The Woodway Curve Treadmill Training Guide for 400m Sprinters

DISCLOSURE: I know I’m going to get a lot of comments & criticism for this long to short approach, but what works for me, may not work for you.

But after 20 years of Achilles injuries (since 1998) and trying to train short to long (since 2002), and the full rupture tear of my Achilles (2016), it’s feels great to train again, like I used to.

All the workouts were from my time at McGill (84-93) with coach Dennis Barrett, unless otherwise stated

Woodway Curve Treadmills

The challenge is trying to extract the right Volume & Intensities.
Traditionally, it’s “distance over time “, say, run 200m in 30 sec.
But curve treadmills are “time and speed (mph)”, say, run 30 sec at 17mph.
Traditional treadmills has pace in min:mile or min:km (i.e 8:00 minutes/mile)
And realistically, on this Woodway curve treadmills there are only 5 speeds that I can attain comfortably: 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 mph. I may change gyms, and be forced to use another brand of treadmills soon, so watch this space.

NOTE: the formula for speed, s = d/t, which means speed equals distance divided by time. To solve for time use the formula for time, t = d/s which means time equals distance divided by speed

Definition of “Coming Home” Pace

If you have a 23s 200 PB, and run 400m in 50s with splits of 24 & 26, then 26 is your ‘coming home’ pace. So your tempo run should be no slower than your ‘coming home’ pace (i.e. 100m @ 13 sec) , according to some coaches:

23 => 24, 26 = 50
24 => 25, 27 = 52
25 => 26, 28 = 54
26 => 27, 29 = 56, so 29 sec is my ‘coming home’ pace, which is 14.5 sec per 100m on a fly. Pretty close!

TIP: I use the free GymBoss App on my phone to program these workouts, secured with a bulldog clip, but you can buy the device for $20 and still works well.

Goals. First, you have to get used to running on the treadmill, and identifying the speeds.

17mph tempo run (or 52 sec 400m pace?)
18mph 300s (or 49 sec 400m pace?)
19mph 200s (or 47 sec 400m pace?)
20+mph 100s

I think those speeds on the display are really the speeds of the belt and drum, but in reality, ground contact (and to some extent, wind resistance) is a whole different ballgame. So don’t go over your head with bragging rights, and start sharing your top speed in MPH on Twitter. #NGAF.

Approx distance/time equivalents (Assume 4 minute mile or 400m = 60 sec pace for easy calculation):

500m = 75sec
400m = 60sec
300m = 45sec
200m = 30sec
150m = 20sec
100m = 15sec

Woodway Curve Treadmills & TEMPO workouts

Tempo Session on a Woodway Curve Treadmill, 10x15sec, 75sec recovery, from 16-20mph (pyramid)

TEMPO workouts can be done year round, and it’s a good starting point to get used to the curve treadmill.

GPP – Fall Classic Tempo runs, walk what you run

6×300, walk 300 (45 sec, 3:45 rest)
8×200, walk 200 (30 sec, 2:30 rest)
10×100, walk 100 (15 sec, 1:15 rest)

EMOM

12 x 1 minute, 20 secs fast, 40 sec recover (EMOM – every minute on the minute

“Pyramids”, Same speed, Increasing speeds

10×100, walk 100 or more? (15 sec, 1:15 rest)
16-17-28-19-20-20-19-18-17-16 (did this 12-27-2019, checkout the video on YouTube)
17-18-19-20-21-21-20-19-18-17 to try, but the middle 4 intervals will be tough
Also, try this with 9×200 with 2:30 rest?

The next 3 workouts have been covered in detail here: 5 Different 6x200m Workouts

Clyde Hart 200s

15×200 35sec 2:20 recovery
…
10×200 30sec (33w) 2:00 rec 16mph
9×200 29sec (32w) 1:56 rec 17mph JAN (did this 12-31-2019)
8×200 28sec (31w) 1:52 rec 18mph FEB (did this 11-02-2020)
7×200 27sec (30w) 1:48 rec 19mph MAR
6×200 26sec (29w) 1:44 rec 20mph APR
5×200 25sec (28w) 1:40 rec 21mph MAY
MJ did 3×200 in 23 sec with 1:30 rec, which is really a split 600.

