I need a faster 400m time as a distance runner

your 400 is your best event

you need better endurance.

800 should be 158 with your speed

Bro hit a tempo

To some extent yeah. If the OP isn’t doing anything like 10s hills, flying 40s, a few basic speed drills and ply is, sure add them in. But the route to 1:55 is more likely some aerobic endurance versus speed.

What 1600m speed do I need for that? I think I could run pretty close to 4:30-4:32 right now

1:58 and 4:26 are pretty equal for a balanced runner, although I ran 4:22 and 1:58 (54 speed) at the same time. I think for you trying to get your 400m time down is fine but 49 within one season seems a bit optimistic, I'd say 51 flat would be good improvement. Go for it though!

For 400, do you lift weights?

How many full range of motion squat reps, 225 lbs?

Not sure I would call this balance as much as aerobically undeveloped. The 2:00/4:30/10:00 combo is pretty standard for the 30-40mpw kids. Bump the mileage to 50 and you get the 1:58/4:20/9:20 kids… Our OP should run faster off the same mileage later in the season as they peak.

Stop asking this same question in every thread. It's largely irrelevant and shows you don't know about training.

I honestly think I’m in about 50.9 shape, I’ve never ran the 400 so I sprinted the first 250 and died, and I was in front (lane 8). I’m confident if I was in a heat behind a guy running 49 to 50 I’d run around there too with my current fitness

Your kick comes from your endurance. I ran 10:08 for 3200m when I was still a 4:42 1600m runner. When I was a 4:32 guy, my 3200m was in the 9:40s and probably would have been in the 9:30s except they cut my mileage to focus me towards the 800m.

I was only outkicked once. A 4:18 miler outkicked me at the line when I was a 4:23 guy.

My open 400m PR was only 55.02 and I think I ran 54.6 on a relay.

Work on your endurance. There is some component of endurance to the 400m, so if you get your 3200m into the 9:30s or 9:40s that extra endurance might take some time off your 400m, maybe 1 second.

You guys are missing the fact that he can’t handle 35-mile weeks

I think you should do some flying 30s and squat heavy (but not full range of motion! Do quarter-squats instead, and focus on being explosive)

my goal is to increase your sprint speed, which you can utilize during your kick.

There are so many problems with your post. Your times are pretty in line, I would say, but: Your coach had you run 400 all-out the day after running 800 all-out? You and your coach think that time means something? Your body breaks down from doing 35 miles a week, not from doing that sort of thing? You run 2:02 in early season training, but that might mean you are a 1600/3200 guy? Sorry, but I think there are some fibs in here... but feel free to explain more.

You should cross-train if you can't handle mileage. A lot of extra aerobic volume so when you DO step on the track to run, it is focused on running quality.

Why did they both outkick me then even though my mile is about 5-10 seconds faster than both of them. They both run 50.xx while I could probably manage a 51 low right now

They were time trials so that’s why they were back to back, which is only done once a season. What else is confusing about the post that I can clarify?

Ohh okay that’s a good idea, how would I split that up? Maybe 20 miles of running and then 20 of biking?

I was a 4/8/mile runner who thought I struggled with going over 35mpw. One thing that really helped me was breaks during my runs on easy days. Rather than running 5 miles straight I found running 3 miles, 15-20min rest, 3 miles, a lot more sustainable. I'd do the same things on long runs periodically. I'd also always run my longer runs with varying paces and some fartlek style intervals for sections, but never making it too hard - something like 20 min easy, 20 minutes with some 20 second bursts every 3 minutes, repeat. sometimes with 3-5 minute rests in between. I'd also break up my warmups and cooldowns, but make them longer overall. I got into my best shape ever with getting my mileage up to 45+ mpw but with broken runs and getting in hills across my runs as much as possible to force pace and form changes.

Also, I feel like if I was a 1600/3200 guy then I’d be one of those kids who can’t break 2:10 but yet they run a 4:28 mile and a 9:25 2 mile and as you can see I am not