Workouts needed for 500 freestyle training

Helen, As 311 views brought no response, I invite you to poke around on the site a bit; I think this question has been asked in the last couple of months. Also look under Ande's thread on the Distance Lane, in Swimming Related Topics forum. As I recall, there is some interval work with 125 yds. In other words, breaking up the 400/500 into shorter sprint intervals, maybe connecting them sometimes with 25 or 50 EZ. And stay tuned! It's bound to come up again. Good luck!

Hello Helen, This is Jennifer Crowther, one of the four online masters coaches selected to give weekly workouts. Without know much of your background and physical limitations, I have a good suggestion. Do something like 6x500 (It is up to you how many you do) on Rest 1:00 #1 warm up choice strokes #2 with bouy and paddles #3 acending (Start of fast and bring it down per 100) #4 swim w/fins @ pace (every 4th 25 drill) #5 decending with fins and paddles (start slow, end fast) #6 ez swim/kick/buoy/swim/kick by 100s The ascending 500 is my favorite. Everyone always decends their time, but ascending your time is a good way to measure where it is in your 500 where it all starts to fall apart. Then from there, you can specifically train that weak point in the swim. Let me know if you have any other questions. Coach Jen

I'll bite. I'm a mid-distance guy and swam 100-1000 frees at Nationals (although I had to skip the 500 due to a nasty stomach bug 1/2 through the meet). For the 500 try doing some sets of repeats in the 150-250 distance. 100's are okay but they will need to be intense. I don't really train for any specific event so I'll just tailor workouts to what I want to work that day or week. Feel free to look at my blog for suggestions. I feel like I focused alot on the 200-1000 distances the month of April & May of this year. jeffpalm-swimming.blogspot.com/

My 400m free improved dramatically the year I was training for 200fly. I did a lot of fly/free sets eg 10x100 = 25fly, 50free, 25fly. The following year I concentrated more on the free and we did a lot of this stuff: You can do buildup 500's. There are a few variations: Descend the first 3 100's going 70/90/100% and then negative split the last two going 70/100% Build the first 5 50's to max effort by 50 and then repeat it each time starting your first 50 at ez speed Descend the first 3 75's going 70/90/100% and then take a 50 ez and then do it again These enable you to train your body to work hard, recover and then work hard again. . and took another 10 secs off!

Two other things I would add: You can do buildup 500's. There are a few variations: Descend the first 3 100's going 70/90/100% and then negative split the last two going 70/100% Build the first 5 50's to max effort by 50 and then repeat it each time starting your first 50 at ez speed Descend the first 3 75's going 70/90/100% and then take a 50 ez and then do it again These enable you to train your body to work hard, recover and then work hard again. I would also say that I train all of my 500 swimmers to be able to sprint and we do a ton of overdistance IM.

Right now, I can do 8 x 100s on 1:30, and some of those I have made on 1:25. Am I doing the right thing with sets of 100s? 200s? If somebody can help me write some workouts, I'd really appreciate it! Pace training is certainly important, so that is a good set to do. Do you have time for main sets longer than 800? That will be the key to sustaining a 400lcm or 500scy. One of my fav main sets is a ladder (if it's too long, cut out the 500's): 100 200 300 400 500 500 400 300 200 100 I like to pull the first half and descend to the 500. The second half of the ladder is all swim. 500 easy/cruise and descend to the 100 so that is all out. The base for each 100 should be slightly slower than your cruise speed. Given what you said before, try a 1:35 base.

Sorry to revive an old thread. Would your week be similar to a running (sorry that's my background) week were there are hard days followed by easy days? I assume so. What would an "easy" days workout look like?

Hello, My 8 year olds swim team has a distance meet in January and she wants to swim a 500 free. I would like some suggestions on how to train for it beginning now. We have swam several 200's in meets and 300's in practice. Thanks