That was one hell of a Men's Track 400m event.
Getting gold in the Men's 400m is one thing, but getting the silver and bronze as well, now that was just too cool. I don't think most people can appreciate how fast these guys are running though. First, they are running 400 meters. The normal runner takes about 180 steps per minute and if you ran an olympic gold medal time that would mean your stride would be a little over 3 meters... That isn't a joke my friend.
180 / 60 = 3 * 44 seconds = 132
400 / 132 = ~3 meters
At this level these guys aren't improving by seconds any more, they improve by fractions of a second. My fastest 400m time ever was a 48.6. I'm nowhere near that now, and I think my last 400m time was around 65. People that don't run very often look at the numbers and tend to think that numbers like 48.6 is close to another number like 50, or that 55 is close to 60. The meters per second speak for themselves
400 / 44 = ~9 m/s
400 / 48.6 = ~8.2 m/s
400 / 50 = ~8 m/s
400 / 65 = ~6.15 m/s
Haha, my latest times are a far cry from olympic times now I'm afraid. Every second I'd have to push another 3 meters or take an additional step and a half in my case. Of course on my way to an olympic time I'd probably extend my stride a bit, so it would probably mean one extra step per second. That just isn't easy my friend.
Now, at 48.6 I was not a consistent runner. I ranged anywhere from a 56 to a 48.6. In all I think I had three runs below 50 and hundreds in the range from 50 to 56. Improving my average time by fractions of a second was a huge improvement and it often took an entire season to do just that. It would have been nearly impossible to improve my times down into the high 49's consistently. Knowing the difficulty, my hats are off to our 400m squad, and I'm sure they'll be quite successful in the 4x400m relay. I'm also pretty certain that at 20, our gold medalist will be pushing the world record a little lower in the years to come. Currently less than a second off of Michael Johnson's record, he'll have to improve his movement by an extra foot per second.
To put things into perspective, the world record in the 100m is currently 9.79 seconds. The current 400m runners are putting together 11s 100's so they are still about a second off the maximum achievable speeds of a sprinter. The current 200m record is more impressive because it is actually faster than the 100m record at 19.32. You see Michael Johnson put together a slow start time (acceleration) with a maintained higher speed. It all comes down to maintenance. The human body isn't very efficient at maintaining hefty outputs of energy and is much more capable of short bursts. If the 200m is any indication that a faster average speed can be obtained in a longer race than a shorter race, then the theoretical 400m times have the capability of breaking below 40s in the next 20 years.
If you ask me, preparing for a distance longer than what you run seems to be the key. Michael Johnson's ability to run the 400m at such a level enabled him to maintain great speeds in the 200m and inversely the faster speeds he achieved in the 200 trained him to turn over a great kick around the curve to the finish. You normally consider this type of training cross-training. An intense cycling routine might increase the turnover of a runner, while an intense swimming routine might increase their capacity to run in lower oxygen situations. I'd hate to see the training line-up that turns a 44 into a 43.