Need advice about sprints and distance! (Read 132 times)

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to talk about things like sprints, but I would greatly appreciate some help.

So, I'm not really much of an active person. In elementary school I adored running, I was always the fastest kid in the class and always did any running events being offered at my school.

In Middle School, I wanted to do track. I signed up, but I hated the coach, so I quit because I personally wanted to run on my own over dealing with her. (There was only one coach, so I couldn't switch events to leave her or anything)

On the 1st or 2nd day of track practice, without ANY prior conditioning, no prior running whatsoever, I ran a 1:16 400m. I started out too fast and ended up slowing down a lot at the end so my time kind of stunk.

2 years later, I'm now in highschool, and I would love to be good at the 400m. How much do you think with conditioning I could get my time down?

My goal would be a 1:00, but I don't know if that's possible.

Feedback on whether I could do this or not and how would be amazing.

Also: distance question.

How long does it take to prepare for a 5k? (on average) Thank you!

If you're one of the fastest kids in elementary/middle school without much training, I'd say it's about 12-second 100m or a bit faster.  So-called natural ability can get you to a decent 100-200m in middle to high school but, if you want to do okay in 400 in high school, you'll need some level of stamina/endurance and "not being very active" is not the way to go about.

I'm not sure what sort of goal you have but, all due respect, 1:16 for 400m in high school is not that very good at all.  Consider that 1:16 is 5:04-mile pace which many decent distance kids can put 4 of them together or even faster.  I was never considered fast and was always a stamina guy and ran 56 seconds for my first ever 400m when I was 13 on a dirt 200m track.  If you want to become a "good" 400m runner at high school level, you'll need to work on your speed in 100 and 200.  Try to lean as much about sprint drills and strength training for running especially hill training--both up AND down--as you can.  Also, do some research on a guy by the name of Clyde Hart who coached some of the best 400m runners in the past decades.  You will notice that he had his runners do fair amount of cross country and some road running to develop his runners' endurance.  For 400m, it is absolutely imperative to learn to run fast relaxed.  For that, those drills to teach correct running style/position and strengthen your core to hold a good body position.  In short, "naturally fast" won't cut it to become a good 400m runner; you'll need to work on it.

Regarding 5k preparation, it all depends on what you want to get out of it--just to "survive" a 5k race, as a healthy "athlete", it won't take a month to get into good enough shape to run 3-miles.  But if you want to run a "decent" 5k, I'd say it would take minimum of 12 weeks or so, beginning with conditioning.  You could probably get away with 8 but I personally wouldn't recommend it.

 

 

I'm not sure what sort of goal you have but, all due respect, 1:16 for 400m in high school is not that very good at all.  

What about for a girl?

 What about for a girl?

You go to any state high school competition and watch girls 800m.  1:16 "pace" is 2:32 for 800m.  You'll see quite a few girls running that time in 800m--which is 1:16 pace.  I once coached a young girl who had run 56 seconds (my first 400m time!!) at the age of 15.  So, no, 1:16 is not that great.  Maybe not too terribly bad for a girl who hadn't done much and just naturally "fast" to just jump in and run 400.  But not good.