I struggled to breathe as the former Brazilian Pan Am champ wedged his arm under my chin. I was annoyed. My conditioning was terrible, his was great. I was gasping for air the whole match, keeping me one step behind. Then I woke up. I had been submitted by a choke hold.

My first thought was “I need to up my conditioning.”

That brings me to the 400 meter sprint.

If you ever ran a 400, you would probably agree it is the hardest race in track. That’s right. There is nothing more exhausting or vomit inducing than running as hard as you can for nearly a minute. On the plus side, there are huge benefits to training the 400. It benefits both long and burst conditioning, burns fat, and makes everything else feel easy. Now that school is out for summer, it is a great time to use the local school track for an outdoor workout followed by a few 400 meter efforts.

The challenge is to decrease your time in the 400 over the next three months. To do so, start off slow. Start with the 200 for a few weeks and gradually work up to the 400. When running the 400, keep effort between 60-90%, this will reduce the risk of injury. Running flat out on a track is an easy way to pull a muscle.

I will be adding the 400 as a finisher to my training regimen twice a week for the summer using the following breakdown:

Week 1-2 - 2 sets of the 400 at 60% effort

Week 3-4 - 3 sets of the 400 at 60% effort, one set of the 200 at 90% effort

Week 5-8 - 2 sets of the 400 at 60% and 2 sets of the 400 T 90% effort

Week 9-12 1 set at 60% effort and 4 sets at 90% effort. Maybe I will sneak one in at full out.

With the addition of the 400, my conditioning improved dramatically. It has been over 10 years since I lost a match due to conditioning.

Practice the 400 twice a week for the summer and you will see great gains in conditioning. It will be tough, but that’s why it is a challenge. Besides easy is boring.
Get outside and go run some 400’s!