fisky wrote:
Old thread, but the 400m is a very technical event. The OP could probably drop his 58 down to 56 in a couple of months if he learned how to race every stage of the 400m.
Start
First 4 seconds
First 100m
Backstretch
Beginning turn 3
Somewhere in turn 3 or 4
Final stretch... 70-120m from the finish, depending on your ability to kick
Each of these stages needs to be run slightly differently, in my opinion. Yes, raw talent will still beat you, but each of these stages is worth a fraction of a second.
Let me address just one of these stages. The start. Many distance runners lose a half second or so coming out of the blocks because their muscles aren't firing until the G of bang. Watch novices. At bang, you'll see them tense their leg muscles to push off or rock their foot back into the block. They will still have both shoes touching the blocks when a trained sprinter will have completed a quarter of a step.
The muscles should tense at SET... maybe 70% effort or so. The arms aren't just balancing. They are preventing the runner from moving forward. At B of bang, the arms come up and the legs fire at 100%. A novice should be able to take a quarter to a half second off their time to the 10m mark just by practicing the start.
I'm sure a sprint coach could do a better job of explaining this, as I'm probably making some mistakes.