Lactate Threshold Training

[Charlie_Francis]

@kitkat1

I was thinking maybe you made a mistake about Nazarova being Russian recordholder. But then I discovered that Olga Vladykina (Mrs Bryzgina) - 48.27 in 1985 Canberra World Cup for USSR - is actually attributed these days as being from Ukraine.

My humble apology for ever doubting you PJ:)

Yes, i was wondering the same thing.

[kitkat1]

@pierrejean

Russian Champs : Antonina Krivoshapka, 22, ran 50.33 in heats and 49.29 in semis…

She is the 2009 revelation, European Indoor Champ, and 50.55 PB indoors.

Her progression:
2002 54.35 (age 14)
2003 53.09
2004 53.67
2005 55.63
2006 -
2007 52.32
2008 51.24
2009 49.29 so far but watch out in final or Berlin. This is the one Sanya was not expecting.

This outdoor season, she ran only twice : 50.24 on 1 July, 50.51 on 5 July (unbeaten this year in and outdoor). She is the fastest Russian since Olga Nazarova set the NR (49.11) in 1988!

Krivoshapka Antonina
314 place in World Athletics Rankings от 19.05.2009

Place

Volgograd region
Club

Russian Army
Main event

400m
Trainer

Vladimir Tipaiev

Date of birth

21.07.1987

Persobal Bests

Event
Result

300m
36,38

400m
49,29

Events in:
2009, 2008, 2007, 2005

Name
Event

Stage

Result

23.07.09—26.07.09, Russian Championships — Russia, Cheboksary
400m
sf
49,29/ 1

h4
50,33/ 1

05.07.09, Znamensky Memorial — Russia, Zhukovski
400m
f
50,51/ 1

01.07.09, Moscow Open — Russia, Moscow
400m
f
50,24/ 1

06.03.09—08.03.09, European Indoor Championships — Italy, Torino
400m
f
51,18/ 1

sf2
51,59/ 1
Q

h3
51,56/ 1
Q

4x400m
f
3.29,12/ 1

18.02.09, GE Galan — Sweden, Stockholm
400m
f
51,15/ 1

13.02.09—15.02.09, Russian Indoor Championships — Russia, Moscow
400m
f
50,55/ 1

h
50,56/ 1

01.02.09, Russian Winter — Russia, Moscow
300m
f
36,38/ 1

24.01.09, Governor Cup — Russia, Volgograd
400m
f
52,44/ 1

[Nikoluski]

Not bad for Antonina…

Women
400m
1 Antonina Krivoshapka RUS 49,71
2 Anastasia Kapachinskaia RUS 49,97
3 Lyudmila Litvinova RUS 50,27

Also:
Pechonkina is Russian Champion
24.07.2009

Yuliya Pechonkina won the women’s 400mH at the Russian Championships in Cheboksary. She clocked 54.86, a Russian season leading.

“I’m not satisfied with my result, but it looks well considering that I did not compete for 2 years. And, I recovered a long time after an operation. I felt more confidently on the track today, but my head ached and I reduced the speed in the end”, said Yuliya.

Anastasiya Ott finished second clocking 56.09 and Yelena Churakova was third - 56.16.

[Nikoluski]

@pierrejean

Russian Champs : Antonina Krivoshapka, 22, ran 50.33 in heats and 49.29 in semis…

She is the 2009 revelation, European Indoor Champ, and 50.55 PB indoors.

Her progression:
2002 54.35 (age 14)
2003 53.09
2004 53.67
2005 55.63
2006 -
2007 52.32
2008 51.24
2009 49.29 so far but watch out in final or Berlin. This is the one Sanya was not expecting.

This outdoor season, she ran only twice : 50.24 on 1 July, 50.51 on 5 July (unbeaten this year in and outdoor). She is the fastest Russian since Olga Nazarova set the NR (49.11) in 1988!

Also, 2nd with 53.54 in World Youth Champs, 2003, Sherbrooke.

