The IM Lane

[Ahelee Sue Osborn]

looks like fun. Of course, the water must be insanely cold.
At least, with the kayak, you can be somewhat coordinated on the backstroke. Otherwise, you might somehow swim to the Pacific!

Probably 55-63 degrees.

The idea of following the Golden Gate Bridge like a beam on the ceiling in backstroke sounds cool to me!

Loud foghorns eh?

[ElaineK]

Just when you thought the 400 IMers were the craziest swimmers next to the 200 Flyers...

Northern California is proud of their IM Swimmers.
But especially proud of building their Medley Relays.


YouTube- The Golden Gate Individual Medley

[ande]

thought I'd bump all the lanes to the front page to encourage folks to comment in their lanes

[Karl_S]

For proper pacing of a 400 IM, how should the 100 splits compare to the second half of the respective 200 stroke events? For example, should the back leg of the IM be slower than the second half of a properly-split 200 back? Ditto for the other strokes?

[That Guy]

For proper pacing of a 400 IM, how should the 100 splits compare to the second half of the respective 200 stroke events? For example, should the back leg of the IM be slower than the second half of a properly-split 200 back? Ditto for the other strokes?

I swim the fly leg of my 400 IM the same as the first 100 of my 200 fly. My back and breast splits are a bit slower than any parts of those respective 200's. (Maybe they shouldn't be, but they are.) Then I split the last 100 basically the same as the last 100 of a 400/500 freestyle.

[ande]

here's how I swim 400 IM's
FL Easy speed, 3 or 4 SDKs, barely kick, breathe every stroke, stay smooth, go 5 or 6 seconds slower than best 100 FL

BK easy speed, light kick, 3 or 4 SDKs, breathe often, take a couple extra breaths before the BK to BR turn, probably 3 or 4 seconds slower than my 2nd 100 of well split 200 bk, you need to feel pretty good at the 200 instead of being done and dying and yet having 200 left

BK to BR turn
flip it fast, nail it, push off hard, streamline skinny, glide far
many swimmers do slow open turns and sneak extra breaths

BR push off hard, glide far, do complete pull outs,
go fast but be smooth and powerful, put more of a streamlined pause after each kick

FR work it, I used to do it, 50 2 beat kick, 50 6 beat kick, but I now do and recommend a 6 beat kick the whole way. Just go as fast as you can and bring it home strong.


younger skinny well conditioned swimmers swim a lot harder on their 400 IM's they do more SDKs off each wall (like 6 to 8)

For proper pacing of a 400 IM, how should the 100 splits compare to the second half of the respective 200 stroke events? For example, should the back leg of the IM be slower than the second half of a properly-split 200 back? Ditto for the other strokes?

[jaadams1]

here's how I swim 400 IM's
FL Easy speed, 3 or 4 SDKs, barely kick, breathe every stroke, stay smooth, go 5 or 6 seconds slower than best 100 FL

Obviously he hasn't seen my IM's then... I shoot for about 2 seconds slower than my best, but that's just me, and because my IM's are so Fly/Free dependent I have to swim it that way... I wish I could make my backstroke as good as it used to be, I know, practice practice practice...

[Thrashing Slug]

Here's my strategy for the 100 IM, which is the only one I've raced so far:

Fly: Nail the dive, 2 or 3 SDKs, swim easy speed & low amplitude. Try to remember to breathe. Damn, it's over already?

Back: Slip into a time warp and watch as the ceiling moves sloooowlllly by... Kick fast and small, stay compact on the turn.

Breast: Brief interlude into a happy, peaceful underwater place. Take the first pull and then drop the hammer. Fast hands, strong kick. Use stroke count as an indication of how well I'm doing. 7 or less = good.

Free: Tight streamline, 1 or 2 ineffectual dolphin kicks, surface, and enter the pain cave. Kick like the devil, but keep amplitude low. Stay as smooth as possible, don't breathe inside the flags.

