[trck400mrnnr]

trck400mrnnr on April 23, 2006 at 10:48 pm #11785

I have been having trouble with keeping my strides/steps consistent in the 400ih. I have had a lot of trouble getting to the first hurdle with my lead leg. I normally start with my left leg forward in the blocks and I lead with my left leg over the hurdle. I???ve found in outside lanes I can hit the hurdle perfectly when I come out hard like this but on the inside lanes I can???t. Is it possible the turn can throw me off that much? Also, when I do manage to hit the hurdles right, I come through the 5th hurdle around 24 seconds. The 6th hurdle gave me trouble last race and once I was off I couldn???t get back into stride until the last hurdle. Any ideas how to work on this? I???m still pretty new to the 400ih but my coaches and myself know I can do well in them.

[pzale8018]

pzale8018 on April 26, 2006 at 9:07 pm #53058

First off, how old are you, what are your PRs, what do you expect to run in the IH, what leg is your dominant, can you switch leads during the race.. stuff like that?

to cover your question about the first hurdle, that has happened to me before as well.  What I found that worked was, if you're in the inside lanes,  run toward the outside part of the lane.  If you're a right leg lead, that'll be good anyway, because it will give you more clearance room for your trail leg. 

That 6th hurdle gives a lot of people problems, especially people new to the event.  Really, you need to determine a step pattern and stick to it, regardless of how good you're feeling during the race.  For example, if you decide that you're going to run 15 steps thru the first 5 hurdles and then switch to 17 for the 6th on it, do it that way, no matter what.  Practice that step pattern in practice as much as you can.  I'm not saying you can't change the pattern if you're feeling like you need to, but make changes in practice, not at a meet.

[trck400mrnnr]

trck400mrnnr on April 26, 2006 at 10:55 pm #53059

I'm 19, only run teh 400ih like 6 times and i have a pr of 56.5. I run the open 400 in about a 50 flat right now and i feel like i can go at least under 55.00 in the 400ih. My left leg is lead, i feel most comfortable with that on the turns anyway. I feel like it alows me to lean into the turn. I actually have a lot of trouble when i try to lead with my right leg and i need to work on alternating more.

[pzale8018]

pzale8018 on May 17, 2006 at 6:47 pm #53060

Well it looks like you can definitely run under 55.xx and probably faster.  Being a left leg lead will give you an advantage over right leggers, but you really should do your  best to learn to hurdle with both legs.  This will allow you to move to an even step pattern (ie:16 steps) at some point during the race.  Doing so can really help with maintaining a comfortable stride pattern later in the race.  Otherwise, going from say a 15 to a 17 step pattern, you might feel like you're chopping all your strides in between or slowing down too much.

Other than that, my above comments still stand.  Best of luck and keep asking if you have questions.