s. bones:
thanks for clearing that up (prior training to prepare for the 5×180). your program seems very logical and well planned. your intensive tempo workout sounds familiar. is it related to the kitkat thread from the cf board? we have used a variation of that workout in the past. but this year we are going to try the 6×200 w/ 2' walk/jog recovery at 80%. week 2 we will bump the intensity to 85% and then 90%(around race pace) the third week. by then we should be pretty well acclimated to intense 400m training. what do you think? am i on the right track. our kids have a pretty good ext tempo base (2000m/session) under their belt with short sprint accelerations and "floating fly-ins on opposite days.
as for using competition for Sp. End 2? amen. that makes sense to me. two competitive 400's at a track meet seems to fit into that category. so i am planning to use intensive tempo to get them ready for spec 2 (early meets).