How much faster should I expect to get at the 400?

High School Running

1 year ago 03/29/2023 1:52am EDT

Just got thrown into the event a week ago and ran a 55. I'm in my senior outdoor season, but this is the only 400 I've ran in a year (ran 58 last year) and my comp was 2 guys running 58s. Since junior XC season, I've dropped my 3 mile by over 4 minutes (from 21:40 last year to 17:24) and haven't really ran anything else during track but I am generally way faster than I was last year. I would need a 51 or 52 to run at state, does it seem possible?

Also, general advice on how to race the 400 would be appreciated, as I don't feel like I was really sprinting at any point during the race and was mad at how much I had in the tank after. Thanks.

This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.

1 year ago 03/29/2023 4:53am EDT

re: darkback4

Well you totally ran it wrong if you weren’t seeing pretty colors at the end, and that’s a good thing.

In my experience, the first 75 meters should be a maximal effort, you’re driving hard and your muscles are tense, then you flow over the curve and through the backstretch, you focus on fast, relaxed feet and arms. The goal is to move fast without feeling that tightness in your body that comes with 100% effort. You treat the last 200m like a 200m. Run the curve powerfully but smart, and put everything into that last 100m. If you do it right you’ll feel your body trying to lock up on you in the last 75 meters. You swing your arms as hard as you can and your legs will follow. You should have a hard time standing for a few minutes after. You are running to muscular failure, it should feel the same as lifting to failure in the gym.

The next 400m you run should tell you a lot about what you can do. I had a friend who dropped the 16/32 for the 400m cause he didn’t like the distance coaches, and went from 56 to 51.7 and a state qualifier over a season.

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