Sub - 60 400m thread

I have broken 60 for the 400 exactly once in my life, at age 30, last summer. I was about a 5:00/18:20-30 guy at the time. If you've already done 63 in a workout I think you shouldn't have much problem. Keep us updated!

You could probably do it after a month of training if you found a race.

I never was able to break 60 seconds for a 400, and always wanted to, but then again I never broke 15 seconds for the 100, so I’m not sure how I would’ve kept up that pace for a whole lap. I’ve run in the low 60s during 400 repeats before. Also always wanted to break 5 minutes for a mile and never did, so now that I’m in my 30s, I want to break that before I die.

But I digress. Sorry. I’m guessing this isn’t typical training for a 400 athlete, as you said, because it’s a distance runner trying to keep up their normal training and also run a decent 400? Was someone else timing your 100m? I can’t imagine timing one’s own 100m, but I guess it’s possible.

Best of luck! I’m sure you can do it with enough training. Maybe plyometrics or weight training might help? I know nothing about 400m training honestly. It’s a very respectable distance.

Great goal, can be tough. I made it to 61 one year and am trying again. 48 years old now. I think I need 26.5 200m speed, for my speed endurance, so I'm focusing in that at the moment.

Thank you!

- Yes, I timed my own 100m from a standing start. I'm willing to therefore accept a little innacuracy, but it's a nice ballpark to see where I am.

- Keep in mind the 63 was run 3 years ago, as a time trial at the start of a workout (so I was fresh), and I've not done much speedwork since apart from strides. I've only really touched "true speed" since then in the last 3 weeks, where I've been sprinting 3 - 4 * 100m (roughly) after each run.

- It's not typical sprint training entirely, no. I guess if it were typical training, I'd cut the 5 milers and just do plyos or something on those days. The truth is, though, that I love moderate-paced distance running - it feels like I'm just effortlessly floating, it's fantastic. I was loath to totally cut those runs, and I imagine they'd help me run a decent 800 in the future. All the speedwork is aimed at the 400m, though.

- To be honest, I HATE the gym and plyos, and I don't anticipate having too much time to train this year due to a raft of commitments, so I'm not going to do them yet (not this year anyway) - I'm hoping I'll be able to crack 60 without them. I'll do them next year, though, to try to progress more.

I would recommend getting in the gym and learning to properly squat HEAVY. A nice half hour session, 1-2x a week, is all you would need to to build the hardcore leg strength that will help with raw explosive speed. You could pay for a couple sessions with a trainer to develop the form, and/or watch a bunch of videos and slowly build up over a few months getting comfortable.

How do you know you’re “average”?

HM guy wrote:

Deer LRC:

I've decided I'm going to try to crack 60 in the 400m by the end of 2019.

I will document my training here. I figured it may be of interest to those who browse the "Can the average man run a sub-60 quarter with training", or "How fast could the average person run 400m", etc.

Well, I am your subject.

21 years old, 5'11, weight is about 160lb, but I don't own a scale.

I have a distance background, and have been training haphazardly for the past 3.5 years. When I was training seriously, these were my PRs:

400m: 63s (workout)

800m: 2:22

5k: 18:29

HM: 1:24

C'mon man. Good luck and all, but you have a 63 sec pb (workout!) from just a few years ago and you're stil in your prime, as well as an 18 minute 5k. You ought to be able to crack 60 seconds within 3 months.

I'm 47, off the couch with no running experience until the start of last year, trying to crack 60 by the summer.

I'm in as well! (actually saw you in another thread, haha)

age:27

weight:148 lbs at 5'6 (my lowest weight without impacting my health is around 125lbs)

weekly mileage:around 30 mpw

I have been running for two years. I am more geared towards longer distances, but I still want to work on my weakness - speed.

P.B

100m 14.4 (hand-timed, in flats, after a bad tempo run)

5000m: 18:42

10000m:38:17

HM:1:26 on a hilly course and running with a head cold

Like the OP, I've set a lot of goals(15-20 pull-ups, able to do a tucked planche, sub-37 for 10k, to name but a few) for this year, so that may take quite a lot of energy from me.

