To Duxx This is mekstrand I am at school I am not sure how long your rounds are but Mickey had 12 3min rounds He said the 300s simulated the boxing more than anything else he had ever done.Extensive tempo just didnt tax his system enough. maybe next time you can introduce some of this. He said this was some of the best training he had ever done.The end of a hard fought round is very similar to the end of a 400. Mickey was known for going nonstop start to finish. with almost no letup. Extensive tempo work jump rope and mileage only helped prepare him for the intensive tempo and speed endurance work, this is what really helped him fight so well in the later rounds.
Tottaly agree! We use tempo for recovery and as a “aerobic work” (instead of long slow distance runs) to allow better recovery between rounds and fights (and even training sessions)… It is also considered as “base building” for more “puke” workouts 
I “tax the system” with those “metabolic work” outlined above…
Thanks for the help!
KitKat,
Speaking of the different types of 400 runners,what are the training differences between the 400 runner who has 800 meter strength and less speed,and the 400 runner with a good sprinter times. How do they overcome there weakness?Especially for the 800 meter style runner because the first 200 meters will be a problem for he/her.
Also in the offseason, do you encourage weight training to get stronger for the next season. Like the colliegiate athlete who finishes in may,but wont start training again till september.How should this be done?
TKD,
Re the first part of your question, all I would want to say is that an athlete should always train to their strength, but try to improve their weakness.
If you are approaching 400m from the long end, you might spent 75 % of your year trying to improve your sprint to 200m with only a small improvement.
Yet in spending so much of your time working on your weakness, you would not spend enough time working your greatest asset and thereby stagnate or show minimal improvement in your endurance.
Or vice versa.
Whatever you decide to work on, the quality with which you do it will ultimately determine how successful you will be.
So come into sessions as fresh as can be, given you have twin objectives of developing speed as well as endurance.
Re: weight training: We do it three times a week as much of the year as we can, then cut it to two days a week during the business-end of the competition phase. Sometimes it goes down to one session a week if there is a conflict (usually off track demands such as family, study, work or party-induced fatigue 
).
Then we also try to recap whenever we see a window of opportunity and maybe find a 10-day period when we can squeeze in maybe 5 weight sessions to top up the gym strength.
But having said all of that, weight training in the gym has a limited application to sprinting if it is done without any companion running at all.
I really believe you need to develop non-specific strength (weightlifting) and specific-strength (sprinting, tempo-running, skipping, hill-sprints, accelerations, hopping,) in tandem with gym work for best outcomes.
If you want to add another excellent bridge to your program from the gym to the track, do some simple gymnastics or certain aspects of pilates or yoga - some of that stuff is sensational, gives you a serious sweat especially those exercises targeted at isometric-type “holding” patterns.
There are also of course plyometric elements for more advanced practioners as well as an extremely high degree of proprioceptive awareness exercises - such as tumbling, rolling, spinning, leaping ultimately integrated in series.
Combined with all the stretching (in gymnastics & yoga especially), it makes a big contribution to strengthening the little muscles which are often the first to give up under the stress of sprinting but which can put you out of business for the whole darn season.
Why not establish your strength base in the gym, which will take a minimum of 12 weeks working three sessions a week, then explore the gymnastics option.
Gymnastics is really challenging mentally and physically, but because it’s a whole body chain of movement system whatever you get out of it will show in your sprinting.
The only strength relevant is strength which manifests in your running faster. kk
Hey guys. I have an interesting situation if you want to call it that. I coach a group of high school sprinters. One in particular who has the potential to run 48.90 if run correctly. Yesterday they had district finals and he was seeded second aganist a runner who is consist at 49.5-49.2. It would be his first time that he had top competition all year because he never had anyone within 2 seconds of him all year. So he was placed in lane 5,with his top competition in lane for. Another tidbit about his competition was that in addition to running consistant mid 49 all year, he has a 1:55 800 to his credit as well. My concern was that if this kid is as seasoned as I thought, he would run up on my kid in lane in 5 and the on the last bend,if they were side by side, he would be winning.So I told my kid that he cannot run up on you, but dont run out of yourself to stay in front. We the race began, he ran up on my kid in the first 70 meters and that was not what I wanted. I also told him if that happened that I wanted him to make his move right at 200 to 210 meters and he did. When they came off of the bend my kid was ahead and the other kid pulled even and they stayed that way till about 330 and my kid broke down and faded but not badly. The result was the 49.31 to 50.54. After the race, one of the old coaches of the school i coached questioned my methods and tactics because they thought my kid made his move to early. And I tryed to explain to them the lane staggers and what would of happened if he would of waited later. Not to mention the fact that even though my kid has good strength at the end, it was not 1:55 in 800 like the other kid. It got me thinking that maybe I was wrong and I got no sleep last night. My kid has lost once in 400m all year until yesterday. Do I do anything differently than what ive been doing?Do we think different strategies, because I always try to plan ahead based on his competition and his lane draws because you can almost tell ahead of time what they will be.And next week he will be in either lane 3 or lane 6 because he is the 4th qualifier,with 3 people sub 50 ahead of him.
