FOR THE ONES WHO THINK ABOUT THE LAP
The science, stories and craft of the 400 metres.
A trackside journal by coach Stewart Marshall.
THE LONG WAY ROUND.
Speed is onlyTWO BENDS. TWO STRAIGHTS. A WORLD WITHIN.
01 / INSIDE THE LAP
A way to think about the flat 400.
Explore the lap, one phase at a time.
A CONCEPTUAL GUIDE, NOT A FIXED PACING PLAN.
THE FIRST BEND
Accelerate into the race and find your rhythm. The stagger makes other athletes a poor early reference; your own race model is the useful one.
THE TRACKSIDE QUESTIONDid the opening create the race you had prepared to run?
02 / THE JOURNAL
Ideas to take to the track.
And a few to challenge on the way there.
THE LATEST NOTEUNCATEGORIZED / 10 MIN READ
As I mentioned in my last post, anticipatory grieving saw me doing a lot of hard intervals over the last year. This short post describes a really cool workout that I did, how…
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If speed is the lever that changes the 400 metres, then aerobic development is the part most often misunderstood once that lever has been identified. After years of being told the event…
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There is a phase in many 400-metre programmes where speed feels almost miraculous. Athletes get quicker over 30 metres and suddenly the race opens up. Early splits feel easier. The final bend…
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At some point, if you stay with the 400 metres long enough, you stop trusting neat explanations. You stop trusting the idea that if an athlete is “fit enough” the race will…
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At a fundamental level, how fast you sprint is limited by how much force and power you can rapidly apply to the ground in a horizontal direction. To effectively accelerate forward in a…
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How can we improve the maximum velocity of an amateur sprinter, addressing the optimal biomechanical principles? With the Olympics being one of the worlds biggest sporting events, the 100m sprint particularly the…
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A few weeks ago, I did some very short, high-intensity sprints in the middle of a zone two bike ride. The sprints left me feeling exhausted far more than they should have,…
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Read the note03 / THE COACHING APPROACH
Speed, training history, recovery, facilities and the competition calendar. The programme needs to fit the person running it.
Distance alone doesn’t define a session. Intensity, recovery and the quality you want to develop tell the rest of the story.
Use timings, video and the athlete’s response to ask better questions. Be clear about what you observed and what you inferred.
THE COACH BEHIND THE NOTES
400 M & 400 M HURDLES COACH
Curious about the science.
Committed to the craft.
I’m Stewart, a 400 m and 400 m hurdles coach. The Long Sprint is where I bring together the questions that keep the event interesting: how we build speed, how we organise training, and what happens when the plan meets the final bend.
I believe in strong fundamentals, individual context and knowing why a session belongs in the programme. A method earns its place through what it does for the athlete.
This journal is for coaches who keep questioning, athletes who want to understand their event, and anyone who knows that one lap can hold a very big story.
Pull up a seat at tracksideKEEP THE CONVERSATION MOVING
The next tenth starts with
a better question.