I'm a 400m sprinter and I'm self coaching right now. I was wondering if anyone could give me a good 400m training plan. Also what's the best way do to speed work, should I include it in my warm ups or reserve 1 or 2 days for speed?
I'm a 400m sprinter and I'm self coaching right now. I was wondering if anyone could give me a good 400m training plan. Also what's the best way do to speed work, should I include it in my warm ups or reserve 1 or 2 days for speed?
Damn, that is one of the most comprehensive and thorough explanations of training that I have ever read from a HS coach. Impressive stuff. Not as if it matters....but I agree completely on his training philosophy and implementation.
Only thing I would add in there would be some plyos and olympic lifting. They might already do that. This article seemed to be focused purely on the aerobic/anaerobic conditioning through running.
I tend to believe that if two athletes are conditioned the same way the more athletic of the two will win. Hence, the plyos and olympic lifting. Just two more cents.
When you say olympic lifting do you mean focusing on the clean & jerk and snatch? Or do you mean implementing power cleans in a normal weight lifting routine?
unabowler wrote:
http://www.iatccc.org/notes/2011/leininger.pdf
Do 400 coaches really train HS kids like that?
I strongly and fundamentally disagree with that program
First, no speed development at all? Are you kidding? They seem to just assume a kid has speed. This is an easy way out program, just flogging runners with volume. Anyone can do that. Coaching speed development is harder.
How exactly does fartlek or 40 min runs help a 400 runner?
There are two ways to work on a runner dying at the end of a 400. One is endurance work of course. The other is getting them faster so the first 300 at that speed feels more comfortable
A 400 runner's 200 time puts a ceiling on their 400 potential. This I understand is an American way to approach 400 training. Real long to short. It can't be the best way.
When you say olympic lifting do you mean focusing on the clean & jerk and snatch? Or do you mean implementing power cleans in a normal weight lifting routine?
Both, in addition to deadlifts, front squats, thrusters...there are a few more. Obviously you don't want the mass of a power lifter, however, you want that explosive movement and power. Depending on your genetics you have to tread lightly in implementing these into your program. Very low reps and heavy ass weight.
With a caveat, I do not believe in adding in additional lift to your program. There is no need to do bicep curls or all those other type of "body building" auxiliary movements. They will just extra weight and expend energy resources that could be applied to your craft in different ways.
I come from a 400m/400IH background and these are methods that I routinely applied many years ago, now I'm old...sigh.
1x400
Repeat as needed
Karma Police wrote:
unabowler wrote:http://www.iatccc.org/notes/2011/leininger.pdfDo 400 coaches really train HS kids like that?
I don't know, I found this when I was looking for ideas for 800m training for my daughter. I ran the 3200 and very seldom the 1600 and never really knew how the 400m runners trained.
unabowler wrote:
Karma Police wrote:Do 400 coaches really train HS kids like that?
I don't know, I found this when I was looking for ideas for 800m training for my daughter. I ran the 3200 and very seldom the 1600 and never really knew how the 400m runners trained.
Looks a lot more like 800 training to me and there is a massive difference between the 2. A developing youth 800 runner should devote 1 fresh day a week to speed development IMO. Find a quality sprint coach/squad and do little to nothing the day before. Speed development includes not only short sprints, but gym, plyos, sleds, short hills etc. Get her 100-200 time down.
Make sure she learns how to run and sprint properly. 100 ability puts a ceiling on 800 capability too.
Train two 800 runners the same and the faster one will win. As I said, this takes real coaching, rather than setting a program to flog them with mileage, where only the strongest survive. Anyone can do that.
That's the worst 400 program I've ever seen. And, nothing like Clyde Hart's. He's calling 3 x 350 speed work.
Google Latif Thomas and Mike Hurst 400 training. They have lots of good, free info online.
Karma Police wrote:
Looks a lot more like 800 training to me and there is a massive difference between the 2. A developing youth 800 runner should devote 1 fresh day a week to speed development IMO. Find a quality sprint coach/squad and do little to nothing the day before. Speed development includes not only short sprints, but gym, plyos, sleds, short hills etc. Get her 100-200 time down.
Make sure she learns how to run and sprint properly. 100 ability puts a ceiling on 800 capability too.
Train two 800 runners the same and the faster one will win. As I said, this takes real coaching, rather than setting a program to flog them with mileage, where only the strongest survive. Anyone can do that.
Thanks. I was pretty intrigued when I found that plan, but she's young for that (middle school). Over the winter she just did mileage (not high mileage, either) with one day of strides per week. Maybe predictably she has placed relatively better in the 1600 than the 800 so far. She seems to be having fun, and she's getting her feet wet in racing.
I would not train a 400 runner this way either. Being a distance guy and coach when i took over the reigns of the sprinters the first thing i took out was the 20-30 minutes distance runs the old coach had them doing and from the first meet on we were running faster and running school records in relays and open events by the end of the season. Coach Boo has a lot of good stuff that really influenced my coaching. One thing he said at a clinic i attended was that its pointless for a sprinter to do anything slower then 80-90% as anything slower would train slow twitch fibers which are basically useless to a sprinter.
Any critics of this plan should read Clyde Hart's article (available on the internet) This is a pretty good version of Hart's plan which has had some success (that is if you consider running 3:00 in 4x4 most years a success!)
