Was wondering, if an athlete does a 400m in 56 seconds at the track on his own, with no specialist 400m training (ie road running and a few days of 200m reps the two weeks before), what could he theoretically do for the 400m in a race after some proper 400m training. Is there that much room for improvement? The athlete was basically fit, but had just not done proper speedwork for the 400m and ran the 400m alone on an empty track. He doesn’t want to be a 400m runner, but feels that if he knew what potential he had there, he could work out some goals for the longer stuff, as he's able to do 10km runs at a good pace off low mileage, so the stamina/endurance potential is there.
Also, with a 2:01 800 pb in a race, but with the same non specialist prep as above, what would his 400m PR been at the time (guaging off his 800 time)?
Finally (sorry), if that same athlete had done that all at age 20, what should he realistically expect to do at age 31, with proper training, bearing in mind he has taken 10 years off, but is now training a little better than back then (thanks to science!).
Thank youse!!