Veronica Campbell-Brown PRs at 400 meters

And so the overdistance crowd continues to perform…Wonder if she’s thinking of doubling 200/400 now against Allyson and Sanya.

VERONICA Campbell Brown opened her 2011 outdoors season with a big personal best of 52.25 seconds over the 400 metres at the University of Central Florida Invitational in Orlando, Florida yesterday.

Campbell Brown, who was running competitively for the second time this season after winning the 60-metre dash at the Milrose Games in New York, was second to American Mary Wineberg’s 52.00 second, while Jamaican Olympian Nickeshea Anderson was third in 53.93. Another Jamaican, Sheryl Morgan, took sixth place in 55.01 seconds.

Campbell Brown went into the meet with a personal best of 52.77 seconds set last year in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is the second fastest Jamaican woman over the quarter-mile this year behind Rose Marie Whyte’s 52.16 seconds set earlier this month.

Sekou Clarke was fourth in the Men’s 400 in 48.17 seconds ahead of Nickel Ashmeade, 48.99 seconds, with Steve Mullings seventh in 49.51.
National record-holder in the 110m hurdles, Dwight Thomas, also made his outdoor debut and was second in 13.49 seconds behind training partner, American Joel Brown, who won in 13.47 seconds (1.3 m/s wind), while Richard Philips was fourth in 14.06 seconds.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport/Campbell-Brown-PRs-in-400-metres_8588670#ixzz1Hq4ESYOW

Ato tweeted today if you don’t open season with 400 you aren’t keeping up with trend…

Two years ago, Jet ran 400s at UCLA on 2 consecutive weekends. In the second one, she ran down Lashinda Demus (and all she did later that season was run the 2nd or 3rd fastest 400h all time) in the backstretch. The very NEXT weekend, she ran the fastest 100m time in the world at Mt. Sac, and later that season ran the fastest 100m ever run by anybody other than Flojo.

I decided to join the overdistance club right then.

Actually, though, Bolt and Powell did not compete in 400 in the Grace Jackson meet as they have in prior years. Powell opened with a very fast 4X100. I get the impression that it’s the shape you get from running 300s-450s as IT for 3 months that really gives it to you, rather than a couple of 400s in early meets.

From everything I have researched there is no specific benefit for 400 or longer runs in general for a 100m sprinter. Interestingly it seems these guys get something from it…maybe mental even. I think the main physical benefit is that it allows the athlete to condition the body to hold the upright position under fatigue, mainly the muscles contributing to posture. That is my opinion for why many people say they get “strength” from running 400’s. And it also gives some elastic endurance training. Of course we can train these things through other means.

have a look at how a race horse is trained, they do distance/tempo with the sprinters and sprint work with the distance horses.

All four WRs in the pure sprints are held by people who trained from 400m strength. Flojo held NCAA titles at 200 and 400 before she was known as a 100m sprinter, and Bolt is similar of course.

All legal times faster than Ben’s (18, I think) have been accomplished through an overdistance base or concurrent at least as long as 300.

People that are strength or football oriented may not be fond of 300s and longer, but the evidence in favor is pretty much overwhelming if you want to compete at a high level as a sprinter. The training for 100m has become almost ridiculously hard, but it seems that what you have to do is obtain the fitness of a world class 400m runner…and THEN you go short to long.

Sanya Richards
60 Metres 7.21 Lincoln, NE 28/02/2004
100 Metres 10.97 -0.7 Shanghai 28/09/2007
200 Metres 22.17 0.6 Stuttgart 09/09/2006
400 Metres 48.70 Athína (Olympic Stadium) 16/09/2006

VERONICA Campbell Brown
60 Metres 7.00 Doha 14/03/2010
100 Metres 10.78 0.8 Eugene, OR 03/07/2010
200 Metres 21.74 0.6 Beijing (National Stadium) 21/08/2008
400 Metres 52.77 Knoxville, TN 09/04/2010

Wineberg Mary
200 Metres 23.48 0.0 Cincinnati, OH 05/04/2008
400 Metres 50.24 Indianapolis, IN 23/06/2007

Veronica’s time of 52.25 shows no proof of overdistance or specific 400m training been done, it is more likely that at this stage of the seson she is running 2-3x 300m at 95% in training with incomplete recovery,moving towards 1x300 or 1x 250m as she peaks for Worlds.
Is running a 37-38 300m in training any different to a 52sec 400m?

If she can run 21.74, then a 100% 300m would be in the 34-35 range, where a 48-49 run would be possible.
Last year she ran a 7.00 pb, 10.78pb,52.77pb which would indicate that more speed work than Special endurance work was done.

Charlie has said Ben could do 8?x300m with 100m walk with no difficulty, we have aslo heard of Asafa doing 12x200, and 8x300m, with a 31.? 300m, these tempo and special endurance qualities have been built over a career, hence their ability to run an early season 400m as part of their training.

would a developing international sprinter, not yet able to run long tempo or special endurance runs benfit from running a 400m?

Could the fittness of a world class 400m runner be built up over a career while building the speed on a short to long program?

Does anyone have any details of Veronica’s training, this year or last year?

The ability to run these distances could just be a by product of pushing the boundaries of tempo running and special endurance in workouts. Once you reach a basic level of tempo, do you keep the runs as is or keep going to maintain an equal effort? Same goes with special endurance. If these elements are included in a program, over a period of years, you will have built up quite the capacity.

I see them best used as recovery tools from High CNS work. And so the ability to run a 400m has no baring on your 100m, but perhaps pushing those work capacity type workouts and special endurance enhances CNS recovery in between high CNS days. Your 400/300 might just be a consequence of pushing the recovery means and an increasing ability of speed from high CNS sprints. Overall if your 300/400 has improved, you know something is progressing in the right direction recovery wise. You can probably be more confident that the rest of the program is designed well.

The ability to run these distances could just be a by product of pushing the boundaries of tempo running and special endurance in workouts. Once you reach a basic level of tempo, do you keep the runs as is or keep going to maintain an equal effort? Same goes with special endurance. If these elements are included in a program, over a period of years, you will have built up quite the capacity.

I see them best used as recovery tools from High CNS work. And so the ability to run a 400m has no baring on your 100m, but perhaps pushing those work capacity type workouts and special endurance enhances CNS recovery in between high CNS days. Your 400/300 might just be a consequence of pushing the recovery means and an increasing ability of speed from high CNS sprints. Overall if your 300/400 has improved, you know something is progressing in the right direction recovery wise. You can probably be more confident that the rest of the program is designed well.

Everybody does overdistance and has been doing it pretty much forever. Most just don’t do crap like 800’s at the start of training anymore. Those slow ass jog 400’s that Asafa does at the start of every season has no bearing on his 100’s. No secrets there.

Even Donovan Bailey, who says he only ran 150 and less in training did a few 200’s. And Pfaff will include longer tempo and Int tempo runs at the beginning of the year…sames as everybody else.

Are you saying 800’s aren’t done at all, even in the first week? I thought some coaches may use it as a means to evaluate fitness at the onset of training?

The 400m “opening of season” run is simply a test of the GPP and SPP. Nobody is specifically training for it but they are gaging what one did. Missing workouts or not making intervals pays at the end.

An improvement without dedicating resources is a great indicator of change.