Has anyone had any experience training collegiate 400m runners on Field Turf (or other similar synthetic fb surfaces)? I may have the option to put lines down on a football field for a 300 meter track. My concern is that the amount and kind of force production is too dissimilar to a rubber track surface and would therefore not give you the right training environment for 400m training. Any experience with this or thoughts on the matter?
you might have to slow down their target times by .5-1.0 second for grass.
when I was first coming back from injury, i did all my training on artificial turf because of the extra cushioning it offered. we never did any actual workouts but would do strides and the like on the turf. I think you will be all right training there. The grass in the turf isn't long enough to really slow you down too much. I'd have to agree with the above poster in the .5-1.0 second.
can't comment on specific 400m training but I've done some medium to faster-paced running on astroturf and felt all right. I'd encourage your runners to wear spikes or flats (or maybe even no shoes at all, like I sometimes did!), since the soft astroturf surface combined with a regular training shoe can feel too squishy to get a good "response" from the surface. But I wouldn't worry about surface specificity TOO much at this point. If it plays a role, it's probably minor. I agree with other posters; adjust times 0.5-1.0 sec/lap.
I have done that alot. It did bother me. It actually made my lower back hurt for a few days until I got used to it. I have to agree with the two posters before me. It is too mushy. You don't want to hurt them but it would be good to find a way to increase the resistance. Wayyyyy too mushy! It was a lot more effort. I even preferred concrete at the expense of my shins!
We did a lot of drills and strides across the field, diagonally. We found it to be a bit deadening,despite the rubber granules, thus there was not much give back from the run. I did not mind the surface, nor did my athletes. It certainly did nothing to hurt their legs any, since the surface was consistent and soft enough not to cause hard contact, such as when doing quick stuff on roads. We did find it took more effort to do the runs than on a regular track.
However, if you have no alternative I would think this is better than having to run on hard surfaces or the roads. I also agree that times would be a bit slower than on a poly track.