Set Of The Week: Descend 400 IM’s

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Welcome to Swimming World’s Set Of The Week! This week’s set is a 400 IM descend set that mixes in elements of pacing and stroke control. Take a look at the set and it’s description below:

3 Rounds:

4 x 100 fast second 50

ROUND ONE: fly/back by 50 on 1:30

ROUND TWO: back/breast by 50 on 1:35

ROUND THREE: breast/free by 50 on 1:30

1 x 200 IM build each 50 on 3:00

1 x 400 IM descend by rounds on 6:00

The set consists of three rounds of 4 x 100’s of various strokes, 1 x 200 IM, and 1 x 400 IM. The strokes in the 4 x 100’s vary by round, with the first round as 50 fly/50 back, second round as 50 back/50 breast, and the last round being 50 breast/50 free. The focus for the 4 x 100’s is to have a fast second 50 of each 100. The benchmark strategy for the 400 IM is negative splitting each stroke, but these 100’s help emphasize maintaining cruise speed right through stroke transitions while also giving swimmers an opportunity to focus on their transition turns.

The single 200 IM should emphasize building each stroke within the IM at an aerobic level, while the last 400 IM is descend through the rounds, with the third 400 IM being all-out. As always with 400 IM pacing, encourage your athletes to negative split each 100 of stroke within the 400 IM, but also look for control through the first 50 of each 100 of stroke and fast, efficient transition turns.

At 3,000 yards, this is a great set to incorporate into a peak yardage period for your distance or IM groups. For college teams, doing this set long course, perhaps during training trip, would provide an additional challenge to your swimmers to maintain their strokes and pacing over a longer distance. Happy swimming!

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