Feed the Cats Speed Training for the 400m | Lactate Workouts & Sprinting the 400 

Love it!

I started coaching track the last couple years using your principles as a foundation. I point all other coaches now into the feed the cats system.

My 7th grader has his first ever track meet next week. He doesn’t go to really go to team practice because he also trains for baseball and tries to play pickup basketball everyday.I’ve been watching ftc videos and training him on the side with workouts 1-2x / week as a warmup for the other 2 sports. After watching some of the ftc presentations He and his older brother who ran xc in middle school now argue that they are ‘cats and sprinters’. As a torn scrawny distance runner I can’t wait to see how this all plays out😅

It works

I was a sprinter in college and my coach had us do six mile runs on Mondays. Nuts!

Gerard... u are not a liar. You are an outlier

After: Attacking the ground with a excellent stride. Before: thinking a distance mentality was the way.

We can them lactate workouts. itccca.com/12626/2016/12/the-survival-of-king-mithridates/

It’s good but we have no hills in Plainfield. Definitely does not address max velocity.

@@coachtonyholler Parking Garage inclines .

@@davidjanbaz7728 perfect!

@@coachtonyhollerand declines would address max v.

Unless I’m completely off here, just trying to learn more as a track coach.

Forget peaking. Peaking is old school BS. Coaches would pile on work for months making athletes slower (and often injured). They would then stop the abuse and athletes who SURVIVED the abuse would get fresher and run faster. Coaches would take all the credit. TRUST THE PROCESS. FTC is a program that is ALWAYS PEAKING. FTC IS ALWAYS PRIORITIZING HEALTH AND JOYFUL TRAINING.

@@coachtonyholler thank you! If I may ask, does resisted sprinting fit anywhere in your program? So sleds, overspeed cable, etc?

@@jameslowe1092 x-factor

I just refuse to train at slower than race pace.

I haven’t prove tempo to be wrong, but I’ve proven you can eliminate it. And… cats don’t like tempo.

Yes

Understand your point. I just can’t call sub max distance running “speed”.

Generally speaking, you need to be a cross country runner in sumner and fall (but not neglecting athleticism). Then pivot to speed in the winter and spring track season… running the 800 and 4x4.

@@coachtonyholler Thank you! Excited for the next 12-16 months. I'll keep you posted.

We never do threshold work. Too slow. Do lactate work 4-5 days before a meet.

$300 first month

Don’t like 300 targets. 200 PR +1, 2nd 200 PR +3. Improve you 200 to improve your 400.

~4 minutes (at least 3)

I’ve done it for a long time my friend.

I'm a firm believer in the "Feed the Cats" method. With that said I believe 400m athletes require speed endurance work outside of lactate work. Our athletes main focus is speed and explosion all year and that's all we do early. We then add lactate work similar to the feed the cats program. Once we have reached out speed potential for the season we add in some longer training (we still focus on speed and explosion that never changes). By doing this we become faster, lactate threshold is higher, aerobic/cardiovascular system is more efficient therefore supplying the body with more oxygen allowing us to run faster for longer. By doing this a 50 sec guy becomes a 48-49 in the season instead of being stuck at a 50. The way I see it is take a group of cheetahs chasing an antelope. All of them are fast because they are cheetahs. If the antelope gets lucky and gets away the cheetahs tire and run out of energy they are used to catching prey quickly. If one of those cheetahs has chased an antelope 100m farther he eats the antelope.