Tom Tellez Pre-Comp phase 6x200m

6×200, 29 seconds, 90 sec recovery
6×200, 29 seconds, 75 sec recovery (as season progresses)
6×200, 29 seconds, 60 sec recovery
5×200, 28 seconds, 90 sec recovery
5×200, 28 seconds, 75 sec recovery
5×200, 28 seconds, 60 sec recovery

Competition Phase 6x200m “quick and get it over with“
Very similar to the Tom Tellez one: The Descending recovery 6x200m (single workout)

29 seconds, 75 sec recovery
29 seconds, 60 sec recovery
29 seconds, 45 sec recovery
29 seconds, 30 sec recovery
29 seconds, 15 sec recovery
29 seconds, puke

Charlie Francis Big Circuit
2200m total volume, 50m walk recovery between reps, 100m walk recovery between sets

1-1-1 (15-30R-15-30R-15-60R)
1-1-2-1
1-2-2-1
1-2-1-1
1-1-1

Here is a presentation of Tempo Running for Recovery & Regeneration, where I talk about the Charlie Francis Big Circuit:

Woodway Curve Treadmills & Special Endurance (early to mid season)

This is The Famous 6-5-4-3-2-1 Workout. It’s a 6-5-4-3-2-1 “walk what you run” with a max 400m walk.
As a first pass, you could try 90-75-60-45-30-15sec, all at @17mph.
Then after that, try 6-5-4-3-2-1 at speed of 16-17-18-19-20-21mph.
Each “200 segment” is 1 second faster – as season progresses, as shown below:

600	500	400	300	200
1:42	1:22	64	47	30
1:39	1:20	62	45	29
1:36	1:17	60	44	28
1:33	1:15	58	42	27
1:30	1:12	56	41	26

Each “200 segment” 1 second faster – as season progresses

Split workouts
(3 sets, then 2 sets only as season progresses)
Each of these is a workout itself. Don’t attempt all 5 in a single workout!

2 x [600-200] 120 sec rest, full recovery
2 x [500-200] 90 sec rest, 8 min recovery between sets (500:17mph, 200:18mph)
2 x [400-200] 60 sec rest
2 x [300-200] 45 sec rest
2 x [300-150] 30 sec rest

Lee Evans split 600s

6x600m (First 400 tempo, Last 200 at ‘coming home’ speed or faster)
5x500m (400-100) later in the season (can try 1st 60 sec @ 17mph, then last 15 sec much faster @ 19mph

Tony Holler (from the Feed the Cats series)

3×150, walk 250, sum of all 3 fly runs = your 400m predicted time
2×200 sum of 0.67 PLUS 2
2x(200-200) 45 sec rest, 8-10min bet seta

Woodway Curve Treadmills & Special Endurance (mid to late season)

The next workouts below should be done after 6x100m strides for warmup with increasing speeds (17,18,19,20,21mph) (let’s assume 400m PR is 55 sec):

3×300 (40sec) near full out (19-20mph), 8 min full recovery (did this 01-05-2020)
300-300-200 (as competitive season approaches)
300-200-150

2x350m (48sec for 55 sec 400m PR) near full out, 8 min full recovery
2×300 or 2x40sec (as competitive season approaches)
300, 250
300, 200

Woodway Curve Treadmills & Speed Endurance (mid to late season)

3 of my favourite 150m workouts are as follows:

Spring: 6×150 walk 250m (so 20 sec at a max speed of 21.6 mph, with 3 minutes recovery)
Early Summer: 3x150m full recovery (as competitive season approaches)
Summer: 150-120-100 (during competition phase)

Speed, Overspeed, and Segment runs

You know this workout:
i.e. 3x30m hard-coast-hard, or coast-hard-coast
It can even be 20-20-20m alternating fast, and coast. You learn pickup & change gears, which is a MUST for 800m runners.

A very basic ‘segment run’ workout would be 3 sets of 4 second sprints (total 12 secs) at increasing speeds between segments, hence the term segment runs.

So I did this workout following (on 20 Jan 2020):

8-8-8, then 3 min walk recovery between sets (8sec @17mph, 8sec @19mph, 8sec @21mph = 24 continuous sec)
7-7-7 (21 sec, same speeds as above)
6-6-6 (18 sec, same speeds as above)
5-5-5 (15 sec, same speeds as above)

Once you can achieve this, then the next progression is 18-20-22mph, which is near your top speed on a Woodway Curve treadmill. At least for me anyways.

Putting it all together (Weekly Plan, EARLY-MID SEASON)

WARM UP
Always do 6x100m (15s) as a warm up, with increasing speeds 17,18,19,20,21,22

HARD DAYS
MONDAY – breakdowns or split 700s (500m @17, then 200m @19) 1400m/210s or 2100m/315s
WEDNESDAY – 3×300 (@20mph), or 2×350. 900m/120s
FRIDAY – 3-6 x150m (@20-21mph) 900m/120s, or segment runs emulating 60-60-60, 50-50-50, 40-40-40, 30-30-30 (540m/78s)

EASY or RECOVERY DAYS (alternate days, no warm up strides required)
12 x EMOM 20s/40s – every minute on the minute
Or the Clyde Hart Monday 200s (start at 9×200 29-32s, 1:56 @17mph) ~2000m tempo