Long course training sets - 200 strokes and 200/400 IM

If you don’t mind doing serious digging, check the archived “high volume” workout forum and look for the old posts by “pwb.” He was the HVT (high volume training) workout coach/poster about 5-6 years ago. His workouts are geared towards those races (and towards 400/800/1500).

If you don’t mind doing serious digging, check the archived “high volume” workout forum and look for the old posts by “pwb.” He was the HVT (high volume training) workout coach/plaster about 5-6 years ago. His workouts are geared towards those races (and towards 400/800/1500). Start here - forums.usms.org/showthread.php - and have fun

I like to do some speed changing stuff too. Example: 2x 2x200 @ 2:40 first 50 @ 200 PACE 3x150 @ 2:00 middle 50 @ 200 PACE 4x100 @ 1:15 AE Usually do that all freestyle, but you could obviously adjust intervals to do stroke. An I.M. example: 4x50 @ 1:00 FL drill w/ fins (FL drill was ALWAYS 3 kick/1 pull drill) 4x200 @ 3:00 I.M. (100 BK/50 BR/50 FR) 4x50 @ 1:00 FL drill w/ fins 3x200 @ 3:00 I.M. (50 BK/100 BR/50 FR) 4x50 @ 1:00 FL drill w/ fins 2x200 @ 3:00 I.M. (50 BK/50 BR/100 FR) ^Had to reach way back in the time machine for that one. The I.M. set was from Christmas Training 2013 -forums.usms.org/entry.php

Hi there. I'm looking for some effective long course training sets for the 200 strokes and 200/400 IM. I already train with a masters team, but I'm looking to do 1-2 sessions a week on my own. I want to make these sessions very specific with the goal being to race faster. I want to improve 2 things: 1. Speed - improve my splits, so my overall times go down 2. Endurance - ability to 'hang on' for longer Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you. I like short rest freestyle sets to gain endurance...for example 3 sets of 8 x 100's pick an interval you can make all 8, but only get 5 seconds rest between each 100. Or 3 sets of 4 x200 with 8-10 seconds rest between each 200. My experience doing sets like these help you gain endurance for IM's and 200's of stroke. For stroke training I will do a set of 10 x 50 Fly's on 1:00 or :55 LCM...with goal is to keep the same time for all 10 mirroring your 3rd 50 split of a 200. To really challenge your self keep the time at the 2nd 50 split. for pure speed we do at least 1 day a week of pure quality....recently we did 6 x 100 on 8:00...warm down 200 between each 100. I will do all 100's fly or alternate Fly/Back. Goal would be to keep your time consistent through the set of 6 going all out on each one every and then we do a set of IM's like this...4 x 400 ...starting with 100IM Fast/300 Free smooth , then 200IM/200 Free, 300IM/100 Free and finally 400IM all out. getting about 1 minute rest between each 400. my experience is especially for LCM you have to train your body for the pain experienced in 200's of stroke/IM as well as pace so you do not die at the end or last 50. 400IM LCM is just a pace/gut it out swim!

Let us know how it changes your times and or thought process in doing faster sets.

Thanks all for your useful inputs! Appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I'm going to be focusing on: 1. Short rest sets (eg 8x100 with 5 seconds rest) 1. Short rest race pace sets (eg broken 200s as 50, 100, 50 or 50, 50, 100.etc) 2. Pure speed + long rest sets (eg 6x100 @ 8:00 with 200 recovery) 3. Speed changing sets (eg IM examples from above) 4. Weekly/bi-weekly test set (eg derivatives of pwb's 400 IM test set) If you feel like anything is missing or have any other great sets that have worked for you, please feel free to share!