[yelood]

@kitkat1

I tried to create a hard and fast program to run automatically through the competition period, but gave up after the first day because there were too many variables - mainly related to how the athlete was feeling.

As you get into the comp phase, there was a little more emphasis on improving recovery between sets and shortening the times of the reps (although not the recoveries between the reps).

Comp results very much determined the short-term program. I rarely worked more than two weeks ahead and was happy to make changes along the way even over such a short phase.

So every 10 days or so, the athlete and I would have a planning session and we would argue about the time-line, how the rhythm was coming together (or not!), how the speed was improving (or not), how the endurance was improving (or not). We put more work into the weak areas, but we were careful not to ignore the other threads of performance.

In general, everything we did was a copy or an extrapolation of the sessions in the GPP and Transition phases. We may do a rep or a set less and go for faster times on the reps we did do. We maintained where possible three weights sessions, but rarely less than two sessions per week and on the rest day we tried to include a gymnastics class (which was almost a substitute or at least a supplement to the weights session).

I tried not to allow the peak to come too soon, and did not want the athletes to become too precious and fine-tuned so included the occasional hill session as long as I dared.

But often those hill sessions would be something like 2 to 3 sets of 1long + 3 to 6 short backup hills. The backup hill might be around 80m long, with the Long hill remaining 360m (or however long it took to run more than 50sec for a top female, or more than 45 sec for a top male).

But we always stuck to the two days “on”, one day “off”, three days “on” one day “off” micro-cycle (weekly cycle) where feasible.

For the sake of incorporating a competition (usually on a Saturday), I would try to drop the leg weights on a Friday (but keep torso and upperbody weights, and boxing padwork, going).

Mostly the weekly pattern of train-to-rest was a case of manipulating around the competition - protecting the speed day (race day) so no one was in danger of injury due to excessive fatigue or tightness (so no leg weights for most athletes the day before).

I hope that helps a little bit, but honestly I found it difficult to be prescriptive. KK

Kit Kat,

As always thank you for your valauble input to this thread.

I was looking at your answer last year to your process during the competition phase and I wanted to check what you meant by more emphasis on improving recovery between sets and shortening the time of reps (although not the recoveries btwn reps).

I assume you would be getting the athlete to run the repetitions faster with the same rest but what do you mean by improving recovery between sets.

Thanks again for your time and knowledge.

[kitkat1]

It’s not an arithmetic progression.

Naturally we are all aiming to run faster, but when we do we sometimes need to adjust the recovy times. So while it might be great to retain the same recovery periods, in practice sometimes the extra speed takes a much bigger toll. As the athletes adapts to the faster speed, then the recoveries may come back down to what they once were. But I think the most important consideration is that as the athlete gets faster s/he is given enough time to recover so as they don’t get injured trying to fire up fatigued muscles.

[yelood]

Thanks for that. I understand now and makes good sense. Thank you.

[brian_miller]

in the 5x200 if you are walking the recoveries, or standing around do you start the reps from a standing or rolling start.

[kitkat1]

@brian_miller

in the 5x200 if you are walking the recoveries, or standing around do you start the reps from a standing or rolling start.

Easier to roll

[speedman]

http://berlin.iaaf.org/mm/Document/Development/Research/05/38/64/20090822101135_httppostedfile_wch09_m400_final_15665.pdf

[kitkat1]

@speedman

http://berlin.iaaf.org/mm/Document/Development/Research/05/38/64/20090822101135_httppostedfile_wch09_m400_final_15665.pdf

Wow Quow! The bronze medallist (“only” 45.02sec) ran almost perfectly even splits for the outgoing 200m and the return trip:

1st 200m in 22.43sec; return 200m in 22.59, differential 0.16sec.

Thankyou Speedman. You got my vote for extra rep points!

If we can find the rest of the 400m races - including women’s final, any semis etc - that the biomech team studied it would be a great resource to have those posted here as well.

