improving 400m time

Get re-born with a higher fast/slow twitch muscle fiber ratio.

You can't coach speed, brother.

Running more miles will help. If you aren't running at least 130-140 mpw right now, you'll see a huge boost simply from adding those miles.

At the end of easy some days 8-12x100m with 90s-2min rest. Do a small number of reps at first. Build up to being able to run 12-13s easy.

STFU, Donnie wrote:

Get re-born with a higher fast/slow twitch muscle fiber ratio.

You can't coach speed, brother.

But you can improve it. Sprint up some hills and try some plyometrics as well.

2000 wrote:

Running more miles will help. If you aren't running at least 130-140 mpw right now, you'll see a huge boost simply from adding those miles.

I think that'll make you slower, not faster.

bump...this is a topic that is not discussed naerly enough on these boards. im in the same situation as the previous poster. are there some 400m specific workouts that can be done all year round to maximise speed?

4x200m at goal pace with 10 minutes recovery.

3x300m with full recovery.

8x200m a couple seconds below goal pace with 90s recovery. 10 minute recovery after the first 4 reps.

Doing this stuff might get you burned out though. Doing reps of 100m with short recovery like that other one said would be good. Ask your coach.

It's not discussed on here enough because nobody really cares about improving speed. The main concern on this board is running a lot of miles.

old 400m workouts wrote:

4x200m at goal pace with 10 minutes recovery.

3x300m with full recovery.

8x200m a couple seconds below goal pace with 90s recovery. 10 minute recovery after the first 4 reps.

Doing this stuff might get you burned out though. Doing reps of 100m with short recovery like that other one said would be good. Ask your coach.

not a sprinter wrote:

bump...this is a topic that is not discussed naerly enough on these boards. im in the same situation as the previous poster. are there some 400m specific workouts that can be done all year round to maximise speed?

You dont maximize speed with 400 specific workouts. You can improve your speed endurance however. In order to maximize speed you must become a student of sprinting and work on drills, form excercises, core muscle development, weight work AND slowly add in the speed endurance development. when your form breaks down your speed will diminish. Thereforre the drills are designed to strengthen the muscle groups that help keep you running efficiently. Speed work is very demanding on the nervous system so rest is a big part of the training.

In your base phase you want to prep, not train, your body for sprinting. Think distance runners and their high slow milage to get ready for faster stuff later in the year. For you it's the opposite. Get a respectable amount of milage, first, followed by strides (I like 4x15 seconds barefoot grass) 3 times a week. You're training for the 800 but trying to lower your quarter time. Both the 800 and 400 involve a level of aerobic necessity so milage is still important.

Now for workouts. Run short repeats, fast and hard, with long recovery. My favorite is the 10-22 by 100 All-Out effort with a 300 jog between each. It's a good way to get in both the aerobic and anaerobic in the same session. You do NOT want to do longer reps with shorter recovery, yet. That comes later. That comes with the 800 training. Those are the 400-600 meter repeats, the broken 6's and the 3x4x200s at increasing pace per set from 1500 pace to 400m pace by the ending set.

Remember, it's all in the preparation. Prep the body for the work in the base phase. Run the body at pace in the season. If it's your 400 time you're looking to drop, might I suggest carrying those hundreds through the year with a session per week at 10x100 (it's not really that taxing) and some 150 repeats, sprinting out from half the first turn all out and coming into your back straight stride for the last 100 one week, and coming out from the 250 to the 400 doing the opposite the next week.

Realize that there are 2 kinds of workouts at this point. Those that give you the fitness to compete at a higher level (400 repeats, 600 repeats, broken 6's, 3x4x2s, 10-22 by 100s) which is a category that itself can be broken up into absolute and goal paced sets. Then there are those that mimic the race itself. The alternating 150s and working starts/turns. Both are very important.

I know almost nothing about plyos and lifting so I'll leave that to other posters.

Goodluck!

Ok... wrote:

My favorite is the 10-22 by 100 All-Out effort with a 300 jog between each.

Doing 10-22 reps of something means that it isn't really all out. If you were truly doing it all out, the legs would be fried after 4-6.

just one thing wrote:

Ok... wrote:

My favorite is the 10-22 by 100 All-Out effort with a 300 jog between each.

Doing 10-22 reps of something means that it isn't really all out. If you were truly doing it all out, the legs would be fried after 4-6.

4-6 if you're strictly a 100-200m runner who possibly is trying to move up to the 400. 10-22 if you're an 800m runner trying to move down to improve his 400 time. There's a huge difference in what a runner can post for "all out" based on his muscle fiber composition. The OP's 400 time isn't that great (hence he came to the boards for suggestions) meaning that he's trying to get his overall leg speed to come up. 10-22 is the correct number and, for that matter, I don't even think most 400m specialists would be "fried" from 4-6 all out 100 meter repeats. At least none that I know, running them with a full rest in between. And in the base phase of all times. I think you didn't think enough about what you were posting about before you posted about it.

I don't think I made a couple of points completely clear so let me work on that for just a second before anyone else tries to refute what I'm saying. One point I failed to make clear with the last post in this section:

"10-22 is the correct number and, for that matter, I don't even think most 400m specialists would be "fried" from 4-6 all out 100 meter repeats. At least none that I know, running them with a full rest in between. And in the base phase of all times."

is that what is all out inside of the season is very different from all out in the base phase. Notice in the first post I suggested continuing the 10x100 all out with large rest into and throughout the season. By this point all out is going to mean something completely different than it did when you were building milage in the base and preparing your body to run fast. All out, then, in the base phase, while not your absolute best 100m times ever to be posted, is still about getting your body READY for the workload to come. Prepping your anaerobic and running at a pace much faster than your 400-800 time. It's about all out EFFORT and not necessarily about time. All out times come later and, to a certain degree, really never come for most of us who don't specialize in the 100 and 200.

Read through this. Oldsub4 really knows the business

If you run 10-22 reps of 100m with a 300m jog, the first few reps (especially if you are going to do 16 reps or more) are obviously not going to be all out effort because you can't sustain that throughout the workout. The athlete will pace himself or herself to a certain degree. It doesn't matter what phase you are in.

mile worth of sprints wrote:

If you run 10-22 reps of 100m with a 300m jog, the first few reps (especially if you are going to do 16 reps or more) are obviously not going to be all out effort because you can't sustain that throughout the workout. The athlete will pace himself or herself to a certain degree. It doesn't matter what phase you are in.

Try it BEFORE you knock it. Not the other way around.

when I was young, ran 200 at almost full speed and walk a 200- repeat as many as possible , but 6-8 was my usual before I hit the showers- 400 is not a race for the faint of heart-

haad's weekly 200s can knock 6-7 sec off an undertrained runner in 8 or so weeks.

last year i was running 52s for 400s and i decided to add 3x200 in spikes weekly, running the fastest i could while staying relaxed with full recovery. i started at 26s, in 6 weeks i was running 24.x. my 400 the next season was 49.6 (handtimed, though).

i also did 4-6x 100m strides before every workout and after every easy run, year round. in the past i was lazy about this. i also ran strides up an 80m hill next to my house 8-10 times every other week. sometimes i bounded up as well. assuming you haven't fully developed your ability at sprinting yet, and assuming you are genetically able to run decently fast (otherwise, consider moving up), it's possible to take 5ish seconds off a 54 400 within a year. esp. if you're young.

too many people think that training your pure speed is incompatible with base mileage, or that it will get you hurt. it's the tough 800-mile pace workouts that compromise base, not training your pure speed. also, if you spend enough time running fast paces and running on hills, your form will improve, causing less injury.

That is way too much mileage for a 400 runner, there is no need to do that much.