun during the weekdays and then you finally see it, it is so beautiful you cry...or at least I almost cried the first time I got to see the sun.

For one to have a successful taper season one must: do less work in practice and have a big build up of energy, conserve that energy for ONLY swimming, and finally in your races dominate the other swimmers.  I remember last year I had a very good taper season and in section prelims I dropped 5-10 seconds in both of my events and made top 16 in both events which gave me qualification for section finals.  At section finals I did not drop as much time as I had at prelims but I was happy with what I had accomplished.  After my final race I hopped out of the pool and my friend handed me a Jolt (an energy drink) for the sake of destroying everything I had worked to hard to build up throughout the season.  At the end of that day I was a happy individual.

This year I hope for an even bigger drop on my times and possibly another Jolt to top off a great season.