He doesnt count as a pure 400m runner, but Donavan Brazier has the range to run multiple 45.xx FAT splits for A&M and while he has not done that in an open (only has 2 400m races listed on world athletics, both in the low 47 range from 2016/2017) I think it is pretty clear he had the capability to get into the low 46s if not a hair faster. He has also run 3:35 for 1500.
I was on a team with an Olympic Gold medalist 4x4 runner. He ran 4 mile runs. He did 16x200 and other crazy workouts.. He could have run 1:49 and 4:10 without any other training.
"motivated to go all out" meaning what? $1 million and a year to train and someone would figure out a way to go sub 3:50
Hold my Hot Pocket wrote:For many, it seems that the better of a sprinter they are, the worse of a miler they are likely to be.
I think if you took a bunch of 43-45-second 400m guys, a few (as others have suggested) would run a pretty good mile (4:20-ish?), and many would be lucky to break 6.
This ^.
Anyone who's learned about energy systems and training related to that should know that getting faster at 400m doesn't necessarily make you faster at 1 mile (though it could, depending on the reason for the 400m time improvement).
Most pure 400m runners will have big problems to break 5 minutes. Some 400m/800m runners (Mark Everett) maybe could run sub 4:20. And top 800m runners who could run also good 400m from 800m training (David Rudisha) could come close to 4 minutes.