I'm not much of a stroke swimmer...that is to say my workouts are generally pretty much just various sets of crawl stroke...at which I'm very strong...for longer open water swims. Now and then I'd throw in a set of other strokes just to break up the monotony. I can swim the other strokes good enough...endurance-wise...except for BF. It was, and is, always difficult for me to make it just 50m BF. I'd have to rest at each wall. And it seemed that I couldn't just "slow down" to pace myself. It was like I'd have to swim the BF all-out or drown. But a year or so ago, for some reason, I began ending all my workouts with a 400 IM (scm). Slowly but surely my BF got better. I started to notice that I could actually slow down some. Still, I'd usually have to rest on one wall, or go into the modified BF with a breaststroke kick in the last 50. But finally...yesterday I did the whole 100 using the correct BF kick without resting at the wall, and was able to swim the entire 400 IM without stopping. We won't discuss time.
Dan
Yup. That's a close second in my books in terms of fun. And, while a 400 IM always hurts, I have done some near-perfectly executed 200 flys where I got into the right rhythm and felt smooth the whole way. Of course, I've also had most of my 200 flys where the piano and monkey jump on my back right around the 160 yard/meter mark.
Yes. When done poorly, the 200 LCM fly is the only event where I can seriously doubt my ability to finish the race legally. When paced correctly it can be sublime.
The original post seems to be as much about training for the 400 IM as race strategy. I agree that you need to be able to cruise butterfly; you'll never win a 400 IM on the strength of the butterfly leg but you can easily lose it there if you go too hard. Beyond that, I would spend my time on developing a breaststroke (the portion of the IM that takes the longest) and, more generally, swimming endurance.
The original post seems to be as much about training for the 400 IM as race strategy.
... more generally, swimming endurance.
I'm not really much of a swim meet participant...more of an open water swimmer. But I do seek to increase endurance, and just like the idea of being more of (not necessarily completely) a well-rounded swimmer. IMO, the 400 IM necessitates a great deal of endurance...like running the 400m hurdles in a track meet. Not the longest race in the meet...but it takes a heck of a lot to complete.
Incidentally...I timed myself again yesterday at the end of my workout and took 20 seconds off my PR (still don't want to mention what the actual time is because it's rather slow even for my age group). But I just like the fact that I can now swim the entire 400m IM using proper BF stroke, and without stopping (in the BF).
Dan
Well ---- as I get older , I found a way to make the 400 im less of an effort. At the state meet this year I forgot to do 50 of the back stroke!!!??? It was easier but, the ref told me as I exited the pool "you know you forgot 50 of the back stroke"
Is this the start of Alzhiemers for me?
Hmm. We'll need further evidence. If you do this in a long course 400 IM please check back with us!
Nope - short yards. I just went into br after 50 back. I was so fixed on beating a fellow in my age group - I just totally forgot 50 !!! WOW did my coach work me on I m sets after that and before Nationals.
P.S. I did well at Riverside,Ca. Nationals in the 400 I M with a 3rd Place medal in the 70 -74 age group. I did ALL of it this time.
Well ---- as I get older , I found a way to make the 400 im less of an effort. At the state meet this year I forgot to do 50 of the back stroke!!!??? It was easier but, the ref told me as I exited the pool "you know you forgot 50 of the back stroke"
Is this the start of Alzhiemers for me?
The quickest road to pain and a bad 400 IM is to blast the fly.
my name is on that road.
LA83 meet. this was the international meet at the brand new USC Olympic pool a year before the 1984 Olympics.
since i cannot swim the 3rd leg of an IM to save my life i have always done the "take it out hard and die like a man" approach.
and i did. and the nice big score board was lit up with me ahead of my team mates Ricardo Prado's WR at the 100. and i managed to stay ahead of that WR split at the 200 as well. i could hear the announcer and in my head i was going "shut up man there is breaststroke next". by the 225 i was in 2nd place....by the 250 i was in 3rd...275 4th and a "most impressive" 6th at the 300 turn.
the 100 free didnt matter...i was done. cooked. bonked. you name it the road paver went over me.
i forget what day it was, but i watched the russian distance god Vladimir Salnikiov drink a real Coke and eat a Snickers bar and 20mins later break his own WR in the 800m.