[kitkat1]

400m Women Final
Round RT t400m t200m Diff. t200-400m t300m t100m t100-200 t200-300m t300-400m
Richards Sanya USA F 0,164 49,00 23,50 2,00 25,50 35,63 11,81 11,69 12,13 13,37
Williams Shericka JAM F 0,194 49,32 23,76 1,80 25,56 36,00 12,07 11,69 12,24 13,32
Krivoshapka Antonina RUS F 0,187 49,71 23,59 2,53 26,12 35,90 12,13 11,46 12,31 13,81
Williams-Mills Novlene JAM F 0,214 49,77 24,00 1,77 25,77 36,18 12,36 11,64 12,18 13,59
Ohuruogu Christine GBR F 0,231 50,21 24,32 1,57 25,89 36,76 12,56 11,76 12,44 13,45

Dunn Debbie USA F 0,275 50,35 23,94 2,47 26,41 36,49 12,19 11,75 12,55 13,86
Kapachinskaya Anastasiya RUS F 0,220 50,53 24,39 1,75 26,14 36,92 12,54 11,85 12,53 13,61
Montsho Amantle BOT F 0,212 50,65 24,47 1,71 26,18 37,05 12,38 12,09 12,58 13,60
Team Sprint/Hurdles: Rolf Graubner, Dr. Ralf Buckwitz, Mirko Landmann, Anja Starke http://www.fgs.uni-halle.de

[speedman]

More event analyses given towards the bottom of the page.

http://berlin.iaaf.org/records/biomechanics/index.html

Enjoy

[kitkat1]

The following exchange has been copied across from Race Results because it is a topic specifically about the 400m race, its evolution through the tighter tournament format (reduction from 4 to 3 rounds) at World & Olympics and possible implications for coaching/training, kk:

From Robin1:

[b]8th fastest 400m time in the world by year:

2009: 44.78 (as of today)
2008: 44.63
2007: 44:56
2006: 44.71
2005: 44.60
2004: 44.64
2003: 44.75
2002: 44.84
2001: 44.70
2000: 44.66
1999: 44.59[/b]

I can’t see any trend here.

**

From Kitkat1:

Interesting though. It suggests the event has not progressed, despite no shortage of quality at the medals end of this spectrum.

More relevant would be figures for the last time needed to enter an Olympic or World Championship 400m final (as distinct from time of the eighth-placed finisher in finals). I suspect often the time of the last guy to qualify (out of the semis) will be faster than the eighth-placed time in the subsequent final.

But the observation is more relevant now since the Tournament structure has changed in recent years, within this decade for certain: World and Olympic Championships have been reduced to three rounds, instead of the traditional four rounds.

In Commonwealth Games, the rounds (not sure about the 2006 Games, sorry) have stayed at four, but since Vancouver Island 1994 finalists have been given a full day’s rest before racing for the medals.

They used to run four rounds over a roughly 28hrs period (across two successive days) with the semis only four hours or so before the final. That’s why the Com Games record set in 1970 at 45.0 lasted 20 years until the Aussie Darren Clark led two Kenyans into the 44s in Auckland.
Clark’s time of 44.60 then lasted only until the next Games in Canada because the Welsh winner may have been better prepared or more talented, but certainly the day’s rest before the final helped him to shave 0.02 off the record which still stands coming into India 2010.

The transformed competition format has created the potential for faster times in the preliminary rounds at all of the above tournaments.

One assumes the high performance managers for every national federation would have the figures to hand.

But the big question is, what are they going to do about it? These stats are all after the fact. How athletes and coaches should prepare to face the challenge remains paramount.

**

From Robin1:

[b]Here are the times needed to qualify for each WC final:

'09: 44.97
'07: 44.86
'05: 46.03 (John Steffenson, BTW)
'03: 45.03
'01: 45.10
'99: 45.24
'97: 44.69
'95: 45.47
'93: 45.01
'91: 45.53
'87: 45.21
'93: 45.83

Last three Olympics:

'08: 44.91
'04: 45.27
'00: 45.53[/b]

If anything, there seems to be a trend towards faster times needed for qualification.

