I have a decent amount of track athletes that are running indoors currently. If you don’t already know, running a race indoors is completely different than running that same distance outdoors.

When I was competing, I never had the opportunity to run an indoor track meet. Thus, I have no idea about strategies for the certain races. So, to help my athletes out, and possibly you as well, I did some research and took some quick notes on what might be effective for you as a track athlete if you need to run the 200M, 400M, or 800M indoors.

200M

The indoor track can vary to be a banked track or a flat track, but generally they are 200M around. So, one of the things that I found out is that you have to be able to run the curve well.  Which in indoor means you have two curves to run. You need to be able to maintain your full speed on that curve without it taking you into another lane which is a DQ.

To help with that, you need to start leaning into the curve a few steps before the curve happens. To do this, one expert suggested just tilting your head with your chin pointing down should do the trick.

When you are in the straightaways, don’t straighten your head until you are entirely in the straightaway then fire away.

One last tip is try to avoid getting in lanes 1 or 2. Apparently, you will have your worst times ever in those lanes. Some would suggest to lie and put a better entry time down to get a middle lane – 4, 5, or 6.

400M

The 400M is twice around the track as opposed to one time around on an outdoor track. The other big difference is after the second curve (around the 150M mark), you deviate from your lane and go towards the inside part of the track and it is all bunched up with runners.

At that point, it is a scrum to the finish and the race is played out much like an 800. The object here is to try and be in the lead by the time you get to the break-in point. If you have the lead, you can gradually move over to the inside part and then you can control the race from that point.

If you don’t get the lead, then you have to spend more energy accelerating to get around the leader. And you have to run that much further to get to the outside of everybody, accelerate, then get around.

Basically, then it is probably even more imperative than outdoor, to get out fast and accelerate to that top speed as quickly as you can. Hopefully, that will get you in a good position to be leader or close to it when the break-in happens.

Finally, when you get into that homestretch it is only a 50M homestretch so fire into it fast by pumping your arms hard.

800M

This was a little harder to find quality suggestions on running an indoor 800M. The start is similar to the 400M, meaning you want to get out quick so that when the break-in happens you can be leading or get a good spot among the leaders. When I say get out quick, I mean get up to your race pace as fast as you can. Don’t waste time.

You have four laps indoors as opposed to two outdoors. As you are running, don’t be afraid to pass people if they aren’t going at the pace you like. It’s better to do that early in the race, rather than wasting energy at a slower pace and trying later in the race to pass when you could be clumped in a crowd.

Finally, that last 100M pump the arms hard and take it home.

Ultimately, though, indoors is just a precursor for the outdoor season. Yes, it is nice to win some events, but these are just tune-ups for the main event. The outdoor season.

I would love to know what you think of these strategies. How would you change them if at all? Feel free and put your comments in the comments box below.

Photo courtesy of Steven Pisano on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenpisano/