There are a couple of different training methods that can apply to the 400 & 800m distances.
It’s pretty obvious that you need speed for the 100 & 200m but many people neglect speed for the 400 & 800m. Most coaches and athletes advocate the long to short method meaning they start with very long slow running early in the season and progress to short faster running later in the season. This is a very common method used around the world and works very well for many athletes. However I would say it works for many talented athletes if they already have a load of speed. Michael Johnson, the 400m world record holder with a blistering time of 43.18 trained on this method and who can argue with his times. However he could also run a 200m in 19.32sec and the 100m in 10.09sec so this gave him a pretty big advantage in the long to short method. I would nearly go so far as to say that you could train a gifted athlete like him on many different programs and get similar results. This is not to say that he didn’t have to train hard and didn’t have the best coach in the world at that time in Clyde Hart. And I think he had the best coach for him.
I have a saying for any athlete that wants to run 400’s & 800’s. “If you don’t like feeling uncomfortable at every training session find another distance”.
How do you decide when to switch the focus to one (speed) or the other (endurance)? Do you put much stock in the 4×100+4sec formula? IOW, once someone reaches the theoretical best 400m time based off their 100m, do you chase the extra thru more speedwork? Is a runner that is at this point and not getting quicker at the shorter distance quietly pushed toward the 800m?
There are lots of good questions here and I can not answer them within the comments section in detail so I may write a follow up post. Using the concurrent method the focus remains both on speed and endurance. The focus may be skewed a little one way depending on the training phase you are in. No we don’t use 4x100m +4sec as I don’t believe it has much relevance to your 400m time especially a masters athlete. I would never use someones 100m time to determine if they can improve their 400m time. If you applied this method to a 400/800m runner then you would probably think they had reached their best 400m a long time before their actual best.
Where can I find sample work outs for the concurrent method for the 400/800 runner.
Hi Doug, Im really sorry that I missed you comment. You can email me directly and I will send you some info. runfasthq@gmail.com