Interestingly, the times in the final clearly suffered after the tough semifinals of 2009, 2008 and 2007 (three rounds with two days between semifinals and final), but not in 1997 (four rounds with one day between semifinals and final). I have previously suggested on this forum that the 48h rest between semifinal and final now in place may allow for the onset of DOMS thus limiting performance in the final.

**

From Kitkat:

You’ve got my rep pts, thanks Robin1, this is valuable information and we appreciate you putting in the time to research the data. I’m also going to copy it across to the lactate threshhold thread which has de facto been the receptical of all matters 400m.

Yes, many athletes have run slower in the final than the semis and I’m with you on the reasons which appear obvious, but then someone will come along and smash the final as Merritt did in Beijing. The only thing I can think of is that his speed reserve has become more significant than his aerobic power (think huge tempo base)in coping with the constricted format which emphasises speed from the first round. At Beijing we saw quarter-milers running sub-45 in their first-round heats because these now are akin to the quarter-finals of the defunct 4-round tournament format.

I suspect therefore the obvious implication for training/coaching for this event in a tournament situation is that the development or at least emphasis on the speed-power thread not be left until late in the preparation period, but rather emphasised virtually from Day-1 and pursued carefully but continuously.

Obviously how we do that is the trick and my colours are well and truly pinned to the mast of the so-called “concurrent” program model.

**

[kitkat1]

What would now be most useful would be to collate the statistics on the slowest and the average times(s) needed to advance from the first-round heats at the last three majors (Osaka, Beijing & Berlin) for men and women 400m runners and perhaps even compare that back to the last fair-weather major conducted under the 4-round format.

That would obviously have implications for training as it should be designed around racing requirements, and would probably also therefore have implications for National Federation team selection criteria.

But I have neither the time nor am I sufficiently demented to undertake the task

[Charlie_Francis]

@kitkat1

What would now be most useful would be to collate the statistics on the slowest and the average times(s) needed to advance from the first-round heats at the last three majors (Osaka, Beijing & Berlin) for men and women 400m runners and perhaps even compare that back to the last fair-weather major conducted under the 4-round format.

That would obviously have implications for training as it should be designed around racing requirements, and would probably also therefore have implications for National Federation team selection criteria.

But I have neither the time nor am I sufficiently demented to undertake the task

Al of this begs the question of: Why? (although, I have run it so I have a pretty damn good idea why)
Why will all those women running sub 11s and close to 22 flat allow medals in the 400 to go for the asking when they have no chance in the event they’re in now?
Will Bolt drive significant numbers into the 400m for men?

[kitkat1]

LaShawn Merritt - progression:
(Courtesy Boldwarrior)

2009: World Champs gold medalist (44.06WL), 1st at USA Outdoors (44.50)…1st at Baie Mahault (44.50)…1st at Reebok Grand Prix (44.75)…1st in 300m at Nike Prefontaine Classic (31.30)

2008: Olympic Games gold medalist (43.75, WL & PR)…Olympic Trials champion (44.001st at World Athletics Final (44.50)…1st at Nike Prefontaine Classic (44.65)…1st at Berlin (44.03)…1st at Baie Mahault (44.34)…1st in 200m at Doha (20.08)…1st in Greensboro (19.80w)…ranked #1 in world by T&FN…bests of 43.75 & 20.08.

2007: World Outdoor 4x400m gold medalist (2:55.56)…World Outdoor 400m silver medalist (43.96PR)…USA Outdoor runner-up (44.06)…Tyson Invitational Indoor champion (45.51)…2nd at Reebok Grand Prix (45.09)…2nd at Nike Prefontaine Classic (45.17)…1st at Kingston (44.95)…1st at Paris (44.62)…1st at Rome (44.44)…1st at Monaco (44.38)…1st in 200m at Thessaloniki (20.02)…2nd at London (44.23)…ranked #2 in world, #2 U.S. by T&FN…bests of 43.96 and 19.98.

