Race Modelling - 400 and 800m

How to plan the perfect 400/800m race

Race modelling is the simulation of a race plan at actual race pace.

During the competition phase of our training plan, we concentrate on "race modelling." We focus specifically on the 400m and 800m events, ensuring the athlete understands the correct pacing and how to tailor their race strategy to their individual strengths.

In my opinion, when an athlete is thoroughly prepared and has followed their training plan diligently, achieving personal best times boils down to just two key factors: mental preparation and race modelling.

You can eliminate a lot of the pre race anxiety for the 400 and 800m if the athlete has simulated the race many times over at training. For us, this consists of performing many of repeat runs over 145m, 200m, 300m, and 400m from the actual 400m or 800m race start line. Many athletes and coaches will tart their training runs from different starting positions around the track but not the actual 400m or 800m race start line.

Much of our race modelling work is done from the actual start position, where athletes run to a designated mark on the track, such as a cone or chalk mark. They aim to hit the assigned target time, simulating the conditions they would experience during an actual race.

400m race modelling. 3 x 145m from 400m start at the athletes target 400m race pace.

An athlete will do this individually so they do not use other athletes pace and run their own race. For 400m race modelling we would do a 100m, 120m and 145m all at a 400m set race pace. The same would apply to the 800m. I believe this gives the athlete huge confidence to get their pacing right and not worry about what other people are doing around them. We’ve all experienced that race where one athlete, goes out so hard and we chase them thinking they will get away from us, only to blow up and hit the wall and ruin our race. Or we go out too slowly and sit with the rest of the field not using our speed when this may be our biggest strength and advantage.

On race day we practice going through our normal warm up process then do a final couple of runs with a stop watch to a specific mark on the track to get a feel of what our race pace feels like. We call this  “dialling in race speed”.

There is no absolute science to this and you can play around with different distances at training like running the back straight as relaxed as possible to a set time which may be equivalent to your target 400/800m time for the first 150m.  One of the things I like to do is to fatigue the athlete first by doing 145m’s or 200m’s (not to fast), then get them to do a rolling start from the 200m mark to simulate the last 200m of a 400m. This teaches good posture and mechanics under stress.

I encourage you to play around with your own race modelling at training and practice, dialling in your race speed, it will do wonders for your confidence on race day.

Happy running