Racing a 400 then a 4x400 Leg, Good Speed Endurance Workout??

I do the same thing with my runners. We also have seven meets each season. In the early meets I tend to have them run an event longer than they are used to and later in the season have them run below their normal events.

I think it's important to give the kids some variety. This may just be my personal opinion, but I don't think they should be running the same events every meet. Furthermore, I think it's important to give them a week or two where they don't run their primary events at all.

An example of what I did last year for my top runner. He is primarily an 800/1600 runner with good speed (Soph, :52, 2:00, 4:34, 10:10):

Meet 1 1600/3200

Meet 2 1600/3200

Meet 3 800/1600/4x400

Meet 4 800/4x400

Meet 5 1600/3200

Meet 6 800/4x800

Meet 7 800/1600/4x800

As you can see, the first two meets he ran the longest, slowest events. He is more of a 400/800 runner who gets worse the longer the race. He has good speed even though we do little real speed work. Running the 3200 more early on helps build some strength for his 1600. He ran both his primary and secondary events in week 3 and a 400 to hit some speed. Week 4 he ran the two shortest events to work speed but also give him a "break" from the longer races. Meet 5 was back to the 1600/3200 to keep some strength and endurance element late in the season. Meet 6 was all short, fast races the week before our championship (we are an American school overseas and we only have a single championship meet).

It's a great 800m workout, I have done it many times. Trying to hit the same time for both is the aim.

Thanks for sharing Negative Splits. I also think variety is very important.

Would you consider running 2 400s in the same meet earlier the year to focus on speed/speed endurance or is that too much speed too early?

I think it depends on the runner and goals. My opinion is that earlier in the season strength and endurance should be the focus, so I don't worry much about speed at that point. However, that doesn't mean running 400s early can't be beneficial, especially if the runners in question lack speed. With that said, if your goal is to have them work on speed, I think it would be more beneficial to run a single 400 in two meets vs two in one meet. I believe working on something more frequently but at a lower intensity/load is better than overloading a short period (i.e. one all-out 400 in consecutive meets is better than 2 in one meet and then none after that). Again, that's all my opinion.