One Lap At A Time

Whether it was while running in gym class, or only seen surrounding the field of a local football game, chances are that you have seen a track before. Or that you at least know what the track is. Today we’re going to spotlight one of our favorite and most versatile workout distances – 400m repeats.

Summary Outline:

• The 400m
• 400m Repeats
• Benefits

The 400m

The 400m didn’t always used to be the standard distance for the track– it used to be 440yd. And the track that you grew up with might have been made of cinder or grass depending on the funding of your school or your age (hello baby-boomers 👋and maybe Gen Xers). However, in the modern era, your standard outdoor track is 400m. For sprinters, the 400m is digestible as a long all-out effort. For a distance runner, it’s a winding dial that chips away at middle distance races like the 800m all the way up to the 10,000m; and, for some, the 400m oval is home for ultra runners chasing records. Today we’re going to break down one of the key ways to approach the workout of 400m repeats and some of the physiological benefits.  

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400m Repeats

One of my favorite mile workouts is 1-3 mile warmup followed by 10x400m at goal mile race pace with 90s recovery and 1mile cooldown. This is a great workout to implement early in your training cycle and can be implemented later as well. When you don’t know what your current mile time is, it is recommended to on a different day, at least 48 hours before this workout, and preferably in a different week, do a mile time trial to get a baseline. But we’ll provide an example of what to do to best prepare assuming you have an idea already.

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Defining Your Pace:

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Let’s say you want to break 6-min as your next goal and your last mile time was at 6:10 (we recommend no more that 15s in your actual mile time compared to the pace you choose for your goal for this workout to make sure you do not over train; this accounts for 3-4s per mile faster than your current mile time when performing this workout).

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Take your current goal mile time, 6-min, and turn it into seconds.

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6min x 60s = 360s 

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Divide that by 4 for your pace per lap 

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360s / 4 laps = 90s / 400m lap.

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So for each lap you want to go for 90s. 

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Execution

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For the first 4-6 mile goal pace intervals try your best to stay within 1s of 90s. Remember a 91 and an 89 are very similar to 90. Try to be consistent too to help learn the pace.

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For the first 7-8 mile goal pace intervals try your best to stay within 1s and keep it to 90s - 89s. 

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Remember a 91 and an 89 are very similar to 90. 

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Try to be consistent too to help learn the pace. You don’t want to run your first half lap (200m) faster than your 2nd half of a lap. The most economical way to run is even splits, but negative splitting at minimum helps to train the body to be better at increasing speed than decreasing and you will likely feel stronger too.

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During your rest intervals of 90-s be sure to walk, jog slowly, or really anything other than sitting or laying down. 25% of Vo2max is the optimal rate of energy expenditure during a workout to help clear out metabolic byproducts that cause your muscles to burn.

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If you need to sit or lay down, you probably should call the workout and re-evaluate the paces you have or if you are ready to workout on the day you selected. Refer to our article on RPE for more information on workout readiness, found here.

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Benefits 

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There are a number of benefits that come from doing workouts that are higher intensity. The base is important for helping with recovery but some aspects of training can only be improved well with the implementation of repetitions that go faster than our comfort zone. Let’s look at some of those benefits below:

Improves Running Economy: Think of running economy like the fuel efficiency of a car. The better your running economy, the less energy you use to maintain a certain speed. Doing 400m repeats helps your body get used to running at a fast pace. Over time, your body becomes more efficient at using oxygen and energy, so you can run faster without getting as tired.

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Improves Speed Endurance: Speed endurance is your ability to maintain your speed over a distance. By running 400m repeats at your goal mile pace, you're training your body to hold a fast pace for a longer time. It's like practicing sprinting but for a slightly longer distance, which helps you build the stamina to keep up your speed throughout the entire mile race.

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Increases or Maintains Vo2max: VO2max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise. It's a bit like the maximum speed a car can go. The 400m repeats are intense and push your body to use a lot of oxygen, which can help increase or maintain your VO2max. This means over time, your body gets better at using oxygen, which is crucial for distance running.

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Improves Lactate Threshold: Your lactate threshold is the point during intense exercise when your body starts to accumulate more lactate than it can get rid of. Lactate is a byproduct of working muscles, and when it builds up, it can make your muscles feel tired and sore. By doing these 400m repeats, you're training your body to delay this point, meaning you can run faster for longer before you start to feel that burning sensation in your muscles.

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Improves Pace Perception: Pace perception is about understanding how fast you're running and being able to maintain a consistent speed. When you do 400m repeats at a specific pace (like your goal mile pace), you're teaching your body to recognize what that pace feels like. This can help you better control your speed during a race, so you don't start too fast and burn out or start too slow and have too much left at the end. This also allows a marathoner to feel like marathon pace is much easier since the mile pace is much faster.

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Running at this level helps to target all of the energy systems we don’t usually visit.

Much like having a donut, this is a workout you may want to incorporate only a few times a training cycle, but for us at RunByRyan it is a crowd favorite that we look for excuses to overindulge in, responsibly of course.

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