I'm doing 4x600m with 5 minutes rest today. What type of pace should I do. (for a 2'00 800m runner)

All 4 in 1:30 or you're slacking.

1:45's

you want to get efficient at a relatively fast pace, but not too fast a pace that you're breaking down.

on race day, you'll come through 600 in 1:30 and all be like 'man dis so easy'

Give your coach a call. Not asking your coach is almost as bad as your coach not telling you the full details.

The pace depends on the goal of the workout. You should call/email your coach and figure out if it's a short tempo workout, a pace practice workout, