What are some good 400m workouts for a 50sec 400m runner?

Do 15 x 100m.

Jog a mile every day. Maybe even 3.

Here is what a typical week would look like

Monday: 6x200 @ 26 with 5 minute rest

Tuesday: Easy run or cross train

Wednesday: 5x400 @ 60 with 5 minute rest

Thursday: Easy run or cross train

Friday: 8x200 @ 28 with 3 minute rest

Saturday & Sunday: Easy run or cross train

Are these kinds of workouts and paces good? I don't remember doing 400m specific type workouts when I was in high school. And in college, I did more 800/1500 workouts. A lot of what I did were distance type workouts. Repeat 200s and 400s with short rest (like 1 minute or something). Never actually did sprint work.

Thanks. Do you know what kind pace I should do these at, and the rest?

you've got a couple distance type responses. Wait until you hear from a real sprinter or sprint coach.

That's not me, but every one I've read would no way have you doing reps totaling more than 2-3 times race distance in one workout. To get from 55 to sub 50 you need that speed back. Top speed, like you do flying 30s for

You ran 50 before.
Do that training again.

That looks like training for a 400/800m the not fun way to me. You’d have to be in like minimum 1:56 shape to pull off that 5x400m workout and even then it’s cruel and unusual. Here’s my thoughts:

Monday: 4x50m with a standing or block start driving hard for the full 50m, and then 4-5x150m at 400m cruise effort (think what your effort level and stride feels like on the back straight racing 400m) LIFT AFTER!

Tuesday: 20 minute jog, drills and some strides

Wednesday: 5x300m, shoot for 48-52 with 3-4 minutes rest. Rip a couple 100s when you are done. Lift

Thursday: 20-30 minute aerobic effort, whether that be jogging or swimming or biking or elliptical.

Friday: 2 or 3x200-200. 60 seconds between reps, 10-12 minutes between sets. When you can run 23.x and 26.x for your 1-2 splits you’re in a good place to attempt to break 50. Lift

Saturday: 20 minute jog and plyometrics and drills if you feel fresh enough.

Lifting is super important, drills are super important. You’re usually looking for quality within each rep more than the overall workout when it comes to the 400m so unless there’s a purpose to shorter rest take upwards of 5 minutes for everything.

15 x 100 is fine for 1 or 2 days per week. you should be starting a 4 to 6 week phase with extensive tempo work. that would put those 100s in somewhere around 17 to 18 second range. rest maybe a minute. Twice a week, you should be doing max speed work with full rest. something like 5x30 meters, full speed, 5 mins rest.

Keep building from there. Extensive Tempo can be done with 100 to 300 meter reps, always that same pace. I would do 1 to 2 minutes rest for every 100 minutes of work. build the volume each week until you get to between 2400-3000 meters total in a session.

After 4 to 6 weeks, move on to intensive tempo. Also progress your max speed days. More reps, more length, etc. little by little. 1 minute rest for every 10 meters, at least.

Do some googling, and find something that makes sense to you. Key words: extensive tempo, intensive tempo, speed endurance.

or if you're lucky, somebody really good will come in here and break it down in a way that makes sense.

I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

this is the kind of thing that can work for a strength based 400 runner, but it sounds like he's just been doing 20 miles of easy running every week...I would ease into it a bit more than this. This feels like several weeks down the road, unless he has been putting in work that he hasn't shared with us.

I appreciate your response. This is going to sound very ignorant so forgive me - but aren't flying 30s really easy? I know it's mainly technique but I think it's been ingrained in me even from high school and college that if a workout isn't having you on the floor at the end, it wasn't a real workout.

Again I've never done top speed work before. I had always thought those types of workouts were for 100-200m sprinters. Now I know it's not

I'll definitely do some of that top speed though like you mentioned. I'll have to do more research, as you can tell, this is news to me.

These are some of the workouts my coach had us do. We had really hard workouts, but not one person was faster than 1:57. There were about 4 of us stuck there. I wonder if it has to do with the training and being run into the ground. We had 3 hard workouts a week.

Funny enough is that our 2 flat guys could do those workouts as well but couldn't break 2.

We've done so much 400m interval work that honestly 4-5x400m reps @ 60 with 5 minutes feels like heaven compared to 4-5x400m @ 65 with 1 minute.

I appreciate your response!

A good lactic tolerance workout should have you on the floor never wanting to walk again, but that’s just one part of the 400m. That kind of work is to prevent your legs from locking up while sprinting fast for a sustained amount of time, but you also need to train yourself to be able to sprint fast in the first place, have good technique, and be able to run for a sustained amount of time comfortably.

Think about weight lifting or working on flexibility. Neither of those are going are going to make you regret ever being born (I’d hope) but both are super beneficial to making your body be stronger and work better. Short sprints with long rest are the same idea. And trust me, you’ll feel those shorter sprints the next day.

I remember my first workout trying to become a 400m capable athlete was 10x60m steep hills with long rest. When my coach gave it to me I thought it was stupid. When I finished the workout I still thought it was stupid. I could barely walk the next day. A couple weeks later my maximum cadence had gone up from 243 to 250. That’s huge in sprinting.

And yes you guys were probably improperly/overtrained. 50 second guys should run 1:50-1:53. I’ve ran 1:49 and am probably in about 1:52-1:53 shape rn and would be intimidated by that workout.

Paging those posters who talk about feeding the cats

What I do know is when I could break 55 there was no way I could have got near 50. If you can't run a 23 200 how are you gonna go sub 50.

These were workouts I ran when I was in the 49-50 second range for the 400m

offseason - 7 x 300 in 45 with 3 mins rest or 500-400-300-200 in 72, 56, 45, 28 with 5 mins rest or 10 x 200 in 30 seconds with 2 mins rest. Probably run these intensive type tempos 2-3 times a week. Easy days rest of the week

in season - 2 x 300m in 36 with 10 min rest or 2 x 250m in 29 seconds with 12 mins rest. Once a week of racing and twice a week if not. All other days are easy or off.

Every body probably has a preferred approach, but I hate long reps.

I train for speed and was targeting the 200m all season and did mostly 60’s, some 120’s, some 150’s.

Only ran 200m in training a couple of times. A 220m once and a 250m once this season.

Just dropped a 51.66s today, not sub 50 but I’ll be 48 this year and only started after 40.

Don’t think you need to deteriorate your body with lactic work, it just wears your body down.

Didn’t feel a single piece of lactic in my race today.

For oder guys, less is more.

"When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Distance runners will take any workout and turn into an endurance workout. You have to think like a sprinter, so if you are doing true speed work out, then that is what you do. No more.

Distance runner: I want to get faster.

Sprint coach: You need to do some flying 80's reps, maybe some 100s, etc

Distance runner: Cool I'll go do 35 of them right now!

Workouts having you on the floor is what your problem in college was. OVERTRAINING.

You were overtrained and didn't have enough juice for race day.

You also need to get into the weight room and get stronger.