This is a learned skill and we practice it specifically starting late week 6 or early week 7 through the rest of the season (see below). It’s tough when the other athletes are burning the turn, but that just gives your athletes someone to run down when they start tying up at the same spot yours start to bare down. Phase 2 – 40m – 110-120m: (around the end of the 4×1 exchange zone, depending on skill and strength of the athlete): Float You have to teach athletes they must float during this time no matter what is going on around them. Phase 1 – 0-40m (or first 5-6 seconds): Go all out It has worked quite well for my athletes. All that being said, this is how I teach athletes to run the 200. By the time they’re coming off the turn, of course they’re going to start rigging up. So, at best, 200m runners are going to start slowing down by the 60m mark. Top speed can only be maintained for a max of 2 seconds before deceleration begins (why even the 100m can’t be run all out). Remember, athletes get run down not because the competition is accelerating past them, but because they are slowing down much faster than the competition. There has to be a conservation of energy somewhere. It’s not possible to all out sprint the 200. The reason so many athletes get run down in the deuce is because they treat it likes it’s a race to the straight away. The main problem with inexperienced 200 meter runners is the fact they run the race like it’s the 55, i.e., they try to sprint the whole thing. Before I dissect how I break up my macrocycle, let me first explain the simplest way to teach your athletes to run the race. As you read this article, I invite you to think of questions and bring them to the discussion forum. Because a solid 200 meter runner can run the 400 (open and relay) and likely can drop down to the 100, or at least run the backstretch of the 4×100 (generally the longest leg of the 400m relay). In this article I’m going to break this event down so that your athletes can find greater success in the event. While I’ve arguably had the most coaching success at 400 meters (and, where I’m from – the 300) I still love the Deuce best of all. As an athlete whose primary event was the 200 at the collegiate level I’ve developed a certain affinity for running and coaching the event. That leaves the middle child, the 200, left out in the cold. When we commonly think of the sprint events, the 100 meter dash gets all the glory and the 400 meter dash gets all the respect. The 200 meter sprint is the Rodney Dangerfield of the sprint events.

Sprint 4 lines for 100