[couldbebetterfly]

Here's my strategy for the 100 IM, which is the only one I've raced so far:

Fly: Nail the dive, 2 or 3 SDKs, swim easy speed & low amplitude. Try to remember to breathe. Damn, it's over already?

Back: Slip into a time warp and watch as the ceiling moves sloooowlllly by... Kick fast and small, stay compact on the turn.

Breast: Brief interlude into a happy, peaceful underwater place. Take the first pull and then drop the hammer. Fast hands, strong kick. Use stroke count as an indication of how well I'm doing. 7 or less = good.

Free: Tight streamline, 1 or 2 ineffectual dolphin kicks, surface, and enter the pain cave. Kick like the devil, but keep amplitude low. Stay as smooth as possible, don't breathe inside the flags.

Hey - that's just like mine, except 8 breaststrokes is good for me

[Jimbosback]

Here's my strategy for the 100 IM, which is the only one I've raced so far:

Fly: Nail the dive, 2 or 3 SDKs, swim easy speed & low amplitude. Try to remember to breathe. Damn, it's over already?

Back: Slip into a time warp and watch as the ceiling moves sloooowlllly by... Kick fast and small, stay compact on the turn.

Breast: Brief interlude into a happy, peaceful underwater place. Take the first pull and then drop the hammer. Fast hands, strong kick. Use stroke count as an indication of how well I'm doing. 7 or less = good.

Free: Tight streamline, 1 or 2 ineffectual dolphin kicks, surface, and enter the pain cave. Kick like the devil, but keep amplitude low. Stay as smooth as possible, don't breathe inside the flags.

Sounds exactly like mine. I have to remind myself to breathe in backstroke. Counting strokes helps make it to by quicker. I have learned I am faster turning over my BR a little faster in the IM, so 8 is about right for me too. I'm swimming one next weekend -- hoping to go under 1:10.

[ElaineK]

Hey - that's just like mine, except 8 breaststrokes is good for me

Hey 'Fly, just curious... What's your 50yd. breaststroke time keeping it at 8 strokes? I'm trying to get my stroke count down, but my time is slower when I do. Riding the glide and keeping as streamline as possible has been something I've been working on, but it has been a battle to lower my time with my lower stroke count.

[couldbebetterfly]

Hey 'Fly, just curious... What's your 50yd. breaststroke time keeping it at 8 strokes? I'm trying to get my stroke count down, but my time is slower when I do. Riding the glide and keeping as streamline as possible has been something I've been working on, but it has been a battle to lower my time with my lower stroke count.

Give me three weeks and I'll let you know!

I swam a 50 in the summer 39.63, but have no idea of stroke count. And the last 100 IM I swam got 9 strokes in , but it wasn't a great swim.

I have no idea what state I'll be in when I do this 50 br though as its part of the "mega-sprint decathlon with tech suits". I'll be trying to keep the stroke-count down though - and unlike you, Elaine I'm hardly training any breast (or back for that matter) as I'm working towards my 500 free in the serious meet the day before!

I find br so hard to get the balance right between getting a good catch and pull back or slowing down too much on the glide - guess that's why I'm not a breaststroker

[shadowxvi]

Looking to train for the 400 IM and looking for more workout ideas. Only seen a couple posted in the thread so far. Also training for 200 fly as well but my thoughts are that training IM and not just mainly fly will still help me accomplish the 200 fly correct?

[pwb]

Looking to train for the 400 IM and looking for more workout ideas. Only seen a couple posted in the thread so far. Also training for 200 fly as well but my thoughts are that training IM and not just mainly fly will still help me accomplish the 200 fly correct?

