400m club time

PCeeeee wrote: »

Hi All.

Can I ask what is a average 400m club time? Roughly.

Very vague question.

From my experience of racing 400m for 5 seasons (3 in Australia and 2 in Ireland):

In Australia, you’d have male club athletes running anything from 47 down to as slow as 80. You’d see a lot of the slower times in interclub competition. In the state championships I remember being second from the rear with a 55. The majority were 52 or faster, with maybe 7-8 people running 53-55.

In ireland it is more top loaded. Because our interclub setup is useless, you don’t get as many slower runners doing 400m (or track events in general). National Championships tend to see times from 46-52, with a sprinkling of times slower than that. I came last one year with a 54, while the next year I was second last with a 56. There are a good few slower than me who would run at graded meets (times right the way down to 60-62 or so) but they’d never seem to show up at nationals unfortunately.

The above is for men. For women it’s more 53-65 at national level with runners down to around 70-72 at Gradeds.

Don’t be put off trying it in any case.

Chivito550 wrote: »

There are a good few slower than me who would run at graded meets (times right the way down to 60-62 or so)

Or even 66... *cough*.

Honestly OP, just give it a go. You can't base anything on a bit of solo training and a time trial. I can personally guarantee that if you turn up to one of the Graded Meets and finish 5 or 10 seconds behind the field, no-one will bat an eyelid

400m is a long sprint. You can't run it 100% from start to finish. If you can do a good 400m without any training, you might be an even better middle-distance runner.

If you like sprinting and running even faster, you could also try your hand at 100s and 200s. If you like running a little slower, but for longer, you could also see how you fare at middle-distance events like 800m and 1500m.

If you're in Dublin, keep an eye on https://www.nationalsportscampus.ie/nialive - they're open events, including 60m, held in the National Indoor Arena which typically have a very broad range of abilities doing them.

You don't have to run 5ks to do running and you don't even have to run to do athletics - jumping and throwing stuff are also involved in a lot of events.

Sacksian wrote: »

I wouldn't say you "have" to - you could do a lot of figuring out on your own on a track before committing to joining a club and you might still need to do a fair amount of figuring out on your own even if you do join a club if adult coaching is at a premium

yeah, but I think there are very few completely open sprint races, you wouldn't get much racing done in the summer without club membership

PCeeeee wrote: »

Thanks for the info all. I should mention I'm 41 so I'm under no illusions about some undiscovered talent.

You won't make the Olympics but who knows how far you could go in masters competition. And if you enjoy it, that's the main thing

PCeeeee wrote: »

Thanks for the info all. I should mention I'm 41 so I'm under no illusions about some undiscovered talent.

I took up running for the first time 9 years ago, aged 37, doing road races etc. and was always a mid pack runner at best.

Aged 43 I took up sprinting and since then have won multiple national medals in the 100 and 200, and hold three national records. Before this I never won a race in my life, not even as a kid.

I'm 46 now and plan to PB again this year. This year I competed in the world outdoor masters championships and reached the semi finals, the same in the European indoor masters championships. In 2019 I'm hoping to attend the European outdoor championships and my goal is to reach the final in the 100M.

Imagine the fun I'd have missed out on if I hadn't dipped my toe into track aged 43!

Mulberry wrote: »

I took up running for the first time 9 years ago, aged 37, doing road races etc. and was always a mid pack runner at best.

Aged 43 I took up sprinting and since then have won multiple national medals in the 100 and 200, and hold three national records. Before this I never won a race in my life, not even as a kid.

I'm 46 now and plan to PB again this year. This year I competed in the world outdoor masters championships and reached the semi finals, the same in the European indoor masters championships. In 2019 I'm hoping to attend the European outdoor championships and my goal is to reach the final in the 100M.

Imagine the fun I'd have missed out on if I hadn't dipped my toe into track aged 43!

That's absolutely brilliant!

jaggiebunnet wrote: »

I am planning on trying 100 and 200 next year, am 45 and wondering what kind of training you did ?

I do three training sessions a week jaggiebunnet and they go like this:

- Warm up and strengthening, with a bit of flexibility and a small bit of plyommetrics - this can take up to around 40 -50 minutes
- Drills - sprint drills - around 10 minutes
- Session

The session might be hills on a Saturday, speedwork on a Monday and speed endurance or similar on a Thursday. Sometimes we swap hills for more speed endurance.

The longest run I do these days is an 800M jog which is one of the (many!) elements of the warm up.

Are you in a club? Do you have someone to train with? Where are you based? It's a lot easier with a coach and a group, all of which I thankfully have access to as a member of Dunboyne AC. We'll even have our own tartan track in the next 4-5 months also.

Yeah in a club but it is mainly a kids club and the adults tend to concentrate on the longer distances with some exceptions now that track training will begin and i am hoping to rope some of the old ones into this crazy scheme along with me

After doing marathons last few years I have been trying to get away from the distance runs and have been back in the gym and now will be starting the sprint sessions in earnest after new year. will see how i evolve on this, I was a sprinter when i was younger and although i have a few medals I wouldn't have been the fastest but hopefully age has slowed other folk down and i am in decent enough shape so will give it a lash anyway - thanks for the input!

I entered one of the Dublin graded meets in the summer. I'd only set foot on a track for the first time a few months before and I'd done an 80 second 400. I'd never done a block start. I figured I could run it in 75s and my aim for the year was 72 seconds (5 minute-mile-pace). I had a look at the past results and made a note of the times to check. I wanted to know how embarrasing it would be (like would I be 15 seconds behind the next guy).

Runners are graded A to D with A being the fastest. Here are the times I found (with outlier times in parentheses):


Pre-2018 Results

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Men's Grade C

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400m 56 - 71
400m 52.8 - 64.7
400m 52.8 - 64.7
400m 54.0 - 57.2
400m 53.2 - 65.5
400m 55.5 - 69.7
400m 55.4 - 68.9


2018 Results

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Men's Results Meet 3 23rd May

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A+B 400m 51.1 - 56.2
C 400m 56.1 - 62.1 (and 70.0)
C 400m 54.6 - 60.0

Women's Results Meet 3 23rd May

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C 400m 63.2 - 69.8 (and 76.2)

Men's Results Meet 4 6th June

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A 400m 51.6 - 53.2 (and 60.4)
A 400m 49.7 - 52.2
B 400m 51.4 - 56.2
B 400m 52.6 - 58.1 (and 65.9)
C 400m 54.3 - 69.5

Women's Results Meet 4 6th June

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A 400m 52.6 - 59.0 (and 64.8)
B 400m 59.2 - 66.5
C 400m 67.8 - 70.7 (and 75.6)

In the end I ran 69 seconds and squeaked into second-last place, a result I was very happy with.