slow first 200m of season

[Charlie_Francis]

@spdydre

I ran my first 200m yesterday since starting back up training again in august and I am in good 400 meter shape but faded in my 200m and ended up running 22.62. I am lost to why my time was so slow. My coach doesnt do alot of speed work mainly 400 meter type workouts but I have been running my 350m and 450m workouts in 49-51 pace in flats. I would think my 200m would be around 21.5 at least and I came around the curve with everyone and was actually ahead of a guy that finished in 21.8 but then I faded the last 100m and came dead last. I am in shape but need some advice on what I might be doing wrong in training or need to do to drop my time.

Special Endurance capacity is absolutely specific to the speed you need to race at. (as you have now discovered!)
All the strength in the world at 400 pace will not help your finish in shorter events BUT your first 200 will operate as specific SE towards your next one. hopefully you will see that in your next 200m race. It may take several runs as you have been training far below race pace up to now.