Preseason training for 400m runners (Week 10)
By aamover | October 26th, 2009
Each Monday, for the next 2 weeks (and a total
of 12 weeks), I’ll be posting a preseason
training program for developmental 400m
runners.
I get so many questions about this event I’ve
decided to share what I’m doing. This way
you can copy it, pick it apart (respectfully),
or flat out steal it. Use it and see just
how much your athletes improve.
Of course, feel free post your comments and
questions below. I can’t guarantee I’ll
answer all of them, but I’ll do my best.
If you want more detailed information about
workout planning for 55-400m sprinters,
click here.
For Week 1 workouts, click here.
For Week 2 workouts, click here.
For Week 3 workouts, click here.
For Week 4 workouts, click here.
For Week 5 workouts, click here.
For Week 6 workouts, click here.
For Week 7 workouts, click here.
For Week 8 workouts, click here.
For Week 9 workouts, click here.
M: 5 x 50m, 1 x 60 @ 95-100% from crouch. 6 x STJ. R = 5′
Lift Day 1 (see Week 9 for strength routines)
T: 5-6 x 300m hills. R=walk back (last hill workout!!)
800m barefoot warmdown jog on grass.
Lift Day 2
W: 10 x 100m, R = 45″. B = 15.0 - 15.5, G = 18.0 - 18.5
R = 3′ between sets
6 x 200, R = 2′. B = 33.5, G = 37.5.
400m barefoot warm down on grass
Hurdle mobility
Core - stabilization
TH: 4-5 x split 600, R = 7′
B: 33/48/33
G: 38/50/38
Lift Day 3
F: 10 x 30 seconds @ ~ 70-75% on grass, R = 2′
400m barefoot warm down on grass
Hurdle mobility
Core - stabilization
Weekly Audio Breakdown:
To your success,
Latif Thomas
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This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Hey Coach,
According to my AD, I’m not allowed to physically work with my kids until 11/30 per order of Rhode Island Interscholastic league rules. Does this mean I start your 12 week program on 11/30?
>>> No. They have to work out on their own during the preseason. Now, there are only 5 weeks until the start of the season, so you’d have to modify this program if they started today. The progressions for this 12 week program are designed to roll right through the regular HS season. That means, if you started this exact program on the first day of the season, they wouldn’t be prepared for the big meets that start in February. Because this only takes you through the General Prep phase and a little Specific Preparation. So it is paced too slow for the classic 12(ish) week HS season. So this week is Week 10 of 12 for preseason training. But in terms of how I am progressing my entire indoor season, it is actually only Week 10 of 25. So please keep that in mind.
LT
October 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
i been an spint coach for yrs and just started an traing program hav many of south carolina top sprinter.my interm boys won the jo 4×4 in 3.18 an hav one kid that made the world team want to .lov ur work an want to do more for my our sport .BI
October 26th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Explain to me what 33/48/33 mean on Thusday’s workout for this week.
>>THis is explained inthe Week 8 audio.
LT
October 27th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I was thinking along the same lines myself. Seeing these workouts is great, but in MA there’s only 2 weeks to prepare for the first meet and many of the athletes are playing other sports in the fall. While this might take care of some general conditioning, it isn’t track specific enough. Do you just plug these athletes into the system and hope for the best?
>>> I disagree. I think this program is as track specific as it gets. It’s just not based on the 12 week HS season model, it’s based on a 25 week season model. So the progressions are much slower. What has taken 8-10 weeks to achieve in this program must be condensed into 4-5 weeks in the 12 week season. But if you are an elite HS program that runs modified cross country program for sprinters or you have sprinters who don’t play a fall sport but you don’t want them doing something useless like running cross country, having them run these workouts on their own during the fall is the way to go. An athlete who does this fall program will destroy a genetically identical athlete who doesn’t or plays another sport in the fall, once the end of indoor rolls around.
That said, athletes doing this program would require a separate program once the regular season starts because they are living in an entirely different reality than everyone else. While the majority of your kids are coming from other fall sports where, 9 times out of 10, their fall sport coaches don’t know the first thing about strength and conditioning so those kids are all but useless from a track standpoint, the kids who did the fall program are in great shape. Your masses have to start at zero and do 4 weeks of general physical prep. Kids who did this program would come to the season in mid to late special prep phase. They’ll be doing max velocity while others are doing short accel work and hill runs. They’ll be doing special endurance and speed endurance while the masses are doing long hills and trying to get through 8 x 200. A few weeks into the season the fall training kids will be using tempo runs as active recovery at low volumes while the masses are doing interval workouts for conditioning purposes. Where I live, if you want to have a competitive 4×4 team (by competitive I mean vying for a state championship) or competitive long sprinters, you need to have a core of kids who train through the fall. Because, again, if your kids and my kids have identical talent and work ethic, but your kids play soccer or football in the fall and my kids run this program, your kids have absolutely no chance whatsoever to beat my kids in a race. None.
