Progression of 400s at mile pace

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Different things work for different people, but Bannister kept the number of reps and the rests the same, and just progressively sped up the reps. Worked for him.

Good luck!

You train to become fitter to be able to race well — not to hit certain workouts or splits. You can’t force 4:24 pace because you think that’s your goal. Train to be as fit as possible — amd wherever that leaves you should be good enough.

I’d posit that doing a 4mi tempo each week and steadily dropping the pace on that over the course of a season is going to be far more beneficial than chasing splits on 10x400.

Thanks for the thoughts, the reason I actually am focusing on this workout is because last year I focused all my training around doing a 4 mile tempo, and although I felt it helped with fitness a lot, on race day I felt I wasn’t comfortable at the faster paces, so this year I am trying to get in more time on feet at a fast pace, in addition to a tempo, just with less focus their. And the 66 seconds per lap isn’t set in stone, I just am saying because I will definitely be improving on this workout in the future due to putting in a harder effort and gained fitness, what direction should I be taking it? I know not to force a workout, and I will let it come to me, it’s just sometimes with that mentality I find my self running far too slow and not being tired at all at a end of a workout, so I want to give myself a loose plan for the future.

I had a similar question actually, any one else’s thoughts?

I like the comment by lease. With that in mind there might not be one best way. However the most important thing is to only change 1 variable st a time.

OP, you're right in your approach and I would slowly and methodically work up to comfortably running the 400s at 66 before changing the rest interval. Of course this shouldn't be your only quality session.

coach wrote:

I like the comment by lease. With that in mind there might not be one best way. However the most important thing is to only change 1 variable st a time.

OP, you're right in your approach and I would slowly and methodically work up to comfortably running the 400s at 66 before changing the rest interval. Of course this shouldn't be your only quality session.

Yes, keep multiple stimuli, develop the ability to run comfortably faster before dropping the recovery.

You probably should include longer reps at a slightly slower pace as well (600-1000). Since you’re training for a mile, these can have pretty long rest.

coach wrote:

I like the comment by lease. With that in mind there might not be one best way. However the most important thing is to only change 1 variable st a time.

OP, you're right in your approach and I would slowly and methodically work up to comfortably running the 400s at 66 before changing the rest interval. Of course this shouldn't be your only quality session.

^this

I’ll add, view your rest as a ratio rather than 2 minutes or 1 minute.

One other technique to consider, if you get stalled on improving your time, is to hit your goal pace for every other rep. For example, you get to 68 and can't improve. Run the odds at 67 and evens at 68. Then try to get those 67s down to 66s. Sometimes there is mental barrier of trying to hit every rep.