Hello, I'm currently a 16 year old sprinter who has PRs of 23 high this year in the 200m and 54 high last year in the 400m. I am looking for advice on getting to sub 50(or as close as possible) by the end of this year spring track(early June). I know my 200m is probably too slow, so how can I get that to sub 23 while still increasing endurance? Should I consider 800m style training too? thanks in advance!
Your 200 is definitely better than your 400, so I don't think improving that is the issue. I would say, train like any other sprinter (do mostly 10-80m intervals at top speed with plenty of rest, only work out 3-4 days a week and take the other days as off days, crosstrain, or do some easy jogging; maybe once every week or two replace one of your workouts with a speed endurance or cruise interval workout), with maybe a little more of the speed endurance and cruise intervals (maybe once every week).
Do everything to increase your speed.
And speed endurance where you are running fast 200m repeats with a lot of rest. Slow walk to the next rep.
Really push it so you are almost sick after a hard workout.
No 800m training.
Yes, improving that 200 is an issue.
He runs 23 high all out and needs to go out in 23 high at cruising effort in a sub 50 400.
no, man. all due respect, but this is not great advice.
OP:
Form drills, plyos, and increasing your core strength via weights and core exercises is critical here. a run of 30-45 minutes every three weeks or so is an excellent idea but other than that you need to focus on improving your muscle mass, efficiency of strides (focus not so much on being up on your toes but putting force in the ground), especially when you do accelerations and block starts. Blocks once a week, heavy lift once a week, and a hard run (250, 150, 3x30) on Fridays when not competing. You cannot break 50 in the 400 ntil you can run 22seconds for 200, and I would actually advise you to not focus on the open 400 for now, rather run the 4x100, 200, and 4x400 at meets. Make sure you emphasize recovery, and not get up to any funny business after meets (this seems trivial but most of my high school injuries came from staying out too late after meets/workouts and pulling something fooling around) and you will be fine. Best of luck!
You're pretty young, so I think you could look to improve in many areas. Your 200m is better than your 400m, but 23 high won't be quite fast enough to go sub 50. Like others said, training like a traditional sprinter with acceleration and top speed work will be beneficial. I also think something 400m guys ignore, at least young ones who aren't blazing fast at 100m, is some cruise interval type work. Think; tempo run, but for a sprinter. So that might just be 200m reps in 40s with a 100m walk or 400m reps in 90 with 1min rest or something similar. But this would only be done once a week in the off season or every other week early season, and maybe sprinkled in elsewhere. Cross training and/or easy jogging might be good on some of your easier days, at least early in the season or in the off season.
Personally I improved my 400m (split) from 53 to 49.9 in one year after upping my mileage from 50mpw to 70mpw, but I was also more consistent with lifting and hard strides / hill sprints. But having a good overall aerobic capacity is good for letting you put in more work when it matters. Which is why some light jogging or cross training may help in the long run, too.
As an example: There was a 200m runner who was a freshman who ran 22.XX mid in the 200m, but typically ran 53-54 in the 400m. He decided to do cross country the next year (he had done it once in high school), and although he'd do less mileage than us and substitute some workouts, he was still doing tempos and mile repeats and stuff, and he went from that 53 400m PR to 48.4 in the open 400m in one year, despite running about the same times in the 200m.
Also, are you lifting? If not, GET IN THE WEIGHT ROOM
ThatAverageRunner wrote:
You're pretty young, so I think you could look to improve in many areas. Your 200m is better than your 400m, but 23 high won't be quite fast enough to go sub 50.
If he is a distance guy, it could be just barely fast enough. But then I suppose he wouldn't be trying to improve his 400m specifically.
My PRs in the 200 and 400 while a middle distance guy: 23.8, 50.04
In 11th grade I ran 23.8 and a 55 split
The next year I ran 22.5 and 50.2 and also a 2:02 800
The difference was basically running the workouts with intensity.
Do everything faster the next time.
Drainthefecesswamp wrote:
ThatAverageRunner wrote:
You're pretty young, so I think you could look to improve in many areas. Your 200m is better than your 400m, but 23 high won't be quite fast enough to go sub 50.
If he is a distance guy, it could be just barely fast enough. But then I suppose he wouldn't be trying to improve his 400m specifically.
My PRs in the 200 and 400 while a middle distance guy: 23.8, 50.04
This is true. I had an athlete that was sub 50 that could not break 23.
Depends on what type of training you're already doing tbh
As a 37 year old last year I ran 49.37 and barely broke 23.
Take a look at my site, I've posted information on my own training as well as my coaching
In reality, you're not strong enough (not necessarily Gym work, but into specific and special sprint endurance)
Take a look at training programmes and see if you're doing similar work. etc
But tbh the best advise anyone can give is talk to your coach
I don’t know much about sprinting, but one thing i do know is that most sprinters, especially young ones, don’t understand the importance of lifting. Now, I wouldn’t recommend starting lifting mid season, but in the off season and early season lifting has given people huge improvements on all running events. I’m not gonna go over specific exercises, but obviously don’t just bench press and do bicep curls
You need hips to begin with....