Laure Manadou has switched coaches and here is a look at what he is having her do

Can you do a set of 400s LCM on the 4:40? Laure Manaudou is. She also has a nutritionist hooking her up with a diet, something she never had in France. She will be lifting weights with a football team in Turin, Italy and she will train in both in long course meters and short course meter pools.

The SCM pool with be used for technical work which really means starts and turns. Turns is what Laure could improve if she wants to do a sub four-minute 400. At World Championships she breathed off every turn. Maybe this is good but Michael Phelps has redefined the freestyle making it a hybrid event now with butterfly being the dominant underwater stroke.

Snippet from the article:

• Alongside Manaudou in a technical training set in a 25-metre pool in the morning were Chiara Boggiatto and relative unknowns, Erika Buratto, Alice Gianesini, Roberta Ioppi. No-one, in effect, who might challenge Manaudou. "At the moment, Laure will do the same sessions as the other girls," said Penso. ...

• Penso is then quoted as saying something rather curious: "She swam all the 400s crawl today in less than 4:40. That's very positive." 4:40? I have personally witnessed Manaudou undertaking a set of multiple 400s in times much, much, much faster. Maybe he meant in the context of making up for lost time, Manaudou having broken her season with a 5-6-week break that must surely have set back her preparations for Beijing 2008 - that's a few weeks less training than Ziegler, Shibata, Jêdrzejczak, Hoff et al. It may all count for much in the end. [Link]