Hey Everyone,
I have a question im sure everyone can chime in on.Over the years I have had weight issues on and off. And am now at the leanest ive ever been in my life. But to be an elite athlete in track and field you have to be as light while as healthy as possible.History has showed us most 400 runners are generally lean and long legged. I am 5’11 168 right now and I am dieting for my next race and the upcoming indoor season afterwards.So in your esitmations for a good 400 runner,what good bodyfat percentage should one be at?What a would be an idea weight for me?And what do you guys think is the best way to obtain optimal weight to power ratio?
The ability to hold form down the home straight depends on several things:
*Strategy: how wrecked you are at the top of the home-straight, which is a consequence of how hard you’ve run the opening 300m.
*Nature: your genetics - some people have a naturally greater capacity for endurance and perhaps slightly lesser capacity to generate speed at shorter distances (acceleration).
*Preparation: how you’ve trained for the race, whether you’ve done the work enabling you to survive the last 80m of a 400m. Nearly all the top males will run low-11sec (or high 10sec, like 10.8 or 10.9) for the first 100m and mid-to-high-11sec for the fourth 100m of a 400m.
The program I put together, for the athletes I used to work with, attempted to address all aspects of 400m racing - but in particular the endurance thread occupied 80% of the year targetting a 23-second comehome 200m and a sub-12sec final 100m. Didn’t achieve it very often, but always got it right for the major taper of the international season.
TKDTRACK if you are dieting and racing, that’s a version of “burning the candle at both ends”. If you get “flat” that can be a result of being low on energy, especially for a 400m competitor. Make sure you get enough complex carbohydrates (potatos, bread, cereals) to keep fuel in your engine. :)kk
Just an update -
There IS a life after Melbourne! But it was VERY difficult to adapt to the “everyday-routine”, after the experience in Australia. After nearly a month, I am luckily used to my job, buying of groceries, being present at weekly meetings, etc!!
My athlete had a ‘holiday’ of 2 weeks; we have started training again on 10 April. Back to the basics - and it is HARD. Due to the fact that he had to qualify for CWG, and then be prepared to run 3 rounds, I had to train him VERY specific … as you know … low volume, intensity either at RP or faster, several rest days, etc. Now we NEED to put something back.
His first meeting will probably be middle May. We went back to the GPP-weeks (kitkat); after that it will be the ‘transition’ training of kitkat - only then I will put him on competition training again. He suffers physically! But mentally he is strong - his self-confidence after the final at CWG ‘saves’ him at this stage!
Due to heavy rain on Monday, we had to skip the rest day of Wednesday to complete the training of the week. A BIG mistake - if the athlete is used to the rest day. He struggled to recover. Apparently the ‘tempo’ felt like a lactic session!!!
I am looking forward to a ‘normal week’, next week! Will keep you updated.
http://baylorbears.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stats/2005-2006/2006mjfinalresults.html
if you scroll down and look at the 400m results,wariner ran 44.12 and darold williamson ran 44.88. Now this brings me to my question for KK and the other elite coaches. Without the footspeed of Wariner,will Williamson ever be able to catch up or be on the same level as Wariner?If so,what changes and measures would he need to take in his training to do that?
This raises an interesting question especially as often training is based around other commitments. If a similar situation occurs is it better to just drop that planned session altogether and take an extra days rest or play catch up? From what KK wrote he was quite specific about certain sessions being after a rest day.
There is no such thing as "catching up’. If you miss something, you need to let it go. No one completes all potential sessions.
EdZachary. Always log what you do and what you cannot do.
Then at the end of a block of training you can check that you have completed “sufficient” sessions related to each performance thread.
And so then you are in a position to make intelligent, informed decisions about what must be emphasised in the next block of training.
Sometimes by coincidence I have found that an athlete has missed (due to illness, work, weather etc) most of the 5x200 sessions (or most of the longer speed sessions (like 250 to 300m reps) for a particular cycle of training.
I will then try to Address The Deficiency Over Time (that is, maybe over the next six weeks) by adding in an extra rep, set or even session of the type of training that has been missed.
But if you try to rectify the omission Too Quickly that will almost always lead to disaster. Your body can only cope with so much in the short-term.
Anything you introduce - at any time - must be brought in gradually, carefully and progressively in terms of numbers, intensity and volume. 
I HAVE said - it was a mistake, NOT to take the rest day. At the end of the week, it was clear that my athlete could not cope with the hard sessions without the recovery day on Wednesday.
After the rest day on Sunday, the session - long run [30"] then speed - was not EASY but my athlete is in control again. Could produce what I have asked for.
We attend an athletics course for the rest of the week - but, NOBODY will pressure me NOT to have a rest day on Wednesday!!!
Hey, sprint_coach. No criticism of you intended. It was just a general observation about the pitfalls of playing catchup etc. You’ve introduced a cautionary note, for which we are thankful.
Rest is as important as any other thread in the training fabric and now your guy has just been reminded of that, as have we. So we may now hopefully avoid such a situation…
Sprint Coach, apologies if you felt singled out, that was ceratinly never my intention when I asked the question.
KK and Charlie thanks for the answers. The idea of assessing planned V actual and using that as the basis of the next block makes total sense…pity I couldn’t think of that myself :rolleyes:
That’s OK, you upset sprint_coach so something good has come out of this 
. Now SC is really fired up! to go at 'em in Beijing 
Just for that I’ll ask another question
With the 2-3 x 4x150m in GPP what intensity and rest?
No rest for the wicked . . . 
But the intensity was not great and neither were the recoveries
Somewhere in the thread the details are set out.
