How do I train 400 IM without losing sprint speed?

The hardest thing to do is get a group of adult swimmers to do true sprint sets because they feel time is money and sitting on the wall recovering or even recovery swimming is a waste, especially at early A.M swims. It is much easier to give the group a long set than a sprint set when at the end half of them want to know the yardage Very true, even though I'm finding it hard lately to get past your avatar and focus on your actual words... :)

The hardest thing to do is get a group of adult swimmers to do true sprint sets because they feel time is money and sitting on the wall recovering or even recovery swimming is a waste, especially at early A.M swims. It is much easier to give the group a long set than a sprint set when at the end half of them want to know the yardage, which is why I also refuse to put yardage on workouts. I don't swim with a workout group anymore, and while I do GTD and FLOG my yardage, I no longer worry that I'm not swimming enough yardage to meet the goal I set at the beginning of the year. I am slowly coming to terms with the "quality over quantity" aspect of my swims. Today's workout (on the way to work), was a total of 1500 yards: 200 SKP 4x100 hard bk broken by 75/25 w/5s rest after 75 on 3:00 200 easy 4x25 kick AFAP on 1:20 200 easy The point being not so much that I can come up with a great workout, but that I'm trying to emphasize quality over quantity. I could clearly have done more yardage in the time allotted, but that probably wouldn't have been as useful. Skip

This only proves that you mid-D types benefit from some quality work. Conversely, sprinters will not benefit from heavy aerobic work thrown into their practices. And HIT is not what you do at the end of practice; it's a method of training. HIT isn't unique to sprinters. And, all sets should be quality, regardless of distance. I disagree that sprinters don't benefit from heavy aerobic. I see aerobic all the time from sprinters, all of whom are headed to trials. But, they sure aren't doing it now.

I cant even imagine myself doing a 200IM right now. Anyhow, the 400IM will be the second to last event at the Dixie competition. Unless you're drafted for relay's, there might be ample time to recharge the batteries (even quick-discharge sprinter ones). Go for it and spread the motivation! But not without a some long course practicing beforehand just in case.

The amount of yardage you do is basically irrelevant if it is without a purpose. Smartest thing Geek has ever said. PWB went over to the dark side for a season and had great results but he's not like the rest of us. pwb's fastest sprinting actually came when he was consistently training, and that training was not sprint focused. As an outsider looking in, consistent distance/IM training that the swimmer is confident in and motivated to push is more effective for sprints than sprint specific training that the swimmer is unsure of, lacks realistic expectations of what training performance should be like and results in lower motivation to push the training. To answer Elaine's question: Technique. If your focus is on technique improvements and train sprint, your times will drop across the board. If you have good technique while sprinting, you should have good technique during a 400, but the opposite is not true.

Worst idea ever for sprinters. I would suggest the reverse if you're going to do both (ugh) in the same workout. Sprint first; otherwise, you'll be too tired for real AFAP work. Of course for a sprinter, the mental fortitude to expend effort when tired is a foreign concept. :duel: One summer the club I was with had us do some HIT at the end of almost every workout. At the end of that season, my 400 time held up OK (comparable to my 500 that year). My 1500 sucked, but my 100 LCM dropped from 59.3 to 55.8.

So much good advice, you don't need anymore, but here goes anyway... If memory serves (big if), you reported earlier on this forum that your best 100IMscy was about 1:30. That was a while back, before you started emphasizing anything other than breaststroke, so I'll assume you can do it quicker. At the least you can post 1:30s easier now. IM NQTs for W50-55 are (lcm) 3:20 and 7:10, and (scy) 1:18, 2:49 and 6:06. Those are good target times for you, all eventually doable. Where do you start? I would train 200s and 300s quite a bit, in order to lay the foundation for clean 400s. They also make 100s feel like a walk in the park. Consider doing sets that alternate between straight 200s and 300s, and daisied 100s (swim right through, no rest). Everyone expects daisies to be easier than straight IM sets, but that's not always the case. Returning to fly after doing the other strokes can be a challenge. Also, try daisied 200s (2x200, no rest) as you build to the 400. For fun, try doing the stroke medley backwards (fly last). All these variations acclimate your body (and mind) to the unavoidable shock that is distance IM. Now, which NQTs do you go after first? Since you can do a 100IMscy in 1:30, try to daisy two together for 3:00. Peel away a few seconds, and you approach the 200scy NQT. Work on holding the same pace through a straight 200. Daisy four 1:30s together and you have the equivalent of the 400scy time. Try to hold that time across a straight 400. As you become more aggressive at one distance (say 200), try to apply that attitude to the next higher distance. Your August meet appears to be lcm. Perfect target for a 200IMlcm NQT, which is 200 seconds. Think of it as an average of four 50 second lengths. Some lengths (fly and free), you'll come way under 50. Backstroke may cost you a few seconds. You should hold 50 in the breaststroke, your strength. Remember, the breaststroke length is where many IMers go to die, and that's not going to happen to you. That's where you might reel some folks in. Whenever possible, practice IM long-course. Think of it as the 'norm,' and short-course as 'assisted swimming.' Long-course plays a lot of unnecessary head trips on swimmers, especially IMers. The more you embrace and seek out lcm, the quicker you will reach IM NQTs in all formats. Good luck, and thanks for listening!

Hey Elaine! :banana::applaud::bliss: A couple years ago, I decided I wanted to do my first 400 IM in competition. So, I started doing them for my warm-up. Nothing fast, especially the first 100 fly. I mostly made sure my technique was good and I had good legal turns. Once I got to the meet, the 400 IM wasn't the intimidating monster I once thought it was. I knew I could cruise through it and make it if I had to. I still do a 400 IM almost every day for warm up. Sometimes I mix in some drill if I want to work on a particular stroke. It is hard for me to get going now if I haven't had my 400 IM first. I'm not sure how this would work for you. What do you do for warm up? If it is about 400 yards, why not make it an (easy) IM then work on speed once you are warmed up? Great job on the 200 Fly!!! :cheerleader::cheerleader::cheerleader:

I still do a 400 IM almost every day for warm up. Sometimes I mix in some drill if I want to work on a particular stroke. It is hard for me to get going now if I haven't had my 400 IM first. I'm not sure how this would work for you. What do you do for warm up? If it is about 400 yards, why not make it an (easy) IM then work on speed once you are warmed up? Great job on the 200 Fly!!! :cheerleader::cheerleader::cheerleader: Thanks, Peter! :smooch: (You get one, too; I'm in a good mood today! :ohyeah:) Hey, that's a great idea! :applaud: This is my current warm-up: 4x100 fr (stretching in the pool between each one and increasing my speed on each one. I also document time and heart rate, so I can gauge how my I am doing). 4x50 br drills. This is my time to slowwwly warm-up my adductors for IM. My last 50 is full breastroke, keeping it at 8 strokes per 25. I do it for time to see how strong I am feeling each day. When I returned from a week off spent in D.C., it sucked (:52). I am back to a :46; my best time for that stroke count. 2x100IM I could easily exchange the 2x100IM to a 400IM! Thanks for the inspiration! :wiggle:

The danger is if you get locked into a distance mentality and cannot break out of it to hit those higher intensities. I see it all the time in the age-group workouts, they switch to "survival mode" to make the (very hard) intervals, and then when they are given a little extra rest they really don't go much faster. That sums me up exactly!