400H Race Model Workout
by Steve McGill
This month’s workout is for the 400m hurdler who has already established a speed-endurance base in the off-season and is ready to start implementing a race plan. In the 400 hurdles, implementing a race plan is a much more intricate process than it is in the 100/110 hurdles, as, in the shorter race, the stride pattern is pretty much pre-established—either seven or eight steps to the first hurdle, then three steps between all the rest. In the longer race, it’s a bit more complicated.
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For athletes who are in shape for the event, late-race breakdowns are usually caused by early-race mistakes. That’s why merely recording touchdown times can be deceptive. Of course, touchdowns will be slower later in the race, but the question is as to whether the slower touchdowns are a natural part of sprinting 400 meters over ten hurdles, or if the slower touchdowns are being caused by stuttering or over-striding early in the race, when the athlete is still fresh. So, this month’s workout is designed to help eliminate early-race mistakes, and to thereby eliminate late-race breakdowns.
The Workout:
5×200 over the first five hurdles.
Full speed, from a block start, or from a three-point start of blocks aren’t available.
6-8 minutes rest between reps.
If the athlete needs more than 8 minutes rest at any point in the workout in order to maintain quality, then take off a rep. If you have to take off more than two reps, that means the athlete isn’t ready yet to do this workout, and needs to do more conditioning work first.
As the coach, I have two focal points in this workout: the times the athlete is hitting, and the athlete’s stride pattern.
Because we’re still early in the outdoor season, and because we’re doing a relatively high number of reps, and because I’m asking for a high level of speed, the first rep is the one I’ll home in on in gauging what kind of time the athlete can run in a race. I’ll want the rest of the reps to stay within two seconds of that first rep. So, if the first rep is 28.2, then we don’t want to go any slower than 30.2 for any of the reps. If we get slower than that, we’re losing too much quality. As for how to time each rep, I generally will start the watch on first movement and stop it when the athlete crosses the 200 mark. I’m not looking for FAT accuracy, because I can do the conversions in my head.
As for stride pattern, I always tell me athletes, “You run, I’ll count.” And if I’m filming, we can just look at the film after each rep. I won’t do this workout with athletes who are clueless about their stride pattern, or who aren’t in shape enough to maintain it reasonably well. With the high school girl I’ve been working with this year, our plan was to take 24 strides to the first hurdle, and then 17 between all the rest, keeping the times between 31-33 seconds. Our goal for the first rep would be to maintain the 17 for the entire rep. As the workout goes on and fatigue becomes more and more of a factor, we strategize about when to change down to 19. If, at any point in the workout, she has to resort to 21 steps between any hurdles, that’s an indication that we need to abort the workout, because we’re losing too much quality. I tell my athletes that how they feel late in the workout is how they will feel late in a race. You gotta dig deep and accept the fact that it’s gonna hurt. You have to teach yourself to relax through fatigue and maintain your posture.
As the season goes on, this is a workout I’ll continue to use, gradually reducing the reps and increasing the speed. By championship season, it’ll be something like 2 reps with 15 minutes rest, and the target times will be much faster than they are at this time of year.
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