Jared Deacon is currently the UKA Development Coach for Sprints and Hurdles at Loughborough High Performance Centre. I never met Jared, but hopefully I will soon when I go visit fellow Canuck Derek Evely who is the Director at the same venue.
Like several well known coaches, he was an athlete first with a personal best of 45.57 and competed in the 4x400m Great Britain relay team at the Sydney Olympics as well as the Commonwealth Games where he won a Gold for England.
In this interview, Jared discusses his experiences as an athlete and how they have shaped his coaching philosophy.
PHOTO: Jared Deacon (left), Sean Baldock, Chris Rawlinson and Daniel Caines at the Manchester CWG 2002
If you run or coach the 400 meters, you’ll definitely enjoy this podcast.
Here are some highlights:
- His initial training was a long to short approach with common traditional “lactate workouts” that got him so far.
- Later he realized speed is key, along with strength and plyometric work
- Even when training short to long, the freshness in his legs enabled him to run multiple rounds and relays, running several 400’s in 5 days. Long-to-short coaches commonly use the “running the rounds” excuse to justify their over-distance slow interval work.
- He felt consistent 20.8 200m times were the key to get below 45 sec (Jimson’s note: 20.8 doubled plus 3.5 = 45.1)
- He uses my analogy of why speed is key… your 400m is based on your 200 time, your 200m is based on your 100 time, your 100m is based on your 60 time, your 60m is based on your 30 time…
- He talks about speed reserve and why that is the key to a good 400 meter time.
- The best kept secret in 400 racing: changing backstretch vs homestretch running style and techniques to avoid fighting the fatigue and lactate over the last 120 meters. He credits Terry Lomax for this tip.
You can listen to the podcast courtesy of UK Athletics coaching site, or use the handy player below.
PODCAST Info: – Jared Deacon, UKA Development Coach for Sprints and Hurdles at Loughborough High Performance Centre
Interview Date: February 2010
Duration: 48 mins
File Size: 22 MB
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Good information but it bares saying that with all the studies that have been done on 400 meter training and the multitude of articles on training, technical efficiency, etc. that SHOW max speed as the key to any type of training for 400, that he went through all those years of being a lab rat to find what worked. At least he learned from experience that all the good studies on 400m training programs are centered around Max Speed and Max Strength/Power Development.