10x100 with 300 jog recovery for 400-800 tupes

I was a junior high/hs/college XC and T&F athlete. I'm in my mid-50s now.

Two or three days a week, I am doing 7 x 120yds. on a 120 yard soccer field, 16 or 17 seconds, averaging low 17. First one in 18.xx. Four minutes of walking recovery. I am not doing 120s to be an anaerobic tough guy. When I get faster, I will go to 12 x 120yds. I will eventually cut my recovery time to 2 1/2 minutes. I just started doing this workout two weeks ago.

Maybe get them off the track and do 110m/120yds. on a soccer field on Mondays instead of 100m on track. Maybe lengthen the recovery for the 110m/120yds. You have all season doing 200s & 300s with short recovery to build anaerobic fitness. I say soccer field because none of your athletes are 100/200 athletes. Sprinting increases the risk of injury. Soccer field lowers the risk a bit.

I do static start, not rolling start. One of your gals/guys is going to race first leg of 4 x 400m relay. No rolling start on first leg of 4 x 400m. Static start stimulates the brain and muscles to fire out of the blocks.

The idea is good, but the way you are prescribing them is not ideal.

Igloi used to prescribe 100s to build the aerobic system for fast-twitch runners, but the key was to use short rest. He would use 20-30x100 with 100m jog rests. You get similar benefits as a lactate threshold or CV workout, at a more specific pace and without the mental breakdown that running CV paces often cause for more fast-twitch guys like 400/800 specialists.

Your 100s with 300m rest at a quicker pace (12-13 instead of 14) are not quick enough to build speed (your 40-80m sprints are perfect for that), and too much recovery to get a great aerobic stimulus (HR would drop too much). Also, the quick pace on the 100s means more anaerobic involvement than if you do them around 800m pace.

Sounds like a fine workout but just to be clear you’re using this as a speed endurance workout not a speed development one?

This will certainly help your runners over 400m but as far as increasing their max speed it won’t do much.

That being said, it could still be quite beneficial. As they get used to it I would either add more reps or shorten the rest a bit.

How far apart are the 400 and 800 in your state? Mine their back to back Indoors and outdoors its 400/300H/800.

The 10x100m (300j) is one of the workouts we introduced last year after discovering the "5x60m" thread and making a new commitment to speed development. As another poster said, and as you yourself know, this workout is not speed development. An idea I get from another coach (successful on the HS level) was to preface this workout with 3x30m fly to keep up some maintenance on acceleration mechanics. That coach would modify the introductory work in the direction of speed endurance (e.g. 3x120m) later in the season. Make sure to recover adequately for and from that introductory work.

Anyway, we have a stable of 400-800 kids and a stable of 800-1600 kids. For the former group, 100m at that speed was easy, but the jogging recovery left them feeling and looking flat for later efforts. Those without XC experience flamed out pretty hard by rep 3. We'll probably need to find something else to get them a similar benefit. Most of the latter group found the mechanics at that speed difficult or at least unfamiliar but found the greater challenge coming from the jogging recovery (sometimes reduced to a shuffle by the end) even as they were able to hold speed and form on the sprint side. Our few aerobic monsters struggled to keep their times down on the 100m, but found the work only moderately taxing at best.

The 10x100 was definitely for speed endurance. It was a transition to some longer 400 paced stuff.

Just got home from our season opener distance carnival. The 800 kids PRed all over the place. Our 800m list is already way ahead of where it was at the end of last track season. The 16-32 kids ran pretty well also, but I can’t really take credit for that because I’m not working with that group directly.

I’m playing with the idea of going back to the 10x100 session one more time this year. I don’t know though.

If I do, it will be next week. My big dogs don’t compete again until we have our county meet two weeks from tonight. Next week might go

Mon 10x 100/300jog

Wed: 6-7x3 min cv, 1 min easy

Fri: 5x800 @vVO2 with 4 min recovery.

Following week would go

Mon. 1200 @ cv + 2x50 max + 2x300 @400 full recovery.

Tue 5x5 min tempo, 1 min easy

Thu 4 miles easy + 6x200@mile goal pac

Fri. Meet

Personally, I am still progressing in average time per 100m even after doing 10x100 m with walk back (3 min) during about 10 consequtive weeks onr time per week on the track. However, I am nearly 50.

wacku wrote:

Personally, I am still progressing in average time per 100m even after doing 10x100 m with walk back (3 min) during about 10 consequtive weeks onr time per week on the track. However, I am nearly 50.

it works for me as well. a 25-30min hill run followed by 8-10x100m with walk back or preferably 5-6x150m with a quick walk back (about 90s) at close to 400m pace is a staple workout for me all year round, needs only about 45min in total (great for people who have stressful days). it turned out to be some sort of "quality maintanance" (strength, speed and a relaxed form while running).

CoachB wrote:

we did 2 sessions of 100@400 gp with 300 jog. My distance kids were surprised how hard it was.

That should not be too hard, unless they're taking those jogs too fast and doing the 100s upwind.

But if they're having a hard time, they're probably not used to that much volume at higher cadence. Adapting to the cadence doesn't help 1500 or up, and hammering the aerobic end as that does for more than 10 minutes won't affect their 400.

Here’s my two cents!

As a 400-800 but not bad at the mile type, I’d say some of the most beneficial workouts for me had repetitions somewhere between 200-600 meters ranging from faster than to just over 800 race pace. Usually the 400-800 type benefits from very high quality reps over quantity. I have for the most part kept my speed work very compact, rarely exceeding two miles of volume a session, but usually average at least sub 4:15 pace which has really helped me to develop speed endurance and lactic tolerance. At the same time I do my tempo and long runs and easy mileage to make sure I’m in that 50 mpw range, which is still pretty high for a 400-800 guy. The only loss with this method is the 3200. I go from a 52 400, 2:00 800, and 4:40ish mile to not being able to break 11 in the 3200.

Hope this little ramble makes sense haha

Update.

Monday. Interrupted tempo. 5x4min @85%vVO2 (about 5:50 pace). Med balls

Tue: 3mwu, drills, strides, 1x50 @100%, 1200@ 90% (4:14)1 min Recovery 800 @ 2:47 2-3 min recovery, 300 @ 39, 8 minutes active recovery. 300@ 38. 2 lap cd, weights (strength endurance lifts. Sets of 30 seconds, major muscle groups)

Wed: 30 min shake out plus med balls

Tomorrow: 3 miles easy + drills + 6x200@ 33 (seasons goal mile pace) with 90 ish second recovery

Fri: Race at county meet. Looking for 52-53 for the 400 for my top guys and 2:05 ish for the 800. My best miler gave blood last Friday, I would have been looking for a sub 4:40, but he’s still a little down, so sub 4:50 would be fine. My other miler ran 4:50 in his first ever race a couple of weeks ago, but has been a little gimpy. We’ll see. He’s healthy now but had to cross train for 5 days.

Sat. 70 minutes easy