On grass surface, the 50-flat (seconds, not years) female 400 runner aimed to do each rep in sub-23sec, the top male aimed at sub-21 and was mostly sub-20 and doing it with a relaxed, powerful rhythm.
So it was Run 150, Jog back diagonal recovery, then Run 150; then diagonal Walk back recovery, and Run 150, diagonal Jog back recovery and then Run 150. (That’s 1 x 4 x 150).
Then we would mostly take 10mins recovery. Some very fit, or very strong endurance types, may prefer to change the recovery details.
But I wasn’t hung-up about it and preferred to make sure that we got 3x4x150 done, all on time, and not finish so wrecked that the next day or two were a writeoff.
KK, i have red the whole thread again (my eyes ar red) and i have questions regarding your season plan and possible adaptations for North Hemisphere seasons (hope i haven’t missed something).
I see that competitions after GPP + transition phase are necessary in your plan, but is it possible to skip your domestic season (our indoor season), and if so, what adjustments do you suggest? 18 weeks (3 x 6 weeks cycle) for GPP instead of 12 (2 x 6 weeks cycle) ? What’s next?
More questions to come…
PJ, honestly I have no experience doing it the way you suggest. You may get an even better result, or maybe not. 
My strong feeling is you should use only two cycles of GPP (12wks) and then go into a more specific speed block (Transition).
That establishes a new performance level and, even if you just go some time-trials for a week (the fifth-week), that would be a better option.
Then you could return to GPP or a modified GPP (six-week cycle) in which you carry more speed into your sessions - even up the hills.
Usually after the domestic season, even the hill sprints would be transformed from reps in 52sec to reps in 48sec.
Like they say, you can do all the training you like but ultimately there is no substitute for competition. It just gets the athlete so tough and so sharp.
Like I wrote somewhere in the thread, I don’t like to spend too long in one speed band or emphasising one performance thread. Variation is very important, especially in intensity. The system - the way I imagined it - looks like a series of arrowheads (or triangles) stacked on top of each-other. kk
To make things clear (sorry my english sucks at times), theorically, your GPP is 12 weeks, transition phase 4 weeks (hence some trials on 5th week) am i right?
Somewhere you said that the first ideal competition should be a 4x400m, but why no individual race (i guess i know the answer for this), and especially, why nothing shorter?
I’m not a fan of extenting GPP either.
The thing i always fear is that 400m indoors disturb the plans as they often to go out to fast and die at the end. How many 46sec runner pass at the bell in mid-21.5. The race form is just terrible in the last straight. With outdoor (or southern hemisphere domestic season i wouldn’t have this problem).
PJ,
Yes, all correct.
GPP12wks + 4wks transition + comp in the next week(s), ideally a relay, ideally a long relay such as 4x400 because we are still testing strength and endurance more than absolute velocity - too dangerous for the 400 guy to come in off this type of program and try to light up the stadium in the first race or two. I like to ease into the race, plus relays disguise early form so you can avoid disappointment if the athlete had dreamed of opening with 400m off the blocks in, say, 43.3
PJ, off my program as it stands, coming into competition phase I have observed quite good results up to about 120m, and very pleasing results from 300m to 400m-finishline.
But it takes more time to fill in the middle, more hard races, more time doing serious runs in the range of 120-to-320m.
Even when my best guy ran 44.3 he was lacking during the 150-300 zone due to only three races in the European leadup (due to injury as described elsewhere).
I mean, it’s not a disasterous problem. He stiull did 44.3 afterall, but he could not fight for a medal on that occasion because he was not quite ready yet.
18months later when he raced 44.60 to win the final in that terrible tournament program (4 x 400 in 28 hours) we had the time and the races to “harden up” and completely overcome that slight deficiency.
Had he been in this shape at the previous Olympics, perhaps he would have run sub-44.
But anyway after the next tournament, which he won in the 44.60, he wanted to play football so we separated.
And even though he returned to the track, he came with achilles tendon problems (thankyou football :mad: ) and needed surgery on both, so he was never the same athlete despite one big effort in 93 which was ruined by illness at the first meet in Oslo. 
kk
KK,
Can you expand on your intensity variations and “stacking of triangles”?
Thanks.
Hey KK I have a question.
My season ends on June 10th.I will start my GPP 2 weeks after the end my season on June 25th and my indoor season starts in January. How would my GPP progress with my long GPP?With the lack races in between,how do I make progressions with my speed?How many times can I honestly change speed bands within that time frame?
hi sprinterouge,
Intensity variations is just another name for what all of us do when we explore the intensity-volume spectrum.
Everything done at a lesser speed is an intensity variation from maximum speed (velocity).
“Stacking of triangles” (or pyramids) is just my clumsy way of trying to paint a basic picture of how I approach the annual plan.
The most basic plan was described as a “pyramid” because there was a wide base (volume) of mostly non-specific conditioning to begin with.
Then as the year proceeded - (as distinct from progressed, which assumes the athlete did get somewhere) - the work reduced in volume (area in a trianglular design) and increased (elevated toward the apex of the triangle) in intensity (specificity).
I follow the same idea, but instead of spending six months laying a “typical” broad base, I spend six weeks. And within that six weeks, the first half has a little more quantity than quality, although the second half of that 6wk block has a little more quality at the expense of quantity.
I repeat the six weeks cycle to complete a three-months “base” but it is far more 400m-race specific (in my opinion) than the traditional “base” and therefore you might say the width of the base is nowhere near as huge as that of what I imagine a pyramid to be. (though I’ve never been to Egypt to see one )
So when you cycle through phase after phase the schematic starts to resemble little (three to six week) triangles or pyramids stacked one upon the next as follows . . .
^
^
^
^
^
Don’t you just wish you had never asked. kk