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Bannister's 10 × 400

10 × 400 m at mile effort, ~2 min recovery

Time
≈1h06
Hard
≈18:39
in zones 4–5
Difficulty
Very hardDifficulty 4 of 5 — Very hard
Inspired by
Roger Bannister

What we typed

Warm up 15 min easy, then 4 × 20 s strides. 10 × (400 m at goal mile effort, 2 min walk or jog). Cool down 12 min easy.

Fit File Forge built the steps below from these words — the same steps your watch gets.

Describe your own

The session

5 steps

Warm up

easy

15 minZ2
4×strides

Strides

20 secZ5
10×400 m

Rep

goal mile effort

400 mZ4

Walk/jog

2 minZ1

Cool down

easy

12 minZ1

Targets

Set by race effort. Your paces follow from your threshold pace — about what you could race for an hour.

Mile effort

Save it and race efforts become your own paces, from your profile or your Garmin training. Without them every rep keeps its effort cue.

Scaled version

6 × 400 m at 3K–5K effort with 2 minutes' recovery.

Build the scaled version in Forge

About this session

The story

Before the first sub-four-minute mile, Roger Bannister's interval training was built on 10 × 400 m with two minutes' recovery, bringing the average rep time down over the months.

What it trains

Mile-pace rhythm and speed endurance — learning to hold race pace lap after lap.

Who it's for

Milers and 1500 m runners, and 5K runners sharpening their top end.

Sources 1
  1. 70 years since Bannister's 3:59.4 — World Athletics, 2024

I've been using the AI Training Coach from day 1 for marathon prep and have found it to be a huge step up from ChatGPT/Gemini — I couldn't be happier.

Dave F.Marathon athlete

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Garmin and Garmin Connect are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. Zwift is a trademark of Zwift, Inc.; Fit File Forge isn't affiliated with Zwift. Athletes and coaches named here don't endorse Fit File Forge.