Daughters First open 400m

[rich121]

My daughter, age 14/Freshman, finally got to run her first open 400m race yesterday, after much going back and forth with the coaches over the past month... they would say she wasn't ready, but finally let her.

It didn't sound like the announcer, who is the track coach of the "rival" track team, who was putting on the meet, though so!

Any pointers that could help her would be appreciated.

She does have continued arm/form issues that we have been working on for the past 3 years...slowly getting better.

She is in Lane #6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=UmpdarbY04s

Final time was 1:01.17 Automatic

[John]

That was her that blitzed the field? Probably worth mentioning that. Alos as you put in the vid description.

After going to the Philippines for 2 weeks, spending the first half of the trip sick, and not working out with her team for those 2 weeks, She finally got back yesterday after spending 16 hours on in the air and today gets to run her first 400m of the year.

looked really good, well paced, held form well and didn't appear to tie up. I wouldn't get too hung up on the arm issues, there are a whole heap of top runners that look worse than she does.

[TMSSF]

looked really good, well paced, held form well and didn't appear to tie up. I wouldn't get too hung up on the arm issues, there are a whole heap of top runners that look worse than she does.

I concur there. Midway through the homestretch she seemed relatively relaxed to me. Perhaps when she returns to more consistent routines the other pieces will be more stabilized and reap more benefit there.

[T-Slow]

I agree with the comments from John and TMSSF, no major problems there!

Seems like she has a lot of confidence in her ability to judge the correct pace for herself regardless of what everyone else is doing, and that is not that common. A quick time too. She is a fine young athlete!

[rainy.here]

Impressive for an opening 400m. Hard to see, but it looked like about 30 seconds for the first 200m, so this is a pretty reasonable distribution. I've found, depending on the athlete of course, that opening in about 29.5 leads to 60ish. With competition, she could have run a little faster down the stretch, but it's hard to push through pain with a huge lead.

[rich121]

Thanks for the suggestions and if you can see more, please keep them coming.

I can add a 1/100 second timer to the video tomorrow if that would help?

Again, thank you!

[spike]

Let her enjoy it...just remember she is 14. If she is thinking 400s may be her event I would encourage her to train for the shorter sprints 100/200m for quite a few years while still racing the 400s. In the end of the day her 400m ability will be determined by her speed. If she still has the passion in a few years then she can begin to do the specific work required to run 400s.

[rich121]

Her schools sprint program is very general, as it encompasses sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. Most of the program is based on training for 100m/200m and only one day a week do they get to run 200m-300m tempo.

[rainy.here]

Let her enjoy it...just remember she is 14. If she is thinking 400s may be her event I would encourage her to train for the shorter sprints 100/200m for quite a few years while still racing the 400s. In the end of the day her 400m ability will be determined by her speed. If she still has the passion in a few years then she can begin to do the specific work required to run 400s.

^ Exactly this. Build speed first, then when she's older start working on the special endurance needed to finish a 400m well.

A 1/100 timer isn't important; I was just commenting that her pace was good and isn't anything that even needs addressing.

[rich121]

This post:
"Her schools sprint program is very general, as it encompasses sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. Most of the program is based on training for 100m/200m and only one day a week do they get to run 200m-300m tempo."

Should have been in quotes, as an answer to this post:
" Let her enjoy it...just remember she is 14. If she is thinking 400s may be her event I would encourage her to train for the shorter sprints 100/200m for quite a few years while still racing the 400s. In the end of the day her 400m ability will be determined by her speed. If she still has the passion in a few years then she can begin to do the specific work required to run 400s."

As that is how I thought I replied...I have had to repeat a couple posts as they never left the "reply" box to the thread...