It’s understandable to tell your athlete that they have to get out for that first 200 meters or this is the strategy you are telling them to do in order to do well.
My other thought regarding her tightening up had to do with your choice of the length of run. Ideally you want to set the athlete up to succeed. I am not saying she didn’t as it sounded like a really good workout. But having tightness is never good and it’s always something you need to avoid as much as possible as it has a cost at that moment , a cost later and potentially it causes an injury. I am sure you already know this is the issue with testing.
To summarize, was there a better way in your opinion now that you did this, to test the variable of her 350 speed trial in a safer way to prevent tightness for almost 100 meters?
And he also improved from 22’s to sub-21 as well.
The time trial was just a moment in time. A small piece of a big puzzle. I really wasn’t training her to run a T.T. The T.T. was just a part of the larger training program. What I was really looking for was to see where her speed was at 150 and 200, due to the fact we have only done accel work and very little maxv or se, and no spec end work. That is why I wanted her to get out hard. I was looking for a truer gauge of speed. If she approached the run as a true T.T. she would have been a bit more relaxed through 200. Having said that the tightening up is definitely not something we want. We preach relaxation during all runs. The athlete said when her training partner started pulling away at 200 a bit of panic set in. She thought she was running poorly and started to press. After she finished the 350 she said she felt great but knew she had lost her composure.
Was there a better way to run this test? Good question. I've been coaching the 400 for almost 25 yrs and we have done much less se then in past years and we have done no special endurance so maybe being a bit tight the last 100 was to be expected we talked about it before the t.t. One thing I can say is that if there I one thing I have learned over the year is that you need to have patience. One workout is not going to make or break a season.Last week was tough. Very cold rain and snow. We managed one accell workout 6x60, 2 hill workouts 2x6x90, and 6x200 at 75% effort with a jog down recovery,it was to cold to run faster. We had one nice day and were able to get our first 6x200 with 2min recovery. She had an excellent day running 28.5,27.4,28.7,28.8,28.6,27.7 Last year she ran 29.8 or 29.9 for all 6 with a 2:30 recovery. Between the accell day the hills and the workout we sandwiched in some tempo days.
I use a peanut drill for the 400m time. The lesser the steps taken the better.
Mon rain and cold just lift and bike. Tues extremely cold below freezing plus wind. We did 3 broken 600’s goal time was 33-45-33 due to weather we just tried for good effort. wed tempo on grass 2x3x300 times 55/56
Thurs. 6x200 hills walkdown recovery.
.
Thurs. 6x200 hills walkdown recovery.
.
Fri, tempo on grass 5x100 5x200 3x300
Sat off to cold. Sun 1x100 rest 2min then 150 rest 7 min then rpt times 12.8 and 19.7 the rest 15min then run 250 rest 30 sec then run 150. She went through200 in prescribed time of 26 mid finished in 34 sec then ran 20.7 for the 150. Felt relaxed and comfortable.
Mon W/u drills 3xroolling 60’s just staying relaxed. then 2x7x100 tempo on grass. Warm day finally.
This is true, however those two prs were run in completely different seasons. 2007/8 I ran 20.79 but never ran a 400m and was under a short to long program. 2009/10 when I ran 48.7 I was running a long to short program under an new coach and never run faster than 22s for the 200m the whole season… simple maths 2009/10 22+1=23, 23+2=25 25+23=48 so that was probaly my limit that season. lets look at 2007/8, 20.8+1=21.8, 21.8+2=23.8, 21.8+23.8=45.6 lets say 46s… I also run 33.1 in a 300m time trial this season so adds to the fact I could have run some fast 400m. All outcomes depend on how you prepare. Speed reserve is king.