Summer 400m Prep

[Oni]

This summer i'm gonna be training for the 400m. This is what i came up with, i was wondering if u guys can critic it:

I'm going to change the workout every 3-4 weeks due to anticipated improvement. I will basically just increase the volume of training.

First:

Monday: 3x 300m @ 85-90% w/ 3’ rest ; 4x 150m @ 85-90% w/ 2’ rest [10’ rest between 300& 150]
Tuesday: 10x100m @ 75-80% w/ 5’ rest [weights]
Wednesday: Plyometrics/ Acc. Dev ( 5x 30m w/ 5’ rest)
Thursday: 8x150m @ 75-80% w/ 5’ rest
Friday: 6x200m @ 85% w/ 3’ rest
Saturday: Long Jump Drills/ Weights
Sunday: Active Rest

The second one is:

Monday: 2x 500m @ 85-90% w/ 5 min rest ; 2x 300m @ 85-90% w/ 3 min rest [10min rest in between]
Tuesday: 5x200m @ 75-80% w/ 5’ rest [weights]
Wednesday: Plyometrics/ Max V (5x Flying 50s w/ 5 min rest)
Thursday: 100-200-300-300-200-100 @ 70-75% w/ distance ran walk in between
Friday: 8x200m @ 85% w/ 3’ rest
Saturday: Long Jump Drills / Weights
Sunday: Active Rest

Third:

Monday: 2x600m @ 85-90% w/ 10 min rest ; 3x 300m @ 85-90% w/3 min rest
Tuesday: 8x200m @ 75%-80% w 5’ rest [weights]
Wednesday: Plyos, 4x150m @ 95% w/ 5 min rest
Thursday: 4x300m @ 75-80% w/ 5 min rest
Friday: 6x200m @ 90% w/ 3min rest ; 4x 150 @ 90% w/ 2 min recovery ; 2 x 100m @ 90% w/ 1 min recovery
Saturday: Long Jump Drills / Weights
Sunday: Active Rest

[kitkat1]

Oni, hi

Maybe you should think about increasing the speed/percentage-effort of your runs over the cycles to come as you get fitter, rather than increasing the volume. I would suggest your volume is sufficient to get a good result at 400m.

Your sample weeks look a bit more like General Preparation Phase work than in-summer season training. The plyo and the acceleration sessions seem to be the only days you are potentially going to go near 100% effort.

The other thing is you've got six sessions a week on the track (which is including the plyo/accel days). I hope you're going to get massage because that's quite a load for the legs and back.

There is also a bit of doubling up in each of those sample weeks. Why do two sessions of repeat 200s ( or a session of repeat 150s and repeat 200s in the same week)? It's starting to look a bit like an 800m training program when you get too much into that area.

Perhaps you can play around with varying the intensities and/or recovery times, or introduce a new element such as a long hill with a slight incline (eg, 300m hill, incline 10-15-degrees, grass or dirt to lessen impact on legs).

How old are you Oni? What is your training background? What are your goals for the coming summer? Will you run only 400m, or long jump, hurdles? The answers (to where you've been) will help determine where you can proceed, if you know what I mean.
kk

[Nikoluski]

KitKat,
sorry for the irrelevant of the question, but i don't remember this being covered in the "anaerobic threshold" thread, as it's a question for track training twice per week

so, if one session is for accel/speed, how best is the other one managed for 200-400m? speed has improved indoors, but i am pretty sure i'll have 400s in there in the summer for the club, so i need to get some relative fitness

would you have a simple progression of 200s getting the time down to that of the 2nd 200 of a 400m race and later on perhaps add, or alternate fast special endurance runs, when speed will also be there?

thanks and apologies to Oni!

[Oni]

Hey kitkat, thanks for the heads up. Now that i think about it, i really do lack speed work.

A little bit about myself, im 17 and have been running for 3 consecutive years. My goals for this the next season is to run 53s and below. So far my best is 55s. I will also do long jump, but im focusing primarily on 400m.

Oh by the way, when i said training during the summer, i meant im gonna be training for the next season (march - june).

Do you think i shoudl take out one of those 150/200m sessions, and add in speed work such as acc dev? The reason im not doing any hill runs is because i cant find any around here. Thanks

[kitkat1]

Hey kitkat, thanks for the heads up. Now that i think about it, i really do lack speed work.

A little bit about myself, im 17 and have been running for 3 consecutive years. My goals for this the next season is to run 53s and below. So far my best is 55s. I will also do long jump, but im focusing primarily on 400m.

Oh by the way, when i said training during the summer, i meant im gonna be training for the next season (march - june).

Do you think i shoudl take out one of those 150/200m sessions, and add in speed work such as acc dev? The reason im not doing any hill runs is because i cant find any around here. Thanks

Hi Oni (& Niko),
I think you might get caught up in a kind of dynamic stereotype (stuck in the same rhythm) if you work too often, for too many reps in the same intensity over the same distance.

Despite what I wrote earlier, you don't necessarily have to delete a 150/or 200 session but I think you can profit more by changing one of the variables (if you decide not to vary the distance).

By that I'm suggesting maybe you break the 6-8 x 200m into maybe three sets, so for e.g. 3 x (200m + 200m) with the 200m in around 3sec slower than what you are currently able to run for 200m from a standing start. (So go run a time trial when you are a bit fresh and see what you can do today for 200m, then add 3sec and you'll have the come-home speed for the 400m you are currently capable of running. E.g. If you can today run 200m in 23.8sec, then you're talking about running 200m repeats in around 27sec 28sec.