I don’t know if this addresses your question. No I don’t plug these kids in and hope for the best. That would be doing them a disservice. I run one set of workouts for my 55-200 runners, another set of workouts for my 300/400 runners, another set for my 400/600 runners and another set for the kids who train through the fall. Yes this is more difficult and complicated than most programs. But that’s why we have such good sprinters - because I individualize the programs as much as possible.
LT
October 27th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I watched the Boyle clip you sent out and need some help understanding why you’re getting away from squats.
He’s claiming (correctly) that the lower back is the weak link for most and that the regular squat is more of a lower back exercise than a lower body exercise since the lower back often gives out first and can’t transfer the load.
But every multi-joint functional movement is going to have a weak link so why not just work on and fix the weak link versus craft a less functional (i.e. one legged) exercise to avoid it?
The overhead squat is tough too, but is a great core exercise.
Stephen
>>> I think we spend too much time trying to fix weaknesses instead of focusing on strengths. In this case, I find spending time developing lower back strength in order to be more efficient in doing a squat to be a waste of practice time that is already limited. Further, if there is a better ‘bang for your buck’ exercise than what I’m currently using, I’m going to change what I’m doing. If I have a kid with a squat 1RM of 250, he should have a BSS 1RM of 125. If his BSS 1RM is shown to be more than 125, which in almost every case it is, then I”m getting more out of that exercise than I am with a squat. Secondly, if the BSS is more efficient *and* functional, because it is a single leg movement versus a double leg movement, then it makes even more sense to me. Everything we do in track *and* field is off of one leg, so it makes more sense to me to focus on single leg movements, especially when athletes can handle a higher comparative load. So I fundamentally disagree that a single leg squat or BSS is less functional than a conventional squat. Of course, perhaps I am missing something here. I would certainly like to hear how a back squat develops greater functional strength in terms of transferring that strength to the ground while sprinting on one leg in comparison to a single leg movement.
LT
October 27th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Latif,
I have also stop training on the roads.As you get older you get injured quicker.Why did you stop the roads?Rob.
>> See below.
LT
October 27th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Latif
I have eliminated road work as it serves limited and/or no real purpose for our sprinters on their limited schedule. replaced that time with more short hill work. I have had to run this programs in bits and pieces as my athletes have been involved in other sports. Thanks for the constant reminders of the training ages, diversity and schedules of the athletes. I love what you are doing here! CPD is a must if you are having problems following what is going on in this program.
>>> Even though you see road work in the early part of this program, I have also decided to eliminate it. I find it to have little value and be counterproductive. From now on we will do tempo runs of 100-200m to develop the aerobic qualities required for long sprinters. And I’m going back to my Charlie Francis roots with my short sprinters and minimizing aerobic work in favor of more time in the weight room and more quality work on the track. There is just no actual evidence that says slow running or even aerobic work (with short 55-200) sprinters has any particular value in running faster times. Thanks for the kind words!
LT
October 27th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Lt
What your thought spilt the session in half for example 3/6 20metere 2min rec starts and then doing 2/3 30 flys. In Gpp
The reason I ask is first transition phase in short sprints from acceleration phase to max vol is possible the hard phase to bring together technical /physical and could take while to master this.
Also do you think it important for a 400m runner to master acceleration phase in short sprints to be effective acceleration phase in 400m running
Re aerobic work, all the talk about bolt step up to 400m and he as stated he doesn’t enjoy that kind of training because is gpp phase is include on 400m training. So i think aerobic work or over distance training has its advantage in the athletics world
October 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
hi latif!
glad to hear you absorbed much wisdom from functional strength coach 3.0. new developments in training are coming thick and fast when u take the last 5 years of journals and compare them to the 1990’s.
1) out of curiosity, as a coach would you rather see negative splits or positive splits in training? for example - the toughest session of our GPP - hills - e.g 5 x 300m in 60 seconds and each 100m split in 20 being perfect. would it be better to do 19,20,21 or 21,20,19 through each 100m.
2) using hills as an example - would you rather see 58,59,60,61,62 or 62,61,60,59,58 for each CONSECUTIVE repetition?
thanx once again your d man!
