why can't I break 60 in the 400?

Those aren't speed workouts

You are ... Naturally ... Slow

With training you will be a faster Slow

Can you break 30 in a 200?

What's your 200 pr?

400s and 1200s are not speed workouts

do 100s, 150s, 200s and try to get your sprint speed up.

Do plenty of 150s. those help a lot.

If you want to work on your speed, do max speed workouts with full rest, e.g. 3-5x150s, 300s with, say, 5-10 minutes rest; max short steep hill sprints (walk down recovery); plyos, etc. Right now you are aerobically powerful and could probably run a good 10k/half marathon as your speed decay is good.

cus 20 40s at slower than mile pace isn't speed? How do you expect to run 2 200s back to back under 30 seconds without ever running that pace? Try 4x400ms off 8 minutes hard.

jjjjjj wrote:

If you want to work on your speed, do max speed workouts with full rest, e.g. 3-5x150s, 300s with, say, 5-10 minutes rest; max short steep hill sprints (walk down recovery); plyos, etc. Right now you are aerobically powerful and could probably run a good 10k/half marathon as your speed decay is good.

Or better yet, he maybe should keep on with what he is doing. Assuming he is young, those are solid distance times. The speed also tends to come as we get finish puberty. Not saying he shouldn't work on speed at all, but people get too eager to work on speed because we see the elites do it. But they are doing it because they can run at a much higher percentage of max speed for a given distance, so they need to work on top end to improve. They didn't work on much max v in high school, that only came later.

You sound like a distance dude. Start training for marathons today.

Yeah but their speed workouts were probably faster than mile pace...

troll thread suckers

I would quit running xc for school and go pro running the marathon.

http://www.mprunning.com/

This is probably a troll thread but I just want to respond to this terrible post by "somebody who races".

Speedwork is very important and there is no reason to not specifically work on your speed. Advocating ignoring speed work and hoping you get faster as you age is a great way to remain slow all your life. The poster that suggested plyos, short sprints and steep hills is along the right lines. I don't understand why so many distance runners are afraid of speed training; Haile, Bekele and El G weren't.

randomxcguy wrote:

So I can run a 4:41 mile and a 2:09 800 as well as a 9:53 for the 2 mile and a 16:31 hilly course 5k. Wtf is going on?? I do speed workouts like 20x400 at 73 sec and 5x1200 at 4 mins. What gives??

Focus on the marathon. You are never going to excel at shorter distances. I am not trying to insult you. I had the same problem and the half or full marathon were my best events.

Besides what others have suggested:

How old are you?

Have you hit puberty yet?

Do you do strength work (high weight, low rep power lifting)?

I never broke 60 in hs or college, and my prs were(all indoor): 2:04 800, 4:08 1500, 8:54 3000, 15:36 5K. I wasn't doing any strength work in the gym, however. I stopped running and started lifting in my sophomore year of college, gained a few pounds of muscle, and, although I never timed myself for a 400, I am absolutely certain I would have broke 60s by a wide margin. I know this is far from "proof", but I informally raced a teammate of mine in the 100 (whose 400 pr was 56), and beat him by at least 5 yards.

Also, I know of a couple of examples of hs guys who got injured, took a month or more off from running but hit the weights, and came back with significantly more speed.

Bad Wigins wrote:

troll thread suckers

Concur.

Coaches of HS runners with those times will often have them run a 4x400 as part of training. I've had kids that couldn't break 5:00/11:00 still run a 56-57 in the 400.

Only way you can run a 2:09 and not break 60 is if you are running 100 mpw and your running talent is maxed out.

I don't know. Many years ago when I was much younger my best mile was 4:21. I never could break 60 in the 400.

if you want leg speed find a 200-400m gradual hill and run repeats of that 12-16 times once every other week. You will get fast this way.

toxoman wrote:

I don't know. Many years ago when I was much younger my best mile was 4:21. I never could break 60 in the 400.

The problem with this statement is that practically every 4:20 miler can break 2:00 in the 800. If you are sub-2:00 in the 800, one of those laps is going to be sub 60.

And obviously those guys can go faster in the 400.

Heck, I see girls with a 4:45 mile time go 57 in the 400. And high school female distance runners aren't known for their fast twitch muscle prowess.

Usually, I see about a 5-7 second spread per 400 between 400 pace and 800 pace.

Bad Wigins wrote:

troll thread suckers

Because you white