Complete Speed Training

Iwan Thomas & Michael Johnson: How to Race the 400m

Iwan Thomas and Michael Johnson

Share Racing season is here! Last month, I wrote about How to Run the Indoor 300 or 400 meters.  BBC Channel 4 had a good video clip with UK’s Iwan Thomas and Michael Johnson on How to Race the outdoor 400 meters shown during the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.  Ironically, back in 1998, Iwan [...]

Gold Rush: Michael Johnson’s new Book

Share . In the USA: Gold Rush by Michael Johnson In the UK: Gold Rush by Michael Johnson If you like Michael Johnson’s first book, Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Great Feats, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Johnson has assembled his very own Olympic Hall of Fame in assessing the [...]

What is a Swedish Relay?

Share If you watched the recent IAAF Youth Championships in Lille, France, you know the answer to this question. The “Swedish Relay” is 1000 meters in length (two and a half laps), comprising 4 legs in order of 100m, 200m, 300m, & 400m.  It is also called the medley relay and mostly used in youth [...]

When Athletes Become Coaches: Maurice Green

Share Can former elite athletes become world class coaches? Just because you once ran fast (once upon a time) does not qualify or give you the permission to become a coach. You have to pay your dues, obtain certifications, and go to conferences. You have to learn, learn, learn. You can never stop learning. There [...]

Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner’s Magic Workouts (Part 2)

Share This is Part 1 of a 2 part series.  Click here for Part 1. There are numerous articles on the 300-350 meter distance for special endurance workouts.  It is no co-incidence they are all within the “40 second zone”. Clyde Hart 300 meter Workouts (with beeper) Clyde Hart’s Split 400 meter Workout Mike Holloway’s [...]

Allan Wells Speedbag Video (with Michael Johnson)

Share As promised, here is the segment of Allan Wells being interviewed by Michael Johnson from the BBC Special, The World’s Fastest Men. I talked about How to Train with the Speedbag or Speedball last month.  For a guy in his late 50’s, Allan Wells is still pretty good with the speedbag! You will have [...]

Interview with Clyde Hart

Share In 2008, the IAAF New Studies in Athletics’ asked Victor Lopez, the Chairman of the IAAF Coaches Commission and a long-time friend of Hart, to get Hart to speak about the fundamentals of his approach to training 400m runners. New Studies in Athletics:  What does it take to perform well in the 400m? Clyde [...]

Clyde Hart’s Split 400 meter Workout

Share One of the toughest workouts in my mind are split workouts.  An example is a split 400m: run 200m at near top speed, rest 1 minute, then run another 200m with whatever you’ve got. This workout could also be a 300m broken down as 3 x 100m (rest 1 minute).  Or a Split 500m [...]

Increase Stride Rate to Decrease Injuries?

Share Here we go again. Running is meant to be simple.  Just put one foot in front of the other. It all boils down to stride rate and stride frequency.  Optimize the 2 forces, horizontal and vertical, and cover ground as fast as possible.  Simple. In the distance world, I recall former WR holder in [...]

Michael Johnson’s Speedwork Training

Share Michael Johnson’s training for speed endurance was covered in detail very early in the blog, so I thought it would be interesting to review what he did for speed work or acceleration development.  After all, we are talking about at man with a 10.09 PB for 100 meters and who ran 19.32 for 200 [...]

4x400m Doha WIC: We Got Hamstrings Blowing Left and Right

Share I’ve always said the Relay is like the Irving Berlin song… Anything Goes… The 4x400m meter relay at the 2010 World Indoor Championships (WIC) in Doha were no exception. Every time you line up for the finals, you have to believe you can win or medal.  It doesn’t matter if you are sandwiched between [...]

Great Britain’s 400 meter Glory Days and Roger Black

Share When was the last time you had 4 Americans AND 3 British athletes in a 400 meters Olympic or World Championship Final?  POP QUIZ:  Who was the lone non-American and non-Brit in that race? How is 4 athletes possible? Enter the “Michael Johnson Rule” of 1997.  When he strained his quad in the Donovan [...]

300 meter World Record Video (with a twist)

Share Almost 20 years ago, both Danny Everett and Roberto Hernandez were credited with a world record time of 31.48 for the 300 meters.  It was set on September 3, 1990 at  Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, just 1 hour south by car from Seville. Danny was declared the winner breaking the previous mark of [...]

Pietro Mennea’s Detailed Training Workouts for 200 meters

Share Pietro Mennea’s 19.72 200 meter World Record was set at the 1979 World University Games in Mexico City.  The WR would later become the holy grail of the 200 meters until Michael Johnson broke it (twice) in 1996. Today, that 19.72 sounds like molasses in January compared to 19.19. Pietro Mennea also won the [...]

3 Rounds for Track Events – What does it mean?

Share Interesting article from the IAAF Council Meeting notes, Monaco – 20 November, 2009.  It states under the TRACK EVENTS: No more than three rounds for any event A preliminary qualification round of men’s and women’s 100m to include only unqualified athletes Relays spread over at least three days Semi-Finals and Finals in same session [...]

Italian Sprint Heroes – Livio Berruti 200m Rome 1960

livioberrutilestercarneyabdulseye1960romeolympics.jpg

Share During my prime running years, Pietro Mennea’s 200m WR was the holy grail.  19.72 was the 200m WR standard for 17 years. In fact, Pietro Mennea won the 200m 1980 Olympics in the Moscow Boycotted Olympics.  He also won the Bronze medal at 1972 Munich Olympics at the same distance.  Mennea competed in 4 [...]

Do Curves Matter? Indoor vs. Outdoor World Records

Share NOTE: Some of my older guest posts on other Websites are now being shut down due to the economic climate. Thus I will present them here. How much do the tight indoor curves affect your performance? Even with the banked curves to counteract the centripetal forces, it does affect your stride length and stride [...]

Who wins? Kenenisa Bekele vs. Usain Bolt at 600 meters

Share Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson – step aside… Why on earth would Kenenisa Bekele and Usain Bolt race each other at 600 meters is beyond me.  If anything, it would help promote Bekele as he is not a household name as compared to Bolt, despite his amazing accomplishments.  If you don’t believe me, just [...]

Dwayne Miller – Coach of LaShawn Merritt

Share Dwayne Miller: World Class 400M Dash (DVD) From the mailbag: Jimson, You’ve covered a lot of great 400m coaches on your website like Clyde Hart, Bud Winter and Stan Dowell.  How about LaShawn Merritt’s coach?  What kind of training philosophy does he have?  Long to Short or Short to Long? First of all, Dwayne [...]

Proposal to the IAAF – Scheduling the 100 200 400 for Usain Bolt

Share If Usain Bolt runs the 400 meters in 2010 or 2011 as promised, and sets the WR in the process, he might consider running the 100, 200, 400 and 4x100m relay all in the same Olympics to achieve his 4 Gold medal dream.  He will achieve iconic status if he accomplishes this incredible feat. [...]

Complete Speed Training

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