By Coach Maxx

Today, we continue learning from Michael Johnson’s Coach on his approach to the 400m dash and how it directly applies to your approach to the Workout of the Day. In Part 1, we discussed the PUSH (read the article HERE). The next step is PACE.

2) Pace – At this point in the 400 meter, around 75 meters to 200 meters, it’s time to settle in, relax your body where you can, and breath. Pacing is pretty self-explanatory, right? WRONG! As a coach, I can yell “Pace yourself!” all day long but does anyone really know what that means? Does it mean slow down? Does it mean breath? Does is mean Picante sauce?! Believe it or not, there are actually WODs where certain athletes should barely pace themselves. WODs like “Grace” and “Fran” are meant to be short, all-out efforts. When a coach tells you to pace yourself, what he/she is trying to say is, “Look into the future of this WOD, count all the reps of the WOD in total, and then imagine what you will look like on the last round.” If the workout is 10 sets of 10 snatches and 50 double unders, will your last round be unbroken. Always ask yourself if your last round will be unbroken. If not, pace accordingly and break up the sets from the first round.