getting outkicked

fly,

you can't kick because you burned it out of you earlier in the race, which means you're not strong enough to finish these races. 51 sec. is nice, but no good if you can't use it. To use it, you need to feel comfortable until you get to the point to use it. To get comfortable, you need to run some more damn miles, more damn steady/tempo runs and more damn hills. Quit burning out 55's in practice and get some strength. good luck.

` the spiker

I'm not really big fan of high mileage but 'the spiker is pretty much right. Or maybe you get too uptight during competion and aren't able to relax.

It has nothing to do with what you can run a fresh 400 in. It has to do with how fast you can run a 400 with 4,600 meters in your legs already. This comes down to carbohydrate sparing. How efficient is your aerobic energy system? The more efficient that system is, the better your body is at using lipids as fuel (as opposed to glycogen) during the race. Then, at the end of the race, when it is time to go anaerobic and kick, you have the carbohydrates available to fuel your kick. Those kids may only be able to turn 55 in an open quarter, but their aerobic energy systems are more efficient than your's.

In short, do more miles.

the amount of air that you have inside your body plays a substantial factor, just ask swimmers/sprinters. you can do a test of this by running an all out 40 yard dash after exhaling as much as possible, cough if you must, then do a 40 yard dash with as full of a breath as you know how to take. anyways, over that last 400 meters or so you want to have more air on reserve in your lungs which will make you slightly lighter on your feet and give you more power to draw from. instead of breathing as you had been previously in the race use a short rapid fire breath that keeps more air in your lungs, then at the end, if you are properly trained, you may wish to simply hold your breath all together. one of the fastest 800 runners ever recorded, about a 1:41 i believe by cruz, used this type of method extensively. of course this won't replace running greater mileage, but you could do both.

ridiculous notion

...yeah, what's new.

Obvious: Put in more miles and run fast at the end.

Less Obvious: There is more to a good kick than getting stronger. You must practice it like anything else. Practice accelerations and the speed and kick will follow. A good drill is following a tough workout, run 1200 meters around 5K pace with 5 accelerations (pace to full speed as fast as possible, in one to two steps if possible. Hold this for 20 meters, then drop back to 5K pace, no slower). This will be quite tough, but over time will teach you to accelerate and sprint when tired. Next, form is just as important in kicking as anything. First, you must shorten your stride and concentrate on being on your toes with great ankle thrust and rapid turnover. It is now a different set of muscles, that haven't been fully tapped yet. Practice this form whenever doing strides and speed workouts. Strides should follow every run. Barefoot strides following summer runs are good as it gets you up on your toes as I described. This can be learned just like gaining strength and hanging with the leaders can be learned. A :51 guy should not be outkicked by a :55 guy if the :51 guy is working at it like I mentioned. Remember, shorten the stride! Good luck and stay at it!

No one has ever out kicked me.....

I know the secret........

You see if they are all way ahead of you before the kick starts no can pass you at the end....

51 sec 400 and 26 min 5 mile?

And you say 55 sec guys are outkicking you in middle distance events?

That makes no sense at all.

You should be running sub-1:54 for the 800, which is back-to-back sub-57's...therefore how is a 55 second 400 guy going to beat you?

Unless these guys have incredible endurance, I don't see how they're beating you in 1500's either...

I thought it shouldn't make sense either! But it's true.

Four of my distance runner teammates had 55 sec 400m PR's. I don't know if they weren't running the quarter as well as they should have or what. They were more consistent and generally better at XC than myself though.

I figured that if we were around each other near the end of a track race I'd be able to outkick any of them all the time, but instead had been outkicked by each of them one or more times.. Seemed that there was always one of them who had more juice left for the kick at the end.

The answer is in the realm of mental ability. Train as hard as you want and run tons of miles, but if a guy who wants 'it' worse than you decides to go get it, he will beat you every time. This isn't rocket science. I know guys that will sprint till their eyeballs are bleeding. A guy like that will beat you every time. In short, he wants it more than you do. How do I know? The proof is in the results.

dude you can blow me out of the perverbial water but it sounds like you need to take you balls out of your mothers purse and drop the perverbial hammer and leave those 55 second guys in the dust. honestly though it sounds more mental than anything, know that you can beat them and you will... besides you shouldnt be worring about beating your teammates. good luck

Maybe try plyometrics?

put some mileage in and start your kick farther out...

You guys need to go back and read my first post again. I gave you the answer and you ignore it. There is a bit mental to it of course. However, if you don't have the glycoge to fuel that kick, it doesn't matter how bad you want it. Your mind can't overcome the lack of an energy source, if you want it bad enough, glycogen won't suddenly appear.

Finish every run, even with your easy ones, with a kick starting no shorter than 1/4 mile out and sprint the last 100m. Trust me, it works. I've never, never, ever been out kicked.

The worst thing you can do is be one of those idiots that tries to compensate for a lack of speed by trying to push the pace for every step of the race. You see a guy like this at almost every championship race. He'll set the pace for the first 2 1/2 miles of a 5K as the kickers nip at his heels. They just wait until the last lap, thank him for the help, and blast by him.

Instead you should experiment and figure out the earliest point that you can reasonably start your kick. By doing this, you can get away from guys with great kicks or at least wear them down enough that they don't have the energy to get you at the end.

But as my college coach used to say, "Whatever you do, doing f---ing lead!"

Back in the day ... I would eat guys like you up in the last 300m. Dude, you have to relax! I routinely outkicked guys that had *much* more natural speed than I. If I could *relax* and run close to my top end in the last 2-300m then I could take care of just about anyone around me. Also, you have to be confident in your abilty to kick ... which makes it easier to relax. Just last night I saw a guy with a shirt that read "The first rule of baseball ..." "...You gotta believe!" Same think with a kick ... "you gotta believe!"

slow man with a kick wrote:

The worst thing you can do is be one of those idiots that tries to compensate for a lack of speed by trying to push the pace for every step of the race.

You mean, like Paula Radcliffe?