Elite coaching special - Clyde Hart coach to Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner

From Blue Monday to Tuesday
Clyde does not have the sessions on given days by chance there is method to what is done when. Clyde explained the thinking behind Tuesday’s training. He also gave proof of how conditioning is key.

He said: "Monday is a good day to do the session. We used to do it on Tuesday's. They race Saturday and rest Sunday so Monday ought to be a good work out. But they complain and moan on a Monday - we call it ‘Blue Monday’ as they gripe and moan. By Tuesday most of the kids have got it out of the system.

"Tuesday is an over distance day. We start it early in the year doing the half miles and cutting it down, moving the finish cone, getting shorter but faster. We do them in sets of two. The half milers may do more sets but with the same principle.

"For 400m we do 2.5 times race distance so workouts are about 1000m long but we can go well over that when building the base.

"I'll give you two examples of why these workouts work. We don't have the luxury of going in the lab to measure VO2max or lactate every day.

"The very first year I put it in the 200m workout we had our mile [4 x 400m] relay team run 3min 12sec mid-April - that's a 48sec average. It was going to take 3min 10sec to win the Texas relays. We had always put off speed work until two weeks before the Texas relays but we kept postponing our speed work because of the bad weather. The kids kept saying ‘We have not done our first speed work’. One kid said: ‘All we have been doing is those stupid 200s’. They had done seven in 27. As I have said I believe that strength and speed are synonymous. We had been doing drills and quick step work in the gym.

"We got in a battle with Texas Southern in the relays and finished in 3min 6.8sec - a dead heat.”

The team had averaged 46.7sec per 400m leg.

Clyde revealed: "On the way back I asked our anchor leg runner, "How did you feel, you were worried about not being quick and fast?" Without hesitation he said, ‘Number five.’ I asked what he meant and he said he felt like he was running number five of the 27sec efforts. That was in 1975.

"Six in 26sec still hurts even for Michael Johnson. The 400m is a phosphate race. You can replenish your reserves even if you take a short rest.

"In 1997 in the third week of April Michael ran 43.68sec. Michael had not run faster than 28sec for 200m - he had done drills and 40 yard sprints and he had done hills. I also had a collegiate runner do 45sec the same day so it was not just Michael.

"Speed and strength are synonymous."

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