Energy system contribution to 400-metre and 800-metre track running
Trained 400 m and 800 m runners performed a laboratory graded test and multiple race time-trials on the track. By the accumulated oxygen deficit (AOD) method, the aerobic/anaerobic split was 41/59% (men) and 45/55% (women) for the 400 m, and 60/40% (men) and 70/30% (women) for the 800 m. Anaerobic involvement (lactate/PCr method) correlated negatively with race performance in the male 800 m and female 400 m.
Participants
Sixteen trained 400-m athletes (11 males, 5 females) and 11 trained 800-m athletes (9 males, 2 females).
Protocol
On separate days: a laboratory graded exercise test and multiple race time-trials on the track.
Energy system contribution calculated by several methods: race VO2, accumulated oxygen deficit (AOD), blood lactate and estimated phosphocreatine degradation (lactate/PCr).
Key Results
Aerobic/anaerobic contribution, AOD method:
| Event | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 400 m | 41/59% | 45/55% |
| 800 m | 60/40% | 70/30% |
Significant (P < 0.05) negative correlations between race performance and anaerobic energy system involvement (lactate/PCr): r = -0.77 (male 800 m) and r = -0.87 (female 400 m). The abstract does not say whether performance was scored as time or speed, so the direction of the relationship cannot be read from the abstract.
The values agree with earlier estimates of the energy contributions to these events.
The abstract gives the split only for the AOD method.
Practical Application
"How aerobic is a 400 m or an 800 m?" — in trained 400 m and 800 m runners measured in race time-trials, the aerobic share (accumulated-oxygen-deficit method) was 41% (men) and 45% (women) in the 400 m and 60% (men) and 70% (women) in the 800 m. The 800 m is majority aerobic; the 400 m is majority anaerobic but still draws a large aerobic share.
Inference, not tested here: an 800 m runner cannot be built on speed work alone; aerobic development is the larger part of the event's energy. A 400 m runner's aerobic work is not wasted either.
Inference, not tested here: the higher aerobic share in the women in both events suggests the balance of a female middle-distance runner's training can lean more aerobic, but the female groups were tiny (five and two athletes).
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: for all-out efforts in general, the systematic review REF-460 places the point of equal aerobic and anaerobic contribution at a little over a minute, consistent with this split.
Limitations
Small groups, especially women (5 in the 400 m, 2 in the 800 m); the sex comparison is descriptive only.
Energy contributions are estimates; the AOD method depends on assumptions about the efficiency of supramaximal running, and the methods gave a range of values (only AOD values are in the abstract).
Time-trials, not races; trained, not elite, runners.
Written from the abstract and record metadata only (full text not read).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
cross-sectional, n=27 (Sixteen 400-m + 11 800-m athletes)