I'll shamelessly plug my blog as I'm focused on training for those two events plus the 400/500 free: http://forums.usms.org/blog.php?u=5013. If you ignore my experiment with sprinting (Fall '10, part of spring '11), I think you'll find a fair number of good workouts. Here are a few recent set ideas:

Set #1: (my coach Laura Winslow built this), intervals here in SCY: 8 x "400": 2 rounds of

• 1 x 400: free on 5:20
• 4 x 100: on 1:30
  
  • Rd #1 traveling 50 fly
  • Rd #2 build a 100 fly (e.g., 25 fly/75 free, 50 fly / 50 free, etc.)
• 1 x 400: IM on 6:00, 2nd rd faster
• 4 x 100: on 1:05, free

Set #2: Props to Chris Stevenson's coach Mark Kutz for this painful gem ... intervals shown here were doing this in SCM

• 3 x 500: on 7:00, descend free
• 3 x 50: on 1:20, easy
• 3 x 400: on 6:0, IM descend
  
  • had no clue what I'd go
  • HURT like hell going 5:46, 5:38, 5:29
• 3 x 50: on 1:00 easy

Set #3: I built this one specifically for the 200 fly and 400 free focus, again intervals from SCM: 4 rounds of

• 4 x 100: free, aiming to hold aerobic pace from 3 x 300 test set (e.g., 1:10 for me)
  
  • Rd 1 on 1:25
  • Rd 2 on 1:20
  • Rd 3 on 1:15
  • Rd 4 on 1:10
• 7 x 50:
  
  • #1 easy on 1:00
  • #2 to #6: fly
    
    • aiming to hold target pace for last 150 of 200 fly (about 34)
    • on 0:55, 0:50, 0:45, 0:40, 0:35 for 1st two rounds
    • on 1:00, 0:55, 0:50, 0:45, 0:40 for last two rounds
  • #7 easy on about 1:15 (whatever got me to a reasonable clock starting point for next round of frees)
  
  

I'd also recommend Chris Stevenson's blog (http://forums.usms.org/blog.php?u=6428), but caution you that you'll need to do significant modifications as his workouts are generally animal hard & FAST!

[gdanner]

Looking to train for the 400 IM and looking for more workout ideas. Only seen a couple posted in the thread so far. Also training for 200 fly as well but my thoughts are that training IM and not just mainly fly will still help me accomplish the 200 fly correct?

My two favorite main sets for 4im are these:

All IM:

4 x 100 on 1:30
3 x 200 on 2:25
2 x 300 on 3:20
1 x 400 on 5:00
1 x 300 on 3:20
1 x 200 on 2:25
1 x 100 on 1:30

Change the intervals so they start out easy and get to the point where they are rough for the 300's (no more than 5-10 sec rest), but then you get sufficient rest on the 400.

and the other:

2000 straight:

• 400 free cruise
• 400 im hard
• 300 fr 50 easy / 250 cruise
• 300 im hard
• 200 fr 50 easy / 150 cruise
• 200 im hard
• 100 fr 50 easy / 50 cruise
• 100 im hard

100 easy on 3:00

10 x 100 on 1:10 im (pick an interval you can hold but only get 2-5 sec rest)

[2trax4me]

Set #1: (my coach Laura Winslow built this), intervals here in SCY: 8 x "400": 2 rounds of

• 1 x 400: free on 5:20
• 4 x 100: on 1:30
  
  • Rd #1 traveling 50 fly
  • Rd #2 build a 100 fly (e.g., 25 fly/75 free, 50 fly / 50 free, etc.)
  
  
• 1 x 400: IM on 6:00, 2nd rd faster
• 4 x 100: on 1:05, free

what is a traveling 50 fly? I am guessing

1 - 50 fly/50 free
2 - 25 free/50fly/25 free
3 - 50 free/50 fly
4 - ?

[shadowxvi]

what is a traveling 50 fly? I am guessing

1 - 50 fly/50 free
2 - 25 free/50fly/25 free
3 - 50 free/50 fly
4 - ?

Yep that's exactly it.

[shadowxvi]

1 - 50 fly/50 free
2 - 25 free/50fly/25 free
3 - 50 free/50 fly
4 - think its 25 fly/50 free/25 fly

[pwb]

1 - 50 fly/50 free
2 - 25 free/50fly/25 free
3 - 50 free/50 fly
4 - think its 25 fly/50 free/25 fly

That's it!

[orca1946]

I have done flips into the back to breast but, I need more air to get further out on the push off!