I can only say: 400IM on LCM is a beast and really hard for the body and mind...I guess if you want swim this event well, you have to put a lot of yards in your workouts...quantity over quality..you have to swim more than 20km/week at least!. I dont see any other way going through it without putting massiv bulk and volume.I disagree. It is a relatively short race (e.g., vs a 1500 or an open water swim). What you need to train is quality and variety. I rarely train stroke repeats at target pace over 50 and do only a few straight 400 IMs in workout. The race is 4 x 100 stroke, so I've taken a 'race pace' training approach (my own variation) for this. There's no need to worry about training 200s of any of the strokes during workout. My favorite training set for the 400 IM is:
8 x 50: on 1:00, 2 each stroke, build the odds and make sure the evens are at your target 400 IM race pace
4 x 100: on 1:50, do as 100 IMs, descend to your target race pace divided by 4, ideally starting on #1 no slower than 12 seconds above that
Masters' Two Minutes and an easy 50
2 x 200: on 3:20, build each stroke on #1, try to make #2 at your target 400 IM race pace divided by two
4 x 50: active recovery, on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 2:30
1 x 400: IM on 6:00, AFAP, from blocks
When I am training for a 400 IM (the main event I train for), I might do that test set every week, at most. I could almost always hit my target race pace on the 50s, many times on the last 100 IM, but almost never on the 200 IM. My average weekly volume over the last 5 years as been 14.5K yards per week.
I don't see any need for massive volume as a Masters swimmer unless you start training for an open water race longer than one mile. Even when I recently spent the 2015-2016 season training for the 1500 and 1650, my training volume was moderate and much of my pace effort was done on 50 or 100 repeats at target pace.
8 x 50: on 1:00, 2 each stroke, build the odds and make sure the evens are at your target 400 IM race pace
4 x 100: on 1:50, do as 100 IMs, descend to your target race pace divided by 4, ideally starting on #1 no slower than 12 seconds above that
Masters' Two Minutes and an easy 50
2 x 200: on 3:20, build each stroke on #1, try to make #2 at your target 400 IM race pace divided by two
4 x 50: active recovery, on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 2:30
1 x 400: IM on 6:00, AFAP, from blocks
Can someone translate that for me? I think this is why I am not solely a dedicated swimmer. "Build each stroke on #1 and try to make #2 at your target IM pace dived by 2" What's all that mean? (rhetorical) I think I'm just lucky to swim 400 meters using all four strokes, properly, without stopping. On the other hand...swimming crawl stroke for 1500m, or 1600m, or a mile (or two or three) in the pool or open water...not a problem.
I relate the effort required for the 400IM to running the 400m hurdles in track. When I was in h.s. I was a distance runner. I could run miles on end. But to run 400 meters with the added task of the hurdles...IMO that is about the toughest race on the track. As long as I've been swimming...to me it seems the general consensus around the pool is that most swimmers "...can swim BF, can make it 100m BF if needed." Beyond that requires a BF specialist. But there are swimmers out there who can just naturally, easily, swim BF for distances well beyond 100m. But for me to swim BF for 100m...AND THEN swim another 300m...it's a task.
Dan
I can only say: 400IM on LCM is a beast and really hard for the body and mind...I guess if you want swim this event well, you have to put a lot of yards in your workouts...quantity over quality..you have to swim more than 20km/week at least!. I dont see any other way going through it without putting massiv bulk and volume.
"Build each stroke on #1 " - on each 50 build your speed so you are swimming faster at the 50 yd mark than you were swimming at the 10 yd mark
#2 at your target IM pace dived by 2" - you are swimming a 200 IM so take your target 400 IM time and divide that tim in half. If you target 400 IM time is 4:00 your target time for this repeat is half of that or 2:00 - if your 400 IM target is 6:00 you swant to go 3:00