Thank you.I think your kid needs to set his own pace, and that [pace cannot be dictated to him by an opponant. He can only control his own race and hope the other guy screws it up. One of the few exceptions might be in a 4 x 400m relay, when your guy is fairly well in front of a better runner. Then you might get him to go out a bit faster than usual in hopes the opponant will go after him too fast and blow up.
I would not get tactical in any race less than 800 meters. You know what your kid can run – try to get him to pay attention to his own pacing and forget about other runners. If he’s running 48-something, he’s probably going out in 23-something and coming home in 25-something. I would have him focus on that in order to run as efficiently as he can, regardless if there’s someone faster in the race or not. I wouldn’t have him thinking about making “moves” in a race this short – just focus on pace and holding form through the finish. Keep it simple and leave tactics to the distance runners.
hey TKD
congrats for having the balls to post that on here anyway… if you realise that you may have made a mistake you prove you are willing to learn and improve by posting and asking here…
i think as developing coaches we have all given bad advice on more than 1 occaison…
just maybe had he ran his normal race his time would have more than likely come out on top anyway…
what race splits and come home pace have you been working on with him in training.
We have been running in between 24.1 and 23.8.going out. And coming home with 2x200 we are working 26.1-25.8. I think some people are misunderstanding me. He has potential to run 48.9. He is only 49.89 for personal record. The reason I worried about the other kid is because its his first year running and he is inexperienced. Its one thing to run all year and to have to competition.But its different when you havent had competition all year and then there is someone else running with your or past you.Thats why I wanted to prepare for the things that could happen in the race. But i understand with everyone is saying. Some kids panic and try to go with the faster runner,and some dont.
Because of an injury(see in jury clinic) I have to start planning the cmpetitions again.
I could really use some help here.
I moved up my SPP forward for 2 weeks just to be safe.(my hammy is feeling really well after on eweek, but to be safe i’ll take a 2 week break with tempo/conditioning/weight/ and try not to loose too much.
Because of this I have 6 weeks to my major competition. adn in the l;ast 2 weeks i dont want to run competition.
So how can i plan some competitions?
can i do some in SPP, usign them as SE or speed sessions.
- warmup, then 400H(of wich i do only 7)
- then 100 and 200?
- to end with 4x400. or do some med bal or weights.
or can i better keep the comp session s limited. to 100-200 or 1x400h
+weight
I know i need some 400h races, because rythm is even more importent here than a 400. so at least 4 of them should be enough before entering the major meet.
some of them i only run 5 to 7 hurdles, because of other events i wan tot do for speed.
Then after SPP i take 1-2 400H races and run them for 10 hurdles full out. and after that a 400(maybe because i need to run 400H twice in juli, and the top 5 is very close together so beng able to run twice in a day is very important.)
Whatever you decide to do, be careful. Train symptomatically. If I had an injury at such a difficult time, I would even consider abandoning the rest of the indoor season and re-set goals for the major summer season.
Being in Holland, I think it’s about his outdoor season anyway…
pindaman, I understand what you are saying about rhythm, but is this race in 6 weeks time an absolute target for you?
If not, perhaps you could dedicate some more time into training and coming back to it 100%.
Let us know!
Hey KK and others,
I in the GPP phase, what are the repetitions and the weight loads that should be used?Since its GPP should the weights be lighter with more reps?
Also, for a normal warm up?What is a good sequence,or is it dependent on the athlete?
Nik you’re right. Its for the outdoors here.
Then to be totally clear, because i think i might have been unclear about the stuation.
The plan., from today
This week is extra recovery, then 5 weeks SPP
then 6 weeks until peek.
wich totally makes 12 weeks. I guess by KK 's answer and your’s you were thinking about 6 weeks from now(am i right?). If that was the case i am in agreement with kk. 6 weeks is too short to get back.
- so the (testing)competitions i was talking about in SPP will in at least 3 weeks depending on form, and recovery and tests in training and by chiro and physio. Then some bigger meets after 6-7 weeks.
So knowing this, do you guys think i have enough time?
thanks for helping out.
Hey KK,
This was in one of your post a while ago.
"But right now for this particular athlete making his final and decisive move in a 400m any earlier than the waterjump might prove to be a big mistake. His “move” will last only about 150m because based on what I’ve been told about his specific 400m training/racing background that’s all he’s got in his tank right now.
Now further emphasise that when he decides to ‘go’ he must “dial up” the power. Never ‘flick a switch’. It may feel great to flick the switch and it may look great, but it’s a costly way to consume your limited supply of fuel. So no sudden surge. The “flow efficiency” and the fuel economy of what you’re doing should go a long way to rectifying the problem.
