I have an athlete wishing to run a 400m. He has plenty of experience running so the demand on the CNS i am not worried about. I have done a search and still have some questions. I looked through the lactate threshold thread but my eyes went blurry after the first 5 pages.
My first question would how to set up a GPP for this athlete using either long to short or short to long? I have both the GPP dvd and the vancouver 04 dvd but i am assuming the workouts on them are more geared towards the 100m.
What types of volumes are you guys using?
What intensity are you starting at?
Even sample workouts would be appreciated
Any thoughts or suggestion would be greatly appreciated
The way of the 400 which is the abridged version of the Lactate Threshold Training thread which contains a GPP template. I am tempted to post it here but think it is best discovered as part of the thread as there are many pearls of wisdom. In summary… it works
I believe the 2 x 2 x 40-20-20 are the fast-easy-fast runs or vice versa (easy-fast-easy)… If I’m wrong please correct me… Remember that the 400m is still a sprint, and there is still an emphasis on developing that ability to accelerate out to 60m hard. The GPP in the links provided will give examples of the concurrent plan… It does work, I had a modified version used for about 5 weeks and I had my best 400m times come because (in my opinion) I had worked more on my acceleration which was my weak point.
Now that I have gotten my accel ability even better, I have been thinking about concentrating on the shorter events next season (100m in particular) because that has been neglected for years. I have had pretty much no true solid speed work up until recently (ran 4.48h for 40 yards this summer) and I feel that has had a big part in holding me back. Even with that, I still managed to split 49.9h this year…
Anyways, my point is to ensure that the speed development is there while concurrently building the strengths needed to run the quarter. The links will provide all the info and more for you. Hope I was of some help.
He is 21, but coming off knee surgery, and has a pb of 50.1.
So start with accel and work up is what your suggesting. Could he do something similar to the 100m short to long with just a little more volume, or changing the distances of the runs.
They are in Transition which is a long way down the road and they are not the same at all. They go
Build to max speed over 40, max speed for 20, relaxed for 20 but at very simialr velocity as max speed.
Rest 8-10 minutes between each rep, 10-12 between sets then 15 mins before going on to the next section for the day.
Does your question How would someone set it up for a beginner runner who cant train every day but can every other day? relate to your 21 y.o. or are they seperate?
Re the sled versus hills, I recall KK basically saying make the effort to find Hills he had athletes who would travel 40 minutes to train on them, do you live in a totally flat area?
I am in no way an expert on 400m far far far from it by any stretch of the imagination. All my knowledge on it comes from KK’s postings here.
My suggestion would be read the The Lactate Threshold Thread, yes it is long and will take a while but it is worth it. Post questions there as I know KK keeps an eye on that and his and others knowledge far exceeds mine.
Yeah the athltete who is 21 cannot train everyday becasue of work and class schedule. He is a great athlete if he only had some free time.
I will have to do some searching for some hills. It would be something like a 40 min - to an hour to find some good hills. The city that I live in has its highest point at sea level as most of it is 3 feet below sea level.
he had athletes who would travel 40 minutes to train on them, do you live in a totally flat area?