Swim Sessions: Even Paced 400s

Swim Sessions: Even Paced 400s

This is another swim session we did as part of our series of sessions on swim pacing.

More about that here.

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Focus

This session was all about finding our sustainable endurance pace, and then testing it out. 

Warm Up

8 x 50m easy (15s)

Short reps, keeping it easy, focusing on our technique.

Skills & Drills – All About The Catch

4 x 25m swim – thinking about our catch, not trying to pull back before we have setup the stroke with a good catch. 

4 x 25m fist drill – aiming to keep our elbows high underwater and pull (and push water back) with our forearms.

4 x 25m – holding paddles so we couldn’t bend our wrists, forcing us to keep a straight line from fingertips to elbows.

4 x 25m swim – using the cues above, focusing on creating a large paddle (from fingertips to elbows) and pushing back with the whole paddle (not just the hand). 

Main Set

The aim of this set is to be able to identify and execute a swim pace that is comfortable and sustainable. Try to identify this pace on the 100s, and then test it out on the 400s.

In our Swim Squad session, we did the following set twice, so that if we were unable to sustain that 100m pace on the 400m in the first set, we could try it again, slowing down on the 100s.

4 x 100m (30s) – swimming at a 5/10 pace, a pace you can hold for a long time.

1 x 400m (45s) – swimming at the same pace as we did in the 100s, maintaining that pace for the whole 400m.

8 x 25m smooth and relaxed (15s) resetting technique and recovering a little.

Cool Down

Easy swimming to finish.

Progression

As you become better at pacing, you can challenge yourself further – either by increasing the overall pace slightly, reducing or eliminating the recovery 25s, doing the set three of four times through, or doing one set of 4 x 100m and then 4 x 400m (aiming for the same times as the 4 x 100s).

Lots of progression and lots of variation to this set.

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Swim Sessions: Even Paced 400s

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