Remember, your guy is very classy. “Form is temporary, Class is Permanent.”
Given he’s been out of comp for some years, hitting 46 first back should encourage you both. You just need to manage the time-line and don’t pass any of your stress to him."
When speaking on dialing up the power,how do you simulate that in practice?
What workouts help with that dialing up?
Also,how does an athlete judge went to make their move?Some do it at 200,some do it at 250.Is it based off conditioning?
What is the best way for an athlete to find a race strategy that works for them?
KK you stated
REGARDING the General Preparation phase, I mostly used a double periodised year with all the athletes and during the second GPP I often had only enough time to go into one 6-week cycle followed by a Transition period of 4-weeks before entering international competition in Europe or wherever.
The fact there was only 1x6w GPP in the second period meant that the athlete retained more of their speed from the previous periodic peak.
The first peak was set for the domestic nationals and was usually a “drop” taper, 10 days of mostly rest and a bit of speed and a lot of rhythm & race-modelling.
Then into a few days of comp at the national titles, then back into that single 6wk cycle of GPP + Transition.
So I would say that the athletes I worked with were usuallly no more than 10 weeks away from being able to compete internationally.
I plan on starting your GPP phases next week with the season starting early October (24 weeks away) and my first main meet the first weekend in December (8 weeks after that).
As much as I will endeavour to I am in no doubt that I won’t be able to stick exactly to your plan as laid out due to age / recovery issues, work and family commitments so was thinking of going.
13 weeks GPP (allows for outside factors above)
4 weeks transition
7 weeks GPP (allows for outside factors above)
6 weeks transition / racing
2 weeks taper
Major Meet
comments?
So then you have from December until your nationals, when, in March 2007?
That would be a good preparation and leaves you a nice long competition season to explore your new strengths and address any weaknesses.
The (last) transition phase of six weeks followed by a two-week taper is maybe a little abrupt.
Normally I would not want anyone to race (except maybe a rolling start relay) during the transition because it is in this phase that you are still loading up on higher intensity intermediate reps (120 to 300) and it does take a while to tolerate, stabilise, adapt and develop the capacity to race off that work.
But it’s a realistic plan. You don’t need to think about it much until you get through the (first) 13 wks general prep phase and the subsequent (first) 4week transition.
You may decide that you would prefer to shorten the GPP2 block down to, say 3weeks, bring the transition forward and allow yourself a few extra weeks to race off before going into the taper for your December meet.
I’m assuming your federation will break for Xmas for a couple of weeks, so during that period you could lay down another two week block of modified GPP(3).
This would be the same sort of reps/sets as in your basic GPP, although you’d do maybe 3x2x300m instead of 3x3x300 for example, and your times might be a little quicker, but mainly you’d return to short recoveries between reps.
You’d get a bit more “gritty” in this last chance to lay down a strength/endurance wedge before the final competition phase leading up to your nationals.
kk
You simulate your race plan all the time, whenever you exit a straight and transit into a turn you “dial” up your power. If you didn’t, you might notice a deceleration.
Reps that you could incorporate into your transition phase, or anywhere really, are “broken” pace such as 50m easy (tempo pace <75%) , 50m faster, 50m at race pace, 50m easy again.
That would be 200m and if you started that rep at the top of the backstraight, you’d be cranking out your third50m through the start of the 200m turn until the waterjump and then cruise to the start of the home straight.
That would allow you to rehearse or “race model” the “dial up” concept for your 400m.
When you see Wariner and Michael JOhnson or really almost any decent 400 international, you’ll see them “surge” through the third 100m of their 400m race.
What you won’t usually see them do is make a “sudden” move. It may look thrilling but it’s a stupid waste of energy.
Where you “make your move” in the race is entirely dependent on your conditioning versus the pace of the race.
You can make your move earlier than the other guys, but can you hang on down the straight? The sooner you start, the sooner you die.
But you’ll only realise the truth of all this by racing the 400 various ways and finding out for yourself what you can get away with.
Yes, I understand the nationals are in March 2007 but do not expect me to be there. Your program looks good but not that good 
In my case it will be regionals which I think will be in February.
I follow what you are proposing and it makes sense. Relays won’t be an option but I’m sure I’ll figure something out I’ll reassess everything after that first transition phase.
Would you say you have to be aware of the people in your race KK?I know people always tell you run your own race,but sometimes you have to be aware of whose the people are in the lanes next to you.
Also,I have noticed that the best 400m in history breakdown very like in the last 100m of the 400.Mj and Jeremy Wariner look near the same in there first 100 and their last 100 meters of their race.There are several noticable differents in other runners down the homestrech.How does on get that strong to hold their technique such as those two,and others such as Lee Evans.Does that come from track training?The weight room?Both.Sorry if Im pounding you with to many ?'S.