Forum,
I am searching for feedback on how some of you are training your women 400 meter runners. I have a number of developing runners in the 55 sec. to 57 sec. range. I am not sure that I should be focusing more on speed end. or special end.
Current week looks like this:
Mon. short speed/ Power/Acc. Weights
Tue. Tempo/Med Ball
Wed. Special End.
Thurs. Recovery Modalities
Fri. max speed work/weights
Sat. Meet or Speed End
Sun. Rest:
I am trying to develop some 53 sec runners out of this group. I am using a double periodization based the high school track season. Any thoughts :help:
Wher else could I put the speed? Also how much more speed or special endurance work do you do with your women, as compared to your men? The presence of testosterone in men changes everything training wise.
I assume you drop the Fri speed if you have a Sat meet. With young girls, there are two things to keep in mind:
First, once general fitness is in place, they respond best to improvements in Speed End (8 to 15 sec), as opposed to longer Special End (15 to 45 sec, which should be used very sparingly)
Second: In line with the earlier concept, 400m competitions should be used very sparingly, with the majority of improvement comming from comps in the 100 and 200m.
I hear ya! I use the dual meets right now which are on Wed., as Special End days. our primary focus is on Invitatationals on Saturdays. I just feel like i should be doing more Speed End.(i.e… 9x90 meters or 7 x100). Am I going to far or just paranoid?:o
What I have been doing Charlie, is doing the 100/200 in our dual meets and 400 meters in invitationals on Saturdays. Our target meet is our State meet in June. How many 400 comps. do you suggest?
If you’ve got that many meets, you should be fine. I had a girl who started out the HS season with a 59.0 400m with no real background. With 4 sets of 400m comps for a 10 week competition season, she improved to 53.00, which won our national senior champs that year (1979), with heats and finals on the same day, which, as you know is not favourable. The rest of the time she ran 100s and 200s.
Thanks Charlie and Clemson. The feedback was heard and appreciated. Hopefully, others will chime in with their experiences.
Back when they used to run 300 yards and not
meters, I had a girl who ran 35.32. In training,
she didn’t perform a high intensity run longer
than 150 meters(for that season.) She did have
8-10 weekly league meets where she ran 50/300,
50/4x4, or 300/4x4. I didn’t have complete control
over the events she competed in, but they really
just served as training sessions anyways. She was
5’9", displayed poor acceleration, and never touched
a weight in her life. After some early GPP(read: Fall)
field circuit, drill, and tempo sessions, our focus
switched to 0-30 work on the track and getting stronger
in the weightroom. We also did some multi-throw routines.
This enabled her to go from a converted 7.5 hand time
to 7.19 fully automatic. I can’t recall how many SE sessions she
did in-season, but I might be able to dig it up for you. It wasn’t much
because I figured that the 300/4x4 races would serve as enough
of a training stimulus to get her ready for the state meets and
nationals. At nationals, she ended up finishing 4th in 24.61(on a flat track)
She was in the hunt for about 170 meters, but just couldn’t hold it after
that. While we did go on the road to find some 55 meter girls to race, my
biggest mistake was not finding the sub 25 200 girls to race. But, then again,
I’m not sure how much it would have helped.