2006: USA Outdoor runner-up (44.50)…1st at World Cup (44.54)…3rd at World Athletics Final (44.14PR)…runner-up at USA Indoor Champs (46.17)…1st at Nike Prefontaine Classic (44.88)…4th at Rome (44.77)…5th at Lausanne (20.10)…2nd at Stockholm (20.25)…ranked #3 in world (#2 U.S.) by T&FN…best of 44.14.

2005: 4th at USA Outdoor Champs (44.73)…2nd in 400m at Nike Prefontaine Classic (45.57)…1st at Powered by Tyson Invitational (44.93i), the 3rd fastest indoor time in history…1st at Kingston, Jamaica (44.66PR)…ranked #10 in the world (#5 U.S. by T&FN)…best of 44.93i.
2004: 2004 World Junior 400m ( 45.25), 4x100m (38.66WJR) & (3:01.09WJR) gold medalist…USA Junior champion (200m-20.72), (400m-46.80)…ranked #9 in U.S. by T&FN…best of 45.25.
2003: Virginia State HS 100m (10.47), 200m (21.13) & 400m (47.69) champion…best of 47.69.

[kitkat1]

http://www.usatf.org/groups/Coaches/education/specialPrograms/2008/SuperClinic/presentationNotes/Dwayne%20Miller’s%20notes.pdf

Link to PDF of Dwayne Miller’s 2008 presentation detailing his 400m preparation, said to be broadly what he prescribed for LaShawn Merritt.

Sadly my attempts to lift the actual cycles of training within the graphic framework has been totally unsuccessful (so far).
To witness: …
2008 USATF SuperClinic
Dwayne Miller
From prep to pro: the 400 meters
FALL SEASON
Week#1
Week#2
Week#3
Week#4
M: 1 mile/ weights
1.5 mile/ weights
2 mile/ weights
2 mile/ weights
T: 1 mile/ weights
1.5 mile/ weights
2 mile/ weights
2 mile/ weights
W: Drill outs
Drill outs
Drill outs
Drill outs/strides
Th:1 mile/ weights
1.5 mile/ weights

[sprint_coach]

Maybe I can get the ‘Fundementals’-thread alive again!!

Some athletes and well known National coaches visit our country at the moment - to train in warm weather. One of my athletes met them last week - and an interesting conversation took place. The one coach is known for VERY large volumes of training in his weekly programme (in ALL phases) - therefore, LOTS of his athletes either quit or go to other coaches … due to injuries. He had success in the past - but normally only once in the ‘lifetime’ of the athlete.

He tried to convince my athlete that the ONLY way to prepare for different rounds in the 400m is: 3 x 350 [8’] (for the usual 3 rounds). This must be done at FULL speed. Another session -to work on the first 200 of the 400m - the athlete MUST be able to complete 8 x 200 (FIRST 200m RP) with a jog back recovery.

Since I ‘met’ Kitkat on this Forum, I have a rest day on Wednesdays (throughout the training year) - and my athletes SELDOM get injuries. This ‘foreign’ coach could not BELIEVE this. According to him - how COULD a coach take a rest day in the middle of the week, preparing an athlete for a 400m!!!

My athlete now wants to train on Wednesdays … !!!

Your input?

[kitkat1]

Who is the coach and who are his studs? Most of the truly intelligent coaches I’ve met (and I’ve met most of the 400m coaches doing the rounds since 1980) have been fairly flexible, not dogmatic and realise there is more than one pathway up the mountain.

Personally I don’t give my athletes one day off a week. I give them two days off - almost always Saturday and Tuesday so as to fulfill a two-days on, one off, three on, one off structure. Without “supporting means” or the capacity to be a fulltime athlete with experts staff (masseurs, chiros etc) on hand, I found that building in rest days served to release pressure. If this coach has had a male Olympic finalist run 44.3 “clean” on his program and stay injury-free for seven years straight under his program (collecting world merit rankings in five of those years as well as Com Games gold and meet record and a World Indoor medal (while on holidays :), I will be officially impressed… kk