>>> My answer is: neither. I want them to hit the exact same time and the exact same split for each interval. So for the 100m splits, I want everyone of them at 20 seconds even. For every 300 I want them to finish in 60 seconds even. I find that younger athletes have a difficult time with understanding and developing consistency with pacing. In order to improve this skill, I want to be consistent within the workout since there will be variety in the length and intensity of the intervals and repetitions of the rest of their workouts. So in that workout, I want to see improve consistency every time it is done. Less range between the fastest and slowest interval, as well as less range between their fastest and slowest split. When they can learn to understand how fast they are running, it is easier to develop more consistency in races and in race modeling workouts. This gives the best chance to run fast times, where if the athletes never learn pacing because they aren’t getting enough chances to aim at a specific time and distance, then they won’t be consistent in races and will be prone to getting out too fast or too slow, too often.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Speedendurance.com sent me an intriguing email about 1 leg weight training and more specifically doing this on the balls of the foot (not toes or heel) barefoot for stabilization. This activates the psoas muscle which is proven to be a significant difference amongst top sprinters to average sprinters.
What are your thoughts on this method of training? Is this how you do it with your kids? I only ask because there seems to be many controversial debates going on between world class coaches and I havnt got any experience of 1 leg, barefoot, balls of feet exercises, thus no comparisons to contrast.
http://speedendurance.com/2009/07/15/why-sprinters-should-not-do-double-leg-squats/
http://speedendurance.com/2008/03/27/japanese-documentary-of-asafa-powell/
>>> I have my athletes ‘drive the heel into the ground’ when doing lower body exercises in order to activate the glutes and maximize hip extension, the same as I want them to do when sprinting. I do not have them do any exercises (that I can think of right now) where they focus on being on the balls of the feet. When sprinting, foot strike should always take place on the ball of the foot and not the heel, but the ability to activate the glute and fire the foot down into the ground is still the goal and this movement pattern is best developed in the weight room by focusing on driving the heels into the ground.
LT
October 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
In light of hearing that aerobic training is detrimental to sprint performance, does this mean in the 400m program we will replace extensive tempo with weights or a speed workout to develop white muscle fibers? Charlie francis says do light-medium volume so does this mean intensive tempo only?
Francis also states that power work must be done from ages 13-17 to maintain fast twitch fibers and shift intermediate to fast twitch. Does this mean after the age of 17 (ish) muscle fibers ability to shift is impaired and the athletes potential is hindered?
Wow! What a shocking video by mr boyle!
>>>Excellent questions. We still use extensive tempo runs as a means of recovery and for the fact that there is an aerobic demand when running a 400. We just aren’t going to do any steady state runs or timed runs at continuous tempo (slow) pace. All of our aerobic/ recovery work will be repeats of 200m or less. As you can see with the program in and of itself, we’re rarely doing high volumes of interval work at long slow paces and distances. We do the 200 progression with 2′ rest and just about each week our other aerobic day is repeat 100s, therefore we maintain relatively good mechanical integrity so far as it pertains to sprinting.
Take this week for example.
M: Anaerobic
T: Anaerobic
W: Aerobic - tempo paced intervals of 100m. (We can’t be anaerobic each day or we overtrain and get injured. This is our appropriate aerobic capacity recovery workout)
TH: Anaerobic
F: Aerobic - ~100m tempo runs on grass to recover from what should be a challenging anaerobic workout from the day before.
As we transition into a more specific part of the season, the intensity of the anaerobic workouts will increase, the rest will increase and the volume will decrease. The volume of recovery work will decrease as aerobic work is used for active recovery instead of aerobic capacity/power development.
Would I make changes to this program if I were starting over at Day 1, Week 1? Yes. But if you look at what Boyle is saying (steady state runs are useless for anyone who isn’t a *true* endurance athlete) we’re doing appropriate tempo intervals for aerobic capacity and the rest of our workouts are developing the various anaerobic requirements of the event.
To your final question about muscle fiber type, the answer is yes. Just like coordination development is best addressed before the athlete hits puberty or the same athlete won’t develop the same coordinative abilities, these power qualities must also be addressed at this age or it will cost the athlete should they continue to compete beyond high school.
This is frightening to think about when you consider the type of atrocious, slow, inconsistent coaching your best athletes are getting from the other coaches in their other sports. You make them fast and explosive during track season, then they go to soccer or cross country (or whatever) and they get blasted with a bunch of slow running that literally unravels what you’ve done with them. What is says is that the less you have control over your athletes during the course of a year, the more they are being destroyed by whoever else is in charge of them. Of course this assumes their other coaches aren’t knowledgeable, but in most instances that is going to be the case.
Perhaps this helps shed some light on why I can be so abrasive when it comes to calling out what I consider to be inferior coaching. Someone else’s refusal to buy a DVD or read a book makes my athletes slower, no matter how good I am at my job. Or you at yours.
LT
October 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Just a big THANKS.
I’m a new coach and am learning a great deal from all your information.
Again,Thanks