Hi really fast guy - this is potentially a ridiculous question (I can imagine this being the equivalent of a new runner saying "is it OK to run up hills?") - but would the leg press be a reasonable substitute to the squat for developing speed?

And Coevett - that's very encouraging. If I could hit sub-60 in just a few months, I'd be ecstatic. It seems like a reasonable goal to shoot at at first, though, since I've never really been near the barrier. I don't even think I could break 30 for 200m at the moment, since I only went 14.7 for 100m, and I haven't trained speed endurance for years. Nevertheless, I'm pleased to hear this is a realistic goal, and if I DO end up cracking 60 earlier, I'll shift my goal to sub-59, but I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet. Good luck cracking 60 yourself!

Just got back from today's run.

Did 5 miles at 7:25 pace - this hurt, the way out was beautiful, floating along at 7 min pace. I found out why on the way back - turns out I'd had a tailwind the whole way out, which I was now running into. Combined with an uphill second half ... it was less pleasant.

Finished with 4 hard strides of about 10 - 15s. I couldn't really hit the sprinter's technique today, for some reason - usually I can, but it wasn't too bad.

Welcome to the thread! Looks like we have similar PRs. Good luck!

It looks like you have the endurance but not the raw speed to run a sub-60 400m. A 14.7 100m PR will not get you there. The workouts that you need to focus on would be like:

60m - builds peak speed

100m - teaches you to reach top speed and hold it.

200m - good staple workout for sprinters

300m - works on speed endurance without excessive lactate acid buildup.

hills - increases your power and strength

Good luck.

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing (although since I'm a little untrained, I may not have the endurance any more either - these PRs are from 4 years ago).

The speedwork I'm planning on is all 100m and 300m reps with fairly long recoveries, and after my 5 milers, I almost always hit some downhill runs of about 10s with full recovery for speed.

I don't know if that would be fully effective, as I'll be a little tired from the 5-miler, but I think at this point, anything I do will improve my speed.

I too am interested in this thread and I am going to bookmark it, I haven’t ever really trained for the sprints and have been training for a 5k lately but the more and more of an aerobic base I build, the more I realise that in order to get faster and approach my potential, the harder it will be to make gains and shave off the minutes without a dedicated focus on speed for a while. I am in my prime, so I am thinking the best time to do this would be right now while I am in my 20s and my fast twitch muscles are still young and capable.

Every time I time a 100m whether I am fresh or not I always get 14.8, every time without fail. I timed a 200 the other day after a tempo run and got 34.1 seconds, I feel like I may have been able to do it a second faster.

I want to lower my 400m time (sprint times in general) at the same time as working on my 5k so I am thinking the way to lower my times at the same time would be to do a lot of explosive plyos such as jump squats and also 4-6 x 60m full out after easy runs 2 times a week. If I had to guess I would say I am capable of a 70 second quarter so some 150m repeats at current quarter mile pace (26 seconds) and over the course of the months when my legs get stronger from the plyos and top speed sprints I could build those 150 repeats down to 400m goal pace (22 seconds). Add in sprints once every 10 days of so too. Surely this would only benefit my 5k training also as I will have more power in my legs for workouts and tempos, I am quite a petite woman so the extra muscle mass wouldn’t exactly hurt me.

*Add in hill sprints every 10 days

That was supposed to say.

A good speed endurance work out is 5 x 200m with 2 minutes rest. You want to hit them all smoothly in 31 secs to be ready for 60 (29+31).

Doing 200s at that pace seems impossible to me right now, I’m going to have to start at 150s and build up.

Yes, build speed between 60 and 300m, then try the 5x200. You might only hit 34s or be very uneven (die), but when you get close to 31s it is worth starting the 400 time trials. It takes at least 4 attempts spread out over weeks to get to your best.

Yezzy, I hate to break it to you, but you may not be able to break 60s ever and that's ok. If a 15 sec 100 leads to a 34 sec 200 you probably don't have the speed to consider a 29 sec 200 and hang on in 30. Put it this way, the world record in the 200 is 19 and change, the 400 world record is 43 (ie 25% slower the second 200). Unless, you plan on going blade runner your legs probably aren't meant for sub60.