I don't really have any aspiration to do this, as I am ultimately interested in the Marathon, but I was just wondering if any of you guys were successful at doing this? Does anybody know of any elites who effectively transitioned from the former to the latter?
Crossfit brah
Elites? Nah. Our fastest 400 guy quit the distance team because the long runs were too grueling though.
Coe had world class speed 400-1500 at the same time, so he probably had the talent to be a 200 400 guy.
There have been people who have "moved down" in distance with success but I don't know about that far.
This isn't really "distance running" but Usain Bolt thought he was a 400 man then figured out he was a 100/200 man. Michael Johnson also started at the 400 then moved to the 200, but he then returned to the 400. The 400 and 200 are events that don't have a lot of crossover. Michael Johnson was an exception there.
Ritzenhein pulled his 12:56 5k off of Marathon training. That's a long distance road race to a middle distance track race.
I don't know of anyone moving from 800 to 400 and doing well internationally, I do know of a high school runner who moved down pretty successfully, but the 800 remained his better event. The "brojos" probably know this person, because he went to Cornell.
With the 1500 and the 800, I looked up Sebastian Coe but he started out as an 800 man then moved up. Alan Webb did well moving down, but he remained better at the mile. Nick Symmonds did both events but he appeared to always be better at 800.
The majority of people above the 400 who change "main events" seem to move up rather than down.
I've heard of pretty good sprinters becoming great distance runners, but never the opposite.
Daryl Basarab wrote:
There have been people who have "moved down" in distance with success but I don't know about that far.
This isn't really "distance running" but Usain Bolt thought he was a 400 man then figured out he was a 100/200 man. Michael Johnson also started at the 400 then moved to the 200, but he then returned to the 400. The 400 and 200 are events that don't have a lot of crossover. Michael Johnson was an exception there.
Nonsense, where did you get that from?
Flojo is another one of those. She won NCAA championships at 200, then 400...THEN she did 100.
The selection mechanisms in many high schools in the US are pretty well known. Have everybody who comes out for track run 30m or 50m. The losers become distance runners (and if you have an Allyson Felix, you have to go back and measure the distance to make sure you did it right--no kidding).
But what about kids that had talent for sprinting that never worked on that talent, those stuck with distance-oriented coaches that didn't know how to train for sprints (they weren't running enough mileage), and those that "thought" they were distance runners? Not to mention those that did soccer, hoops, or baseball and didn't want to run at all when they were younger.
There are probably plenty of people who are doing the wrong event--distance runners who would be better sprinters if they trained for it, and vice versa.
Stanley Floyd was a miler in HS. Won 1980 NCAA 100 his soph yr
Fawn Dorr was a d3 800/1500 type runner who got injured and couldn't handle any volume at all, then became an NCAA champ at the 400m hurdles. Not a huge drop, really, between 800m and 400m hurdles...but for someone who was at the d3 level in the 800, she's REALLY fast. 52.51 flat 400 PR.
Daryl Basarab wrote:
Ritzenhein pulled his 12:56 5k off of Marathon training. That's a long distance road race to a middle distance track race.
Yeah umm, 5000m is not 'middle distance', clueless.
lolzzz wrote:
Daryl Basarab wrote:Ritzenhein pulled his 12:56 5k off of Marathon training. That's a long distance road race to a middle distance track race.
Yeah umm, 5000m is not 'middle distance', clueless.
Why isn't it middle distance?
your genetics determne what events you can be competitive at
Jarryd Wallace -- not your typical elite.
Went from 800/1600m Georgia High School State Champ to a 2011 Parapan Champ at 100m, and Paralympic athlete in the 4x100m.
He's the first athlete that came to my mind.
Could world-class 10k or marathon runners run a fast 100 or 200m? If they worked at it, you bet. Could they run world-class or "elite" times for 100/200m? I seriously doubt it. At that level, the athletes in the Olympic trials or national championships have a certain genetic component that has enabled them to make it there.
I think Carmelita Jeter was a 10K specialist early in her college career then decided to try shorter stuff. She found her niche at 100 meters and the rest is history.
i believe there was a German 400 meter runner who medalled in the world champs about 12 years ago. He had previously been a marathoner. i forgot his name and i am too lazy to luck it up.
Didn't you know? 100-800 is pure sprinting, 1500 is an extended sprint, 5000-10000 is middle distance, HM and Marathon are long distance. This is why you have to run, minimum, 120 miles per week to be moderately successful at the middle distance races. Juantorena did.
Not exactly, the same but I knew a guy in high school who ran 49.1 400m as a sophomore. He ran XC for strength training and I think he ran low 16's for 3 miles.
Yes! wrote:
Not exactly, the same but I knew a guy in high school who ran 49.1 400m as a sophomore. He ran XC for strength training and I think he ran low 16's for 3 miles.
I think the ability is thre for most fast distance men to drop to sprints (emphasis on fast distance men).
fggg wrote:
lolzzz wrote:Yeah umm, 5000m is not 'middle distance', clueless.
Why isn't it middle distance?
because it's too long...
I always liked Said Aouita as an example of moving down. 5000m gold in 1980, 800m bronze in 1988.