Is tempo really necessary for a 400m athlete training with 300-500m?
y400, re. rest between 500, 400, 300 and 300-200 sets of 4-6 minutes break may be suitable for cardiovascular fitness or lactic accumualation training at the beginning of such phases, but at this time of year I am sure much greater rest would of greater benefit eg. 20-40 minutes, which would more sufficiently train the energy systems. The speed work or speed endurance seems fine but would be of better quality at the beginning of the week.
Richard.
According to my coach he finds that tempo is unnecessary for 400m athletes. Although he only has three track sessions with them per week. He much prefers working in sets of 3-4 with the distances you mentioned although once in a while he tell us to give extra focus ofn form and relaxation (we are a competitive group).
His results are good considering he has little talent to work with.
chewy, I am thinking that tempo may only be beneficial for recovery purposes of a 400 athlete, and apart from this has little benefit in improving performance at this distance.
Any other 400m runners use tempo?
i run the 1 & 2 ocassionally the 4 or 4x400…i use tempo.
I do tempo also and I’m a 400 runner. But I have another question, I am in good 60m shape but in terrible shape for the 400. Say my training days are mon, wed, fri and tues and thurs are tempo. On monday can I do something like 500-400-300 with 4-6 mins break, on Wednesday 300-200x3 with 2 min break and 4 between sets and then on friday some speed work or some fast 150’s in spikes?
I use tempo as well. Here is a week for me, running wise:
Monday - Speed
Tuesday - Tempo
Wednesday - Speed Endurance (or Special depending on time of season)
Thursday - Tempo
Friday - Speed
Saturday - Tempo or form work/hurdle mobility
Then the next week I will do Speed Endurance twice and speed once, but never Special twice. I have found that it really works for me. In three weeks on this schedule with no base, coming off of an injury, and in pretty crappy shape, my PR’s in the 200 and 400 went from:
200 - 24.51 (post injury) to 23.91
400 - 55.90 (pre injury) to 54.67
Tempo does wonders for me in maintaining some endurance while giving my body a rest. I usually don’t go past 75% effort unless someone is running with me, in which I usually don’t exceed 80%.
Richard Hand- yeah this is actually the very beginning of my training after a year of not running at all.