i am primarily a 400 meter runner. I have heard from some people that it is a good idea to run shorter races indoor such as the 55 and 200, and only run the 400 about 4 times during the season. how does everyone feel about this?
I’d like to hear from others but id say it depends on how your program is setup. If its short to long then id go with alot of 55’s and 200’s indoors to get ready for the 400 outdoors and indoors id probably only run the 400 when it counts. I think Charlie said that it takes only 4 400 meter races to peak is this correct?
If you were using a long to short program you may want to run 400’s and 500’s.
I’d agree with QUIK’ if you’re training short to long, speed should be your greatest asset during the indoor season so is suited to the shorter sprints, plus your special/speed endurance will not be devloped leading to running comparativly slow races and what’s the point in that.
If your doing long to short i’d question the value of doing an indoor at all.
As for in seaon i wouldn’t do much more than 4 400’s because the recovery periods after a meet are quite long and whilst your recovering you’re not training and improving. You can use 200’s as ‘training’ races to give you race practice. As there ‘training’ races they don’t need to be run at 110% so you can minimise recovery, just leave your ego at home.
Alan.
What if you don’t have a true indoor season (just one small meet and one big meet), would you still focus on the short speed? I’m competing 6 times before my first taper and then 1 time in b/t tapers? I was thinking of running the 400m like 3 or 4 times and then runnning 100/200’s and maybe one 800? Thoughts?
I Think That
I’d like to know everyone’s thoughts on this subject also. I’ve always ran 1-2 800’s and 1-2 400’s. Everything else I ran indoors were 200’s.
400Stud - You’ve seen my program (what’s been done so far). Would you say I am long to short or short to long?
400Stud/DaGovernor
When selecting what races you want to run i think you need to ask yourself what you hope to get out of the race and how that fits in with your training scheme. You should be aiming for a main peak at the end of each season to allow long term progression, everything before is part of the preparation for that peak. So, the races you enter should be selected to complement your current training status throughout the year leading into your peak. i.e. short-to-long you start the season training your short speed and power so shorter races will complement this and you extend on this to develop the endurance for your chosen event at peak time. The reverse for long-to-short.
If an 800m fitted into your development stage then there shouldn’t be a problem with 1 or 2. As a general rule i would say you should never train below the minimum pace you will encounter in a 400m race. So for a 50s 400 this may be around 14.5s/100m for the final 100. As long as your fitness at the time allows you to run a 1:56 for an 800 (which should be consistnt with a 50s athletes capabilities) at even pace this is within those limits.
Alan.
Gov - I’d say you were going short-to-long.
Coop - I have a question for you…would it be bad to run an 800 and a 60m in the same meet? See, my GPP is 6 weeks long and there is a meet during my unloading meet that I’d like to run at for conditioning/testing purposes and I was thinking of doing 200/400 or 60/200 and after reading what you wrote I was thinking 60/800 because my GPP is heavy in base work with acc. dev. as well, so basically no true “sprinting” in there (past 30m 
). Then, 2 weeks into my SPP there is a big (the only big) indoor meet of the season for me and that’s when I was going to run the 200m since I’ll be starting in with Int. Tempo and more speed work, etc. Any suggestions? Do you need dates, schedules, etc to better answer?
400Stud - I can’t see any problems with running a 60 & an 8. Also seeing as your running your meets at the end of Gpp/start of Spp you’re obviously not gonna have any significant race preparation under your belt so the meets are really a bit of fun and they are not gonna indicate your true race ability so pick races you’re gonna enjoy. Also for this reason i wouldn’t be concerned with using the first meet as a test. Finally try to complete a full unloading week before competing cos a race is far from unloading.
Ok, well are there any no-no’s as far as what races not to run during indoor in a short to long program? If so, what are they?
I don’t know about too many no-no’s, but from my own athletes, the 800s are a death blow. For some, it has taken as long as 2 weeks to “feel good” again. The running is so different than true sprinting.
I think you need to look at what your focus is. 800/400 types, I could see it, but 200/400 types I don’t see a purpose.
Coop - The meet is on a Saturday, so I will in fact have a full week before the meet. Is there any problems with that?