My 400m training thread: from subpar (over70s) to a decent time

Training Advice/Discussion

3 years ago 07/06/2020 1:12pm EDT

I started a thread yesterday to ask if you needed to be talented to run the 400m faster than 70 seconds. The answer was a resounding no. However, I am currently stuck at the 73 seconds that I ran yesterday for a 400m and almost all of you on this forum have a 10k pace faster than my 400m sprint. This is very bad for me.

I read some advices that you provided to me and decided to try to follow a program to improve myself and become faster. The goals are sub 70, then sub 65 and hopefully 60 seconds at the very end.

Today I did:

7km, with warm up and then with 8*70m flying sprint ran on a straight line on concrete. The rest was 1:45 bewteen so heart rate was never an issue.

The data, recorded with a garmin watch

Average splits: 12.2s

Fastest split: 11.7s 2:47/km pace

Slowest split: 13.1s 3:09/km pace

Average cadence for the splits were around 186 strides/s, maximum cadence (at end of split) were around 208 stride per s, with the maximum recorded at 222.

Tomorrow I will try a 5k in 22:30 (record is 21) and Wednesday a 10 sprints of 120m in a 10% hill.

What do you think of this program? What progress can I expect if any?

3 years ago 07/06/2020 2:14pm EDT

re: Jean23

Is this a secondary goal of yours or do you want to commit to the 400? Because if it's the latter, you don't need to be going on distance runs. You need to be doing max effort short sprints (60-100m) and very hard longer sprints (150-500m) with full recovery plus weight lifting, running drills, and hill sprints.

3 years ago 07/06/2020 2:32pm EDT

re: Jean23

Sprint training is 10 % running, 10% warming up and 80% weightlifting and doing cores.

Doing deadlifts will improve your sprint speed much more than any 5k.

3 years ago 07/07/2020 7:48am EDT

re: Jean23

Stop trying to do sprint work after runs. It should be done when completely fresh. 1min45 is nowhere near enough rest. As a general rule of thumb, take 1 minute for every 1 second worked. Your sprint work out may only consist of 4-5 runs - that's ok. It's to be done at a high intensity or not at all.

Core and weightlifting are fine as add ons, but the one key component you must have is some actual speed work. Without that, you're just going to become a slightly stronger distance runner.

3 years ago 07/07/2020 7:49am EDT

re: UKresi

Also, 10 x 120 sounds like a tempo session. Replace it with some flying 20s or starts to 40yrds. 5-7 minutes rest between each.

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My 400m training thread: from subpar (over70s) to a decent time

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