With September around the corner, I wanted to review one of the more famous Clyde Hart “Monday” workouts.
It’s the 200 meter repeats.
Now, any clown with a whistle and clipboard (**cough cough Coach Al cough cough**) can dish out a workout. But I believe in asking questions first. Why are you doing this workout?
In short, the answer is how much, how fast, how much recovery.
In Clyde Hart’s example, he believes as you go fewer in volume, the faster you go with shorter recovery. And I mean short. If you don’t have your aerobic conditioning in place before showing up, believe me, you will rediscover it quickly.
He likes to start his season with 15 x 200m (i.e. 3000m total volume) in about 35 seconds with 2 min 20 sec recovery. Women are about 3 seconds slower.
Then as the season progresses, you get down to 5 x 200m with only 1 min 40 sec recovery for regular College guys.
But of course, Michael Johnson is no ordinary human. His goal was in 3 x 200m with 1 min 30 sec recovery.
If you want to get a logical overview of the repeat 200’s, here it is presented in a chart.
Jimson Lee
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Very smart way to plan training! If you got more of these articles, please post ;)
@Oyvind, there are lots of articles already posted in the archives.
Jimson, would you say this workout is more tailored to 400m or 200m training?
Not sure the source of your information about Hart. Maybe he has changed the rest over the years. Here is some material presented in 2007:
http://www.usatf.org/groups/Coaches/library/2007/Sprint%20Training/Clyde_Hart3.pdf
On page 6 he has 10 x 200 in 30 with 2 minutes rest.
On page 7 he has 8 x 200 in 28 with 3 minutes rest.
On page 8 he has 6 x 200 in 26 with 3 minutes rest.
I see longer or equal rest as the speed gets faster, not less rest as your article suggests.
@Peter, my source is from a 2007 spring interview.
how early does he start these 200m repeats? I heard november but if this article mentions september being around the corner, then Id assume that..anyone?
you start these at the beginning of the season whether it’s Sept, Oct or Nov.
As usually happens with Hart, he lets people know just a part of his training…he has evolved a lot..
Hart is the first to admit that he changes his programs regularly… also depending on the athlete.
Hello mr.lee,
i think it´s a real good workout for the fall.
i want start the session in the next weeks but i want to know when i have to go to next step in the list and it is better to end this workout before competition and replce it with some spilt runs or can i run the 5×200 25s to january
@alex, you have to decide how well you recovery from this workout before going to the next “step”. there are a lot of variables, including speed session, long to short to short to long, etc.
what about monday, am-3mile and pm,12x200m
@Rupert, I am sure those workouts has its place early in the season in a long to short approach.