improving towards 1:50 in the 800

you are right that your 400m pr needs to come down to run 1:50

1. lose all the fat you can

2. strengthen the quads, glutes and hamstrings

3. improve running form (core strength and short sprints)

4. hills, pylos, weights, drills, anything can help. but keep the mileage at a decent level as well, that is needed for 800m.

Is it possible to build a base and get better at the sprints at the same time? Could you just do plyometrics and short sprints a few times a week or would the body not take milage and plyos and sprints well? How can I be freakishly fast like some people seem to naturally be? It seems like 1:50 people could just bust out a 23s flying 200m without any training and even if they had many months off.

...yeah, work on your 100-200m times in order to get your 800m down...I'm sure that's how snell did it too.

>_<

use this thread, it's amazing

How old are you? How much running experience do you have?

Foolio wrote:

How old are you? How much running experience do you have?

im 18 years old and have been running for 2 years

Then good luck. Dropping from 54 to 50 is a huge improvement, and if you've already reached physical maturity and have some training under your belt, it's extremely unlikely. I'd set a more realistic goal, like 1:55, and see how close you can get. Improving your speed won't hurt, but strength will take you further.

What is your 200m PR? That's a better indicator of raw sprint speed.

my 200m pr is 24 high 25 low, i think if i could get to atleast 23 mid i got a shot at 50 flat, beacuse i havent done any raw speed work, my body should be able to adapt to the new training

You can work on both your sprint speed and endurance. It is foolish to train like a sprinter for a few years and then mvoe up in distance.

I would spend the Fall months doing the following:

Running:

4 days per week: 1-2 easy runs, with form drills (high knees, butt kicks, etc.) and light strides

1 day per week: Hills. Solid surface, not too steep a grade. Start with 12 x 200-300 meters at 3k-5k effort for a month, then 6-8 x 400-600 meters for a month, then 4-5 x 800-1k uphill reps for a month. Then a month at 400-600m reps a little faster, and a month of 200-300 even faster. You'll be amazed at how much power you have after doing lots of hills. All the great 800 runners did a lot of hill work. Look at Seb Coe's development: hills were central to his early development.

1 day per week: Something to stress the aerobic system. Alternate between ruise intervals (6-8 x 1k at 5k pace plus 15-20 sec. per mile with 200 jogs), tempo run (20-30 minutes at 5k pace plus 30 sec. per mile), and long intervals (6-8 x 800 at 3k pace with 400 jogs).

1 day per week: Train like a sprinter. Warm-up. Lots of drills. 2 x 20m, 2 x 40m, 2 x 60m, 2 x 80m with 3-6 minute rests, all at 90-100% full speed. Cool down.

Other:

-Core work 3-4 x per week.

-Upper body and lower body lifting 2-3 x per week.

-Plyometrics 1-2 x per week. Start easy and progress. Start with simple bounding drills and simple one-leg hops, progress from there. You shouldn't do depth jumps for awhile.

-Pool runs as much as possible (30 minutes per day will do a lot for your aerobic fitness)

-Preventative icing

That seems like the kind of response I was looking for. Thanks. Any other 800m runners include a pure sprint session during the base phase?

thanks coacherman, i get the idead of where your coming from with the training, yea i really think i need to incorpate hill training more often i havent done this enough

Getting down to 1:50 is more than possible for you. I'd keep working on your endurance as planned because you'll have to be super fit aerobically anyway.

Lots of speed drills before sessions. Some flying 30s or 40s. Basically you need to work on pure speed. Increasing your power would help. 120m uphill runs. Low enough gradient.

You need a lot more aerobic endurance as well depending on your efforte. Even as a sprinter you need to be under or at 15 minutes for 5 kilometer if you want to break 1'50". Some might do it on a 15' 3 miler but then you are almost looking at 48 second speed to just get to 1'49".

If you plan on going anaerobic in the winter read what coe did and you will realise even the master himself did little to no anaerobic training in the winter. He trained with sprinters did a 5000 meter OR 3000 meter workout in the week and a lot of steady runs. Not 5 paces a week.

Even with a sprinter approach try to keep the effort light and just relaxed.

Like a daily 4 mile run at 7'15" pace (should be easy for a sub 2'00" runner or even a 2'00" runner like you now) some doubles where you will add an evening run. And 2 days of faster work like one day of 200's in 30" for now and build it down to 3000 meters worth of 28" and one day of 300's start again easy at 48" and build down to 3000 meters worth of 45". If that starts to get easy your half way. Do a 5 kilometer track run and make sure your well below 16'. Then you can start doing a tempo run one of your many short endurance runs and go at 5'30" instead of the usual 7'15" what should be a relaxed trot by the time you are playing with 15'. Then do an 800 meter race but don't go all out yet. See how much you can get below 2'00". Then you have a solid 2 months to do 2 hard workouts a week like 10 x 400 in 60" and 8 x 200 in 26". Combine it with racing as a third workout and do the other runs easy but for a tempo run at 5'30" what should still be completely aerobic for you by then.

Tike, sub 15 or even sub 16 is not a requirement for sub 1:50 in the 800. On the same note, 4 mile runs at 7:15 pace will not get you to a sub 15 5k.

I have run a 1.50 several times. I certaintly wasn't in sub 15 minute shape for 5k at any time leading up to this. my 400 best was only around 49.5 out of blocks or so but i ran a few 48. in relays.

Realistically you aren't going to go from 2.00 minutes to 1.50 in one season. What you do need to do though is get your 1500m down to around 4.00 minutes. You are going to need to run around 49 though for 400 however. Otherwise you aren't going to be able to do the training to get to 1.50. you need to get fit by doing 3 to 4 months of cross country, then some hard track sessions.

given that 1.50 = 55 seconds x 2.

Come racing time you need to be hammering out hard sessions. e.g 300s with 4 or 5 minutes recovery in sub 40, 3 *400 in 51 or better with 10 minutes, 500s in 67s

What...Damn sub 15 for 5k to get under 1:50....Shit I couldn't break 16 and was a sub 1:50 guy.

This could turn out to be a very good thread.

I am in a similar situation ran 1.54 last year in first year running off 30 mpw, upped to 60/65 mpw now inc 3 sessions (one grass/one track and one hill)

I dont have great 400m speed, run 51.XX but hoping that i can run 54 then hold on for dear life

looking to run 1.50 this year. I have been doing over distance workouts.

good luck in your quest! i need some luck too.