Here’s the program in writing:
It is my understanding that this presentation is an honest representation of Merritt’s training program.
Stikki, this is Winter’s sprint program for an “endurance” type athlete, a la Lee Evans, Tommie Smith was trained on a different type of program, more speed based, Winter revised his program in 1973. You’re correct about similarities between the above and Merritt’s program. Everyone borrows from everyone, Smith borrowed from Charlie, Carson from Hart, Hart from Winter and on and on.
Thanks for the link!
I have a few questions though.
Lots of off days in the programme. The title says “From prep to pro”, so for whom is it written, high school, college?
And what are drill outs? I suppose nothing too intensive.
Thanks in advance.
That looks kinda like what he’s talking about. However Miller speaks of two-a-days (5 hours per day total) to keep Merritt out of trouble. How do you fill 5 hours with a couple 600m reps or a couple mile runs? Is this where you use the 90min warmups…to keep kids out of trouble?
Guys, I couldn’t tell you as I wasn’t at the presentation. I’ve spoken VERY briefly someone who has spoken to Miller. He said that this “basically” it. The pdf isn’t the final answer, it simply gives us more details.
the details lex…the devil is always in the details
I cannot open the document…its just me?
It’s a pretty good interview. And out of Dwayne Miller’s mouth he said he dons the hat of track coach, nutritionist and “weight coach.” Also, the last part of the interview was a eye opener, but we can’t talk about that stuff on here…lol
The point is you need to speed to run a good 400. That’s proven and in general elite athletes double up your 200 meter time and add 3.5 second to that time. So for LaShawn if 20 sec is his best, he has the potential to run 43.5 (in his case he has). So unless running 1 hr long runs is going to improve your speed, it does not really matter. So if you have an athlete running 23 seconds the best you can hope for is 49.5 second. There might be some exception to this rule, but it works well for 99% of the athletes. So stop wasting time running 1 hr runs, if that was the case Haile Gebrselassie should be running 42 seconds.
The program seems to work well for Merritt, Rocket, there is more than one way to skin a cat, they don’t do 1 hour runs all year, As Dwayne Miller explained, that is in their prep period, as the phases go on the rep distances get shorter and faster, they do hills and look at the Champ Phase, it’s all speed and are ready for it at that point. Miller found less injuries that way, no one is saying it’s the best program, but much of it is taken from Hart and I believe Bud Winter as well.
what are drill outs ???
Merritt has had minimal overall improvement since leaving ECU (ie what he would have run if he stuck out even 1 full season indoors and out @ ECU). If he would have stayed there, he would be going much faster than he is now. He had so much improvement running there off of just a fall and partial winter and then spent a bunch of time muddling around and didn’t have any improvement this past year.
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.
He ran 44.93i very early in '05 and then left his coach @ ECU. He struggled to replicate indoor times (notice his outdoor best is actually relatively slower and run just shortly after leaving his coach, running much slower overall throughout the rest of the season). From people I know that were running at ECU at the time, who have gone to the most recent Olympics and World Championships (ie people who saw the full training and knew what he could do in the right situation), said he was likely able to dip below 44 THAT season outdoors if he just stuck it through. The 44.93i was quite submax and very early. The ECU guys did little work under Coach Carson for indoors and basically no unloading for those early meets.
So as you can see from the results posted - He ran 10.47 in HS and was a world junior champion. So for a guy like that who already has the speed it does not matter if he does 1 hr runs or 1 min runs. The point is what are the pre-req’s to run a 400 in 44 seconds. One of the main requirement is the athlete has to run the 200 in between 20 - 20.3 seconds. And to run the 200 in 20.3 you would need to run the 100 in 10.2. So if you can accomplish that by doing slow long runs - though i dont think so. LaShawn or his coach does not have to worry about that. Coming out of HS he was already running 10.47. So my point again is it does not matter what LaShawn does because he has the natural speed and most of the kids don’t.
That is why Wariner is doomed as long as LaShawn stays motivated and healthy.
Here are both Jeremy’s and LaShawn’s bests over the years…
Wariner
2004 (20 yr old) - 44.00
2005 (21 yr old) - 43.93
2006 (22 yr old) - 43.62, 43.91, 43.99
2007 (23 yr old) - 43.45, 43.50
2008 (24 yr old) - 43.82, 43.98
2009 (25 yr old) - 44.60
Merritt
2006 (20yr old) - 44.14
2007 (21yr old) - 43.96
2008 (22yr old) - 43.75
2009 (23yr old) - 44.06
I didn’t include any 44+ times for these guys unless it was their SB that year. Jeremy has dropped below 44 seconds on eight different occasions compared to Merritt’s two times. Also, Wariner’s PB is .40 seconds faster than Merritt’s - not to mention that he has beaten Merritt’s PB three times.
I guess my question is: “What happened?” To me, Jeremy at his best was better than what Merritt at his best has been thus far. If Jeremy is able to attain the level he once was at, do you think Merritt could beat him (i.e., Could Merritt run faster than a 43.45?)? I guess that also makes me wonder, can Wariner match his best again?
What are your thoughts?
If you look at the splits of the world championship, wariner and merrit had the same split at 300 m. In the past coming off the 300 curve, wariner used to lead and hold on as well. Now he’s dropping a fair bit in the last 100. Where as Merrit is getting more confident, he sees wariner in front or beside him and knows he can get him. Anyway, so I think wariner has to build up his confidence running some fast times (in races where merrit is not running ) and then he will have the belief he had in the past to beat merrit. For now merrit has the edge on wariner. I think 43.5 is close to their best for both of them given their current speed. Merrit has a better chance of running faster than 43.45, purely based on his 200 m time. Wariner is pushing the limit and will be interesting to see if he can run better than 43.45, if his speed remains the same. Will have to wait and see. my $0.02
I know the guy you are talking about and he has a tendancy to see things more optimistically than they are. I doubt that he would have gone sub 44 that season.
Given that they are running the same 300m time, with Wariner dropping off, it would follow that Merritt has more speed reserve than Wariner and is therefore doing it easier at that pace. He’s definitely looked a bit skinnier lately (even more than usual) so speed and strength may be the way forward for him - as it would be for most sprinters, I’d say.