Charlie,
with the 400m S-L template you have Power Speed & Strength Endurance on Saturday, instead of a separate day could you divide that up over the other 3 HI days so instead of weeks 1-4 being 6 x 30m Power Speed 1 on Saturday you would do 2 x 30m after each session on M, W, F. This would allow another rest day.
yes, everything is possible
Ta, thought that may be the case but thought I’d check. I’m guessing the following will illicit the same reply 
Hope this makes sense :rolleyes:
In the SPP download you discuss the indoor 60 Comps as a way of checking the season is on target (100m goal is X so need to be at Y over 60). For a 400m runner who doesn’t have an indoor season and needs a LOT of speed development would it be appropriate to have a 2-3 week simulated comp season over 300m as a similar measure?
In this scenario, while still having 12 weeks you would amend SPP1 and not do the last 4 weeks (as really getting 400m specific) till SPP2 and do more shorter split runs and short speed work.
Yes, 300s or 320s are good indicators of your place on the way to a 400 season BUT if this is a young beginner, 200s early might be a better indicator because they’d prob only have the capacity to do a few 300s before the 400 and the target is moving so rapidly that early 300s would be too far away from what they’d be capabl;e of later.
the most blatent example of my coaching career was Charmaine Crooks who showed good 200m potential but ran only 59.5 (HS junior) in the 400 in early May. By July the same year, she ran 53.11 and won the National Seniors, almost entirely off 200s in competition and SE, the high school competition season with 3 or 4 400s, and just a few 300s shortly before her final taper. You could never have predicted that from a 300m test done indoors in Jan/Feb.
With the short-to-long approach to 400m, are you saying that there is to be a greater time differential between one’s first 400m of the season and say race four as compared to the long-to-short? For example, S-2-L opening 400m 48.5, 4th race 46.5; compared with L-2-S opening 47.2, 4th race 46.5.
There’s no clear answer to that because it depends on training background, the distances chosen for the SPPs and the amount of improvement possible season to season by the athlete.
If it was the 100 then yes the S-to-L should have him at a higher and more consistent level from the start BUT see below.
Rather than look at it from that perspective, think of what suits the individual’s strength and adjust the SPP to peak when you want him to.
You don’t want to be more consistent but at a lower level.
Hi John, you mention a 400m S-L template, where can this be found?
Thanks.
It should be available with the Edmonton 07 download http://www.charliefrancis.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=31.
If you have that but not the template PM Rupert.
Could someone please confirm (maybe Rupert) that the Vancouver 2007 download has the 400m short-to-long graphics on it (as another thread indicates that it might not be on there)?
you mean Edmonton - any confirmation?
Edmonton 07 should Rupert has confirmed that.
The viewer will enjoy the additional information and take your understanding to a new level. The whole Charlie Francis Seminar series is a must for anyone wanting to learn about speed enhancement from one of the worlds most historically significant figures and this is a very worthy addition and includes ALL graphs in a PDF file in the download.
http://www.charliefrancis.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=31
Sorry I meant Edmonton.
Does the 400m short-to-long start out with the focus on acquiring as much top speed as possible early in the first special prep. training cycle (say doing lots of 50-60m sprints; flying runs and acceleration work) so that by special prep phase two the athlete would start to lengthen them runs out (say to reps of 80m and 100m moving eventually through to reps of 120-150 come the middle of this phase, ending with runs of 200, 250 and 300 at the end of a 10-12 week phase two)?
From
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=20193
As far as SE progression day 1 has 4 x 60m with 2.5m rest and the last session in week 12 is 300+100 30 sec rec with plenty of variety in between.
My Edmonton graphs doesn’t have any training plans. Just diagrams explaining topics. 
My Edmonton graphs doesn’t have any training plans. Just diagrams explaining topics.
17 Hours Ago 05:26 PM
I think Rupert may have included the 400m s-to-l only recently, or at least that was his intention (so it depends when you purchased it). Though whether he has had a chance to do this yet he will have to confirm.
Mine too haven’t it.
I know Rupert is extremely busy right now putting together more downloads. Re the graphs and which download they come with the 400m graphs, both S-L and L-S, have a 2006 copyright on the bottom (whereas the 100m one has a 2004 copyright) and were part of the package I got when I attended the seminar in Aus and I’m 99.99% sure they were new. At the time (Jan 06) KK and some others commented they had never seen the 400m one before. I got the Vancouver 04 DVD after I went to Aus and said to Rupert no need to send the graphs as I already had them.
In theory, we try to have our 400-meter athlete be the best 60-meter sprinter they can during the general preparation. During specific preparation, we want the athlete to be the best 200-meter sprinter they can be, and finally we want to master the 400-meter event during the competition phase.
I’ve always been a fan of the S-L method and for some reason I thought I was the only but after doing some research I see I was sadly mistaken. Through my own training I realized that this methods works wonders.
I remember my freshman year splitting 48.6 on a ‘b’ 4x400 team and a few injuries put me on the 'A" team so I ended up running more 300’s in practice and 6 weeks later at D3 Nationals I split 46.8. It was my 3rd meet on the Relay team. Mind you I never split a 47…(48.6, 48.4, 48.2, 46.8)
I trained the same fashion during my Senior year which was hampered with injuries and with about 3 months of training I ran 46.0 in 45 degree weather at the Harry Jerome Classic.
Although I didnt follow a strict 400m S-L approach, one of my winter seasons was to train purely as a 100/200m runner in order to bring my speed down (PBs 11.1/22.2/47.5) to make my 400m progress.
I did mainly weights and plyos in the GPP then moving onto short track work, hills and maintained aerobic work.
I started the season runnign ugly in 49.3 as I wanted to maintain the local champs title - but running 10.8 and 21.4 my speed had improved - my next series of 400s (I hadnt planned to do any but couldnt resist!) went - 47.6/46.9/46.5/46.4 and 44.7 relay - at the end of the season.
This showed that the development of SE on top of the speed realy moved me on. The following year we maintained the speed into the winter as i had finished off the season so fast and went on to impove down to 46.0 and 21.1.
Speed worked for me and I had alot less injuries during this time too.