I also used the general principles herein successfully with some 400 kids. The limiting factor is the raw speed. A 25 second 200 runner can never run 50 no matter how brilliant the coaching. But a 23 sec kid has a fighting chance at sub 50 with enough endurance.
I didn't bother responding to this because I thought it was obvious that the guy who wrote this plan didn't know the f--k he's talking about. But I don't want beginners getting off on a very bad plan for sprinting. The plan above has NOTHING in common with Clyde Hart, except Michael Johnson did do 4 miles at 5:30 pace in the fall.
This is Clyde Hart's plan (written for 46 second college 400 sprinters, and a lot of sprint tempo work at 85%):
http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/symposiums/2013/Hart_s%20Sample%20Workouts.pdf
This is Mike Hulst's program (Mike was known as Kitkat1 of charliefrancis.com:
To a sprinter, THIS is what tempo is:
Extensive tempo: repeats of 200 @ 70% speed with 1-2 min recovery
Intensive tempo: repeats of 100-300 @ 80-90% speed with 3-5 min
Most of Clyde Hart's program is intensive tempo at ~85%.
With the exception of 20 min jogs 1-2 times a week in the fall for 400 only, there are NO "easy runs" or 2-5 mile distance type tempo runs in a sprint program--if you tell a real sprinter to do any of that, he's going to quit. And some of us, myself included following Dan Pfaff on this issue, do NO tempo of any kind, period.
Most successful 400 programs these days are ends to the middle. You start with a wider range of training, and converge around race distance/pace like Canova does for distance. For the club I coach these days (we are Jamaica-based and have a lot of football players, so we are mostly 100 meter oriented, but as in Jamaica, 400 runners do the same speed/power in the fall as 100/200):
General Prep (or base):
Mon 3X600 (60 sec/400) 15 min
Wed 3X300 (50 sec) 5 miin
Fri 4X60 (blocks) + 4X40 hills (3pt, 10 min)
Precomp
Mon 1X450 (50 sec) + 2X200 (30 sec)
Wed 1X320 (fast) + 3X200 (30 sec)
Fri 3X150 (90+% speed, 20 min rec)
Once again, like Hart, these are times for 46 athletes.
This is Mike Hulst's plan I forgot to link above:
http://community.charliefrancis.com/showthread.php?21613-Kit-kats-400m-program
coach d wrote:
This is Mike Hulst's plan I forgot to link above:
http://community.charliefrancis.com/showthread.php?21613-Kit-kats-400m-program
Not a fan of much over distance work. Even in the off season.
the 400 is a sprint and its defintately in the hurt locker. So work that helps you manage the discomfort while preserving your technique and control it key.
I knew Mike Hurst. When I was running in the trials, he was a journalist, not a coach. I'm glad to see that he followed his dream. :-)
He's a good guy, and I am sure a very competent coach.
I used to base my work around the 300m variations. Sustained speed, accelerations, varied pace. Varied speed. rep 200s, and 150s.
Playing mainly with recovery times. I was a strength / power sprinter, not an endurance sprinter, so the more work I could do on my toes, and not in "distance mode", the better. 600 - 800 are not 'sprints'. Distance guys may 'sprint' them, but sprinters don't.
Becasue there is so much stress in a 400 its improtant for an athlete to understand what is happening at each stage of the race. You have to manage the right effort out of the blocks, the right stride length and effort in the back, and no when the tank is about empty and then manage the decline to preserve as much speed as possible.
But I was only 46.0, not like Kirani James who seems to have plenty left in the straight.
mlcollll Mike Hurst coached 400 men and women in 5 straight olympics.
"1 x 400...repeat as needed."
We need to get rid of this kind of thinking. It's not that simple.
#1 The 400 can be higher than 33% aerobic, especially at the high school level.
I recommend many recovery runs of 3-5 miles. Many top programs do this even with 100-200 guys. (In season you can do ladders instead of 500-400-300-200-100s) Long distance biking is also great. Give Larry Myricks, 28'8" in 1988 and 20.03, if you doubt ANY of this advice!!!
#2 Most days you want to run faster than race pace. The object is that we want to get faster! You do callousing of 8 x 200 @ 70% early then progress to where you run 150s, 100s, 80s, 60s, etc. at faster than race pace with long rests (walking in between.)
#3 Lifting is important (Endurance early to strength later)
#4 Teach relaxation
#5 Teach acceleration
#5 Teach classic running form!!!
The days of running 20 X 440 should be long gone. Why teach them to run slow with bad form???
Jed Clampett (I interview Olympic coaches and athletes about Speed!!!)
sprinthard wrote:
mlcollll Mike Hurst coached 400 men and women in 5 straight olympics.
And I can assure you Mike Hurst puts speed development right up there, esp for youth runners. He'll tell you the other way to train endurance in the last 100 is to make the athlete faster over 200 so the first part of the race feels more comfortable. Ie improve speed reserve.
My program right now looks like
Monday: long run
Tuesday: speed and strength
Wednesday: long run
Thursday: speed and strength
Friday: long run
Saturday: 200s 1 second faster than my goal pace
Sunday: easy short jog
Right now I'm trying to get my aerobic endurance up, and over the summer I'm going to focus on more on speed