So let’s say you live in Timbuktu, and you want to be a world-class quarter-miler.

You make the 5,600-mile trip to your Mecca — Waco, Texas, where the guru of 400-meter coaches, Baylor’s Clyde Hart, is ready to impart his wisdom.

What you don’t realize is that your journey is only beginning.

Over the past 25 years or so, Hart has constructed and refined the most successful 400-meter training regimen in the world. Think that boast might be overstated? Don’t forget that the last three Olympic gold medalists, Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner, followed Hart’s methods on their way to becoming quarter-miler legends.

“The nice thing is, I can pull up a workout from 10 years ago and see what Michael Johnson was doing this week,” said Hart, who works primarily with Baylor’s 400 runners after turning over head coaching duties to Todd Harbour three years ago. “And it’s the same thing our (Baylor) guys are doing now. It’s a good road map.”