HIT training for mid distance?

The problem now is how do I design the sets and the workouts? I get a fair idea of how to train for the various 200s, but I find the paper vague when it comes to IM training. Do I swim one set of each stroke? 20x50, 'five of each'? Or do I mimic the race by swimming the repeats in IM order - 50 fly, 50 back, then ***, free, fly, back, *** etc for the 200 and, perhaps, 2xfly, 2xback, 2xbreast etc for the 400? This is a bigger question than you know and people seem to be giving all or none answers. First of all, some background. To start with, let's get the lingo straight. What you are talking about when you say high intensity sets, for 200 and 400 IM would be what are commonly called sp1, sp2, and en3 sets. You can google those terms and find a good explanation, I also wrote up a series of articles laying them out and the reasons for them a couple of years ago. You can go here acadianendurance.blogspot.com/.../lactate-metabolism.html and find them. Start there and read everything tat follows it, I think it is four articles. This will also help in finding sets, you can google for IM sp2 and probably get somewhere with it. swiminfo.com workout finder is a pretty good source as well. Now, for questions like this there are three good sources to look into. "Championship Swim Training", "The swim coaching bible volume 1" and "the swim coaching bible volume 2" note that those two volumes are completely different books, not just updates. In there you will get more background on what you are trying to setup and a lot more examples of sets. Now, more directly about your question, my squad is doing something similar right now in that the early season is setup for everyone to prepare for a fast 200 IM in December, from there we will specialize in our given strokes for the rest of the season until the zone championships in April. How did we set it up? What we are doing is 5 week blocks of each stroke and then a block of IM training leading up tot eh day of the meet where we will do the 200 IM. I think you should do something similar and make the first block your weakest stroke. Here's what we are doing Block 1: Breaststroke Technique Emphasis - *** (obviously) Set Type emphasis (we do a bit of everything but this is the emphasis) Mixed stroke EN1, Breaststroke SP1 and SP2 Block 2: Backstroke Technique - Back Set Types - Mixed EN1, Backstroke SP1 and Sp2 Block 3:Fly Technique Emphasis - Fly Set Types - Mixed EN1, Fly SP1 and Sp2, typical fly repeats for a given set type is shorter than for the other strokes Block 4: Free Technique Emphasis - Free Set Types - Mixed En1, Free SP1 and SP2 Block 5: IM Technique - Transition turns and starts Set Types - IM EN3, IM order Sp1 and Sp2 If we were doing 400 IMs, I think the major change i would make would be that instead of going mixed EN1 for the entire block, I would start to add EN2 about two months in until it is mostly mixed en2 rather than mixed en1 at the end. Good luck

The problem now is how do I design the sets and the workouts? I get a fair idea of how to train for the various 200s, but I find the paper vague when it comes to IM training. Do I swim one set of each stroke? 20x50, 'five of each'? Or do I mimic the race by swimming the repeats in IM order - 50 fly, 50 back, then ***, free, fly, back, *** etc for the 200 and, perhaps, 2xfly, 2xback, 2xbreast etc for the 400? This is a bigger question than you know and people seem to be giving all or none answers. First of all, some background. To start with, let's get the lingo straight. What you are talking about when you say high intensity sets, for 200 and 400 IM would be what are commonly called sp1, sp2, and en3 sets. You can google those terms and find a good explanation, I also wrote up a series of articles laying them out and the reasons for them a couple of years ago. You can go here acadianendurance.blogspot.com/.../lactate-metabolism.html and find them. Start there and read everything tat follows it, I think it is four articles. This will also help in finding sets, you can google for IM sp2 and probably get somewhere with it. swiminfo.com workout finder is a pretty good source as well. Now, for questions like this there are three good sources to look into. "Championship Swim Training", "The swim coaching bible volume 1" and "the swim coaching bible volume 2" note that those two volumes are completely different books, not just updates. In there you will get more background on what you are trying to setup and a lot more examples of sets. Now, more directly about your question, my squad is doing something similar right now in that the early season is setup for everyone to prepare for a fast 200 IM in December, from there we will specialize in our given strokes for the rest of the season until the zone championships in April. How did we set it up? What we are doing is 5 week blocks of each stroke and then a block of IM training leading up tot eh day of the meet where we will do the 200 IM. I think you should do something similar and make the first block your weakest stroke. Here's what we are doing Block 1: Breaststroke Technique Emphasis - *** (obviously) Set Type emphasis (we do a bit of everything but this is the emphasis) Mixed stroke EN1, Breaststroke SP1 and SP2 Block 2: Backstroke Technique - Back Set Types - Mixed EN1, Backstroke SP1 and Sp2 Block 3:Fly Technique Emphasis - Fly Set Types - Mixed EN1, Fly SP1 and Sp2, typical fly repeats for a given set type is shorter than for the other strokes Block 4: Free Technique Emphasis - Free Set Types - Mixed En1, Free SP1 and SP2 Block 5: IM Technique - Transition turns and starts Set Types - IM EN3, IM order Sp1 and Sp2 If we were doing 400 IMs, I think the major change i would make would be that instead of going mixed EN1 for the entire block, I would start to add EN2 about two months in until it is mostly mixed en2 rather than mixed en1 at the end. Good luck