If you could run 3 x (28sec + 28sec) with about 2 minutes between those two 200m runs done in 28sec, you would have a session that is relatively intense but still not so raging hot that you couldn't do it in winter or do it without risking an injury. It is a pretty safe session. BUt it's still hard. Try just one set of it.

The role of General Preparation Phase (GPP) is to cover all your fitness needs specific to your event. A high jumper or a thrower doesn't need to run short recovery repeat 200s. It's not relevent to their needs. BUt it probably is for your needs Oni. So you've chosen the right kind of distance to run your track reps over.

If you decide to drop one of your repeat 200 sessions and you don't have a hill to run up, some people like to run on sand, some up stadium stairs, some through ankle-deep water (if you are near the beach).

If those sessions are part of your GPP you might opt for a circuit session, like dividing a football field (basketball or tennis court) into "stations" and skipping, hopping or bounding (or running) from point to point and then doing a set of exercises at each point, eg. 10 x sit ups, or 10 x pushups, of 10 x vertical jumps (knees to chest). You can build those reps up to 30 if you want (or more). BUt you want to build a few of those stations into a little circuit and go continuously for at least a few minutes. I like a circuit which is simple but we do it on a soccer field and the best of the athletes I've worked with have got the time down to well under six minutes (although some have taken 15 minuets to get through it when they first do it. We take full recovery between after completing a circuit and then do it one more time.

Stuff like the circuit, hills, sand, shallow water, stairs are all "bridges" from the strength developed in the gym (squats, power-cleans, benchpress etc) and the sprinting/jumping.

Niko hi,
You're probably right in all you've said here. I think the session of repeat 200s I described to Oni (and the simple formula for arriving at a target time for your repeatable 200s) would be appropriate for anyone who is also looking to dabble with the 400m but may only want to do one session a week.

Of course, there will come a time when a 400m runner needs to go beyond 200m and run some 300m reps at a sustained pace, as described somewhere in that monsyer thread called "lactate threshold" (which, for Oni's reference, if in the "Sprint Training" section, probably on page two now because no-one has contributed to it for a couple of weeks to boot it back to the top of the heap )

kk

[Oni]

Kitkat, I like the idea of the split runs. I'llprobably change my friday's session into something like that. As for thecircuit sessions, I don't know when to do it, maybe i should take off weight training during saturday and do that instead. By the way, do you think my speed development is adequate? Because i think to run a good 400m, my 200m time must be faster.

[kitkat1]

Kitkat, I like the idea of the split runs. I'llprobably change my friday's session into something like that. As for thecircuit sessions, I don't know when to do it, maybe i should take off weight training during saturday and do that instead. By the way, do you think my speed development is adequate? Because i think to run a good 400m, my 200m time must be faster.

Hi Oni,
You haven't said what your pb times are for 100, 150, 200, 300?

But yes, you don't really have a speed development component in any of the three sample weeks here, except for the odd acceleration session.

You have to address that issue of course. You can do it by putting in a couple of high quality sessions per week, but you need to be pretty fresh when you do those sessions. So that means you may want to look at building a couple of very easy days (or rest days) into your week.
Or you may look at a structured system of cycles, where you do a little block of training where the emphasis is on speed development for a couple of weeks and then carry a thread of that speed into a secondary block of a couple of weeks where your emphasis will be on endurance (cardio-vascular as well as muscle - - the sort of stuff you've listed in your sample weeks). Oni there has been a huge amount of discussion on this idea (concurrent development plan for 400m) in that aforementioned "lactate threshold" thread.
kk

[Nikoluski]

KitKat,
much appreciated!

In terms of >200m intervals, depending on time and progress, i might have to "wait for it" to come through racing itself, which might suffer at first, but i can leave with it... -if some of these races come early... time and schedule will tell...

thanks!

PS if i am not mistaken, the French is away...

[Oni]

Ya, i read that lactate threshold thread. It was long and brutal but yet i finished it. Here's what im going to do, im going to rearrange the sessions, so that im more fresh for the speed work:

<GPP> 4 weeks

Monday: Acc Dev/Plyos *Weights
Tuesday: Tempos Runs 1200m (will slowly build up)
Wednesday: Split Runs 3x(2x200m w/ 30s rest) *Weights
Thursday: (same as tuesday or low intensity plyos)
Friday: 3x(300m + 150m w/ 30s rest)
Saturday: Core/Weights
Sunday: Rest

What do you think? Wednesday and Friday's volume will go up as time pass.

[Nikoluski]

Ya, i read that lactate threshold thread. It was long and brutal but yet i finished it. Here's what im going to do, im going to rearrange the sessions, so that im more fresh for the speed work:

<GPP> 4 weeks

Monday: Acc Dev/Plyos *Weights
Tuesday: Tempos Runs 1200m (will slowly build up)
Wednesday: Split Runs 3x(2x200m w/ 30s rest) *Weights
Thursday: (same as tuesday or low intensity plyos)
Friday: 3x(300m + 150m w/ 30s rest)
Saturday: Core/Weights
Sunday: Rest

What do you think? Wednesday and Friday's volume will go up as time pass.

KitKat will comment on that, i suppose.

however, if i remember correctly he recommended 2 min rests between the split 200s. Look for consistency throughout this session, i think it'll work better this way...

also, Fri's session seems pretty hard with this volume -and you say that it might go up later on, too; what speed are you planning to run these at? In any case, full recoveries between sets should be a must

thoughts?