distance running for a sprinter

One key is that it's a "she". Women have lower testosterone which makes them 10% or so slower than men. Given than a 400 has a glycolytic contribution that tops out at around 40 seconds, a woman running a 400 all out will need more aerobic support than a man and will be running closer to glycolytic capacity in 200 (assuming you're not Allyson Felix or VCB).

It's not really distance mileage, but a female non-elite 200/400 needs to train more like a male 400/800. Longer intervals: maybe 300-800 range instead of 150-450 for speed endurance. And a little less emphasis on pure speed (the longer you have to race, the more speed endurance dominates).

Ok, but she is putting in 45 miles per week. runs repeat miles twice per week.

If by "heavy mileage" you mean 30 or 35 miles a week, I really don't think it matters all that much. Worst case scenario? Turn her into an 800 runner. Now, a girl who can run 25.xx insisting on running 60 miles a week, that might be an issue.

T.C. wrote:

Ok, but she is putting in 45 miles per week. runs repeat miles twice per week.

That's not what you want to do. That's high even for an 800 runner in high school. Show her some of Clyde Hart's stuff which you can find here:

Could be of course that she has some distance/XC frinds giving her bad advice, or maybe she doesn't want to work that hard. Let's not kid ourselves: REAL 400 training is HARD WORK!!!

Big difference between jogging 3 miles 2X a week and 45mpw.

That's it. She ran 25.77 last year. Now her best is 28.

She sprinted for a club indoors so the 800 base is not there. You might be right, being pressured by her friends who are distance runners.

TC = Troll City?

Only if you say so.

Keep her on the short end. Give her 800-Mile workouts, no need for really long runs.

coach d wrote:

One key is that it's a "she". Women have lower testosterone which makes them 10% or so slower than men.

You abysmal idiot. Do you really think lower testosterone is the only, or even main reason women aren't as fast as men? Do you think women can run as fast as men if only they raise their testosterone to make levels? Everything you write proves that you are a hack.

T.C. wrote:

We have a 200/400 m sprinter who insists doing heavy mileage and training with the distance runners will make her faster in the 200 and 400. We are nearing the end of our season and she insists sprinting for practice will make her slower... opinions?

Who is the coach, you or her? Training for the 200m and 400m should replicate the demands of those distances as closely as possible; ideally her training should consist of hard 200m, 300m, and 400m repeats and not much else. Running mileage is a poor way for her to train. Whatever aerobic conditioning she needs for the 400m can be attained by running 400s in practice and competition—a hard interval workout can be more "aerobic" than distance running. Ignore all the crap that coach d posts about how Clyde Hart trains his athletes (do you want yours to burn out as bad as Jeremy Wariner?) and everything else he writes. Just because he can copy and paste a program written up by some renowned dope coach doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about.

I agree, the difference in mens and womens performances cannot be attributed to testosterone alone. And that difference cannot be simplified to exactly 10 percent. Of course, there are many women who are faster than men - even in high school and college. From what I understand, simply raising testosterone levels is not likely to automatically make women faster than their male counterparts.

Back to the OP... Could it be that the athlete has a body image issue? She doesn't want to sprint, fearing she'll get "big," though we know this is not always the case. Instead, she's running more volume to in hopes of burning calories and chasing that gaunt distance runner girl look. If that's the case, it may be a tricky situation.

But addressing the issue of "distance running" for sprinters: I think Edwin Moses was an interesting case. If I recall correctly he would complete 6 mile "tempo" runs. Of course, your athlete is not Edwin Moses, but I can certainly see benefits of higher volume, lower intensity training for the 400m runner. The key is going to be applying it in a periodized fashion. As the end of the season approaches, I would not be placing any emphasis on slow distance runs... but what do I know?

I've never heard of a high school sprinter who wanted to run more miles

I am the sprint coach but not the head coach. Head coach believes miles help 400 M runners.

Head coach is having a hard time excepting the changing of the guard from a distance program to a sprint and field event team program. The cross country team (who have been pretty good in the past) all went out for soccer and lacrosse teams.