Highlights and Main Points of Interest:
• Ryan uses a short to long system in training the 400, starting with 350m and 150m sprints, and progressing to 450m and 250m efforts.
• Combining 400m and 800m groups is a useful team and speed building dynamic.
• Classifying athletes by groups according to ability level promotes healthy competition to move "up the ladder" in a practice setting.
• Creating high-stakes competition amongst athletes with various ability levels in practice is a great way to improve sprint quality.
• Hill training, and short, efficient strength training sessions featuring full body, ground-based lifts, are a great way to meet the strength requirements for the middle distance events.
What are some staple 400m workouts in your program? How do you approach maximal velocity development in light of a 400m runner's needs?
The link above is the video of our 4×400 from the conference championship in 2015. At the time, we ran the race it was the fastest in the state of Missouri. We ended the season finishing second at the Class 4 State Championship. Coming into the year I knew our team had some athletes who could be players on our 4×400 and 4×800 relays at the state championship.
Our staple workout is 2×450 meter and 4×200. Some programs do this same workout every week. This workout is a focus of our program, but we build to the workout with shorter intervals or fewer repetitions. For example, we might start the season doing this workout with 2×350 and 3×150. In each passing week, we will add distance. Eventually, we push past even 2×450 and 4×200. The longest interval we might do in a similar workout could be a 600.
Surprisingly, because we have built up to the distance over the course of the season, our sprinters typically handle the 600 intervals with little to no problem. Once we reach the 2×450 and 4×200 workouts, I will add in extra 250, 300, or 350 intervals. Even if the focus of your workouts might be the same at certain points each following week I believe that slight changes keep things fresh, keep the athlete from plateauing, or peaking too soon.
Like the distance runners, we want to have this work out on a Monday and run just above or below race distance. Having the training on Monday means the vast majority of my athletes are having their toughest workout of the week at the same time. Aligning the days allows cross over between different training groups with greater ease. Unlike some sprint coaches, I am not afraid of special endurance and speed endurance work. Again this allows them to feel in practice what they are likely to experience in meets.
For my long sprinters, I like using the split 800. Moving sprinters up a distance can be emotionally taxing. Moving up to the 800 can be a deal breaker. Even if the athlete has been convinced to move up to the 800, they need to be prepared to handle the race distance. You always want the first time they compete to be the best possible performance they can have for their first time.
Part of this success can be accomplished by entering them in lower-level meets, hiding them on relays, or seeding them in a slower heat. In those situations, you can never guarantee the outcomes. Since nothing can be ensured, I feel it is important that you figure out a way for your sprinters to experience handling those loads in practice.
Once of my favorite workouts to help move sprinters up is the "Split 800." In this workout, you have the sprinter run a 600-meter interval at what you believe could be their pace for an 800 through 600 meters. Then after running what should be an aggressive 600-meter interval the athlete gets only 45 seconds rest and must then run a 200 as fast as possible. A sprinter doing this workout will not need a large number repetition to get something out of the training session. The number of repetitions you choose should consider the time of year, end of season goals, and number of events you plan on your athlete running in the major championships of the season. Psychologically 600 meters does not seem as scary as 800 meters even if you will run the complete distance after an extremely short break.
Another tweak on our special endurance workouts is what I call the "chaser." In the chaser, we challenge our athletes by sending each one at different time intervals on the same repetition in practice. We start the workout from slowest to fastest. In the workout, each athlete is separated by the difference of the personal best of the sprinter in front of them.
For example, if a young lady runs 1:01 in the 400 and the athlete behind them runs a 58 second for dash the difference is 3 seconds. The three seconds is the difference between starting time after the athlete they are chasing. If they catch the athlete in front of them, the sprinter who was caught would have to do pushups and sit-ups. If the first athlete were able to hold off the sprinter chasing them, the entire workout they would get what we call is an interval card. An interval card is a ticket that can be cashed in to get out of an interval during another practice at a later date. One particular workout with the setup led to serious competition and some of the fast 350s we ever had in practice. I know based off this workout we were ready.
Finally, it is important to create training groups that can help push one another to achieve the desired results in practice. Who your athletes are training with in practice is a significant factor in reaching their goals. Two years ago I know we had a few talented sprinters and middle distance runners. Based on our relay goals we knew these athletes would benefit from training together more frequently in practice. To accomplish getting our athletes together, we decided to train our best sprinters and middle distance runners together every other day.
Combining these groups together raised the expectations of all the athletes. Workouts were a higher quality and both groups quickly improved. During training, all these athletes training together can create a crowded track. To fix the problem, we decided to divide our training group into their divisions: the "Baylor", sprinters, and distance sections.
The "Baylor" group was made up of our most talented sprinters and middle distances runners. We hyped this group up in practice frequently and told the kids if they wanted to be part of our best relays you had to be in the Baylor division. The division was called Baylor because of the University's standing tradition of excellence in the long sprints. If kids worked hard and showed improvement; they would be rewarded by being moved into the Baylor division. On the flip side if athletes didn't meet the expectations they would be demoted out of the group. These workouts became every coaches dream and created practice accountability amongst the athletes within the training session. It was common to see athletes challenge each other to make sure other athletes weren't slacking in practice.
What types of strength and power work do you do for mid-distance events?
Ryan Banta: I have discussed this before in previous blogs on this site. So if you permit me, I would like to go in a different direction. Distance runners need to have the speed endurance or special endurance to cover these distances in an enormous amount of discomfort. As I explained previously, training has consequences and believing it as a coach, it is important to put the runners through training what they experience in the meets.
Research has shown that training just above or below the race distance in practice has the highest correlation to improved sports performances. Frequently training near the desired race distance gives a runner the "strength" to cover the distance in a meet. Additionally, these athletes in high school and college must have the power to repeat these efforts many times to run multiple events or relays.
Some coaches have bought into low volume type of distance training middle distance runners. Training volume should accumulate to the point that a middle distance athlete has a chance to improve and handle the number of events/rounds they might see in competition. Interestingly, in the recent USATF world championship trials some the winners in post-race interviews talked about the need to peak at the right time or how their coach had given them the training to handle the rounds.