Request for LONG distance training (?)

Id like to address a few of these concerns actually. I think this is a great thread and should be discussed... first and foremost, with regards to long distance workouts, i had one of the best distance coaches in the game when i was in high school. only occasionally would we do repeat 1000's or 800 pyramid sets. more often than not he trained me at mid distance with bracket sets. these, i found out, increased my endurance substantially. its almost too easy to do a 1650 at race pace for a workout and then call it a day. even two of them. whats not easy is doing multiple repeats of 300 and 400's on 1650 race intervals. thats what does the work for you. Long distance coaches are not as rare as you may think. some of the world's best distance swimmers come from mid-distance IM programs...look at Ian Thorpe who's workouts range from 200-500. he repeats until the cows come home but thats a different story. secondly, when you look at a workout, the idea is not to freak out when you see it. taken as a whole the workout is designed to reach a goal. though the preferred method is to do the whole workout at once, obviously not everyone can or will. therefore, i absolutely recommend picking it apart and doing what works best for you. i even recommend changing up intervals and distances to accommodate your style. there are thousands of swimmers on here who all have their own styles. to write a workout for everyone is impossible. you have three choices for workouts. mix and match! lastly, with regards to newbies...you guys have been fantastic over the past year helping people out with recommendations and so forth...to that end i will help whenever i can now that im a member. my tendency though is to not try to coach a newbie too much through a web page. newbies can have significant stroke mechanic issues which could be worsened. i would hope that each newbie has some local person that they could speak to with regards to specific mechanical issues with their strokes.

Id like to address a few of these concerns actually. I think this is a great thread and should be discussed... first and foremost, with regards to long distance workouts, i had one of the best distance coaches in the game when i was in high school. only occasionally would we do repeat 1000's or 800 pyramid sets. more often than not he trained me at mid distance with bracket sets. these, i found out, increased my endurance substantially. its almost too easy to do a 1650 at race pace for a workout and then call it a day. even two of them. whats not easy is doing multiple repeats of 300 and 400's on 1650 race intervals. thats what does the work for you. Long distance coaches are not as rare as you may think. some of the world's best distance swimmers come from mid-distance IM programs...look at Ian Thorpe who's workouts range from 200-500. he repeats until the cows come home but thats a different story. secondly, when you look at a workout, the idea is not to freak out when you see it. taken as a whole the workout is designed to reach a goal. though the preferred method is to do the whole workout at once, obviously not everyone can or will. therefore, i absolutely recommend picking it apart and doing what works best for you. i even recommend changing up intervals and distances to accommodate your style. there are thousands of swimmers on here who all have their own styles. to write a workout for everyone is impossible. you have three choices for workouts. mix and match! lastly, with regards to newbies...you guys have been fantastic over the past year helping people out with recommendations and so forth...to that end i will help whenever i can now that im a member. my tendency though is to not try to coach a newbie too much through a web page. newbies can have significant stroke mechanic issues which could be worsened. i would hope that each newbie has some local person that they could speak to with regards to specific mechanical issues with their strokes.