Running a sub57 400m

Do you start from blocks? I shaved an entire second off my time for the first 50m from practicing acceleration techniques. I'm a male and my PR is 52 seconds, and my 200m time is a 23.6. Mid 26s is more than enough speed to break 60. You need at least 27.5 200 speed to break 60.

My advice is to focus on getting out fast and then floating for the next 150m. At this point, I would move your arms faster and focus around the curves to not slow down. The last 100m of the race is the hardest but most important part in my opinion. You must keep good form and move your arms.

Yeah, this season I have done no sprint work whatsoever. My coach says he would like me to break 60 before he works on sprinting and says that really with my speed and decent enough endurance 60 should have already been broken. He said once I break 60 in really build my fitness that when we work on sprints everything should really come together. What I really want to work on is the floating phase. Thanks for the advice I was wondering about the starting portion. I feel like I come out way too conservatively to try to preserve energy only to discover that when I hit the 300m point it will all feel the same. Hopefully with really attacking the first 50m and working at that floating and keeping strong during the last portion will help me break 60 second this upcoming Wednesday.

I coach HS and have 3 girls running 58.1-61.1. To shave 2 seconds in a 400 is a lot to ask. I would consider working on speed development throughout the season 30-50m sprints full recovery. As your 200 is 26 mid you will need to split very close to your 200m PR to run a 58, so speed endurance should be a goal 4-6x200@ 400 goal/2-3 seconds (58/2=29-3=26) As far as race strategy I like to have have my runners attack the first 100/ float 150/ sprint last 150. Another favorite work out to achieve your goal 2-4x300@80% then 100m all out. Good luck.

That's

300@80% then 100m all out repeated 2-4 times.

Thank you so much! I'll put these workouts to good work over the next few weeks for sure. I'll update the thread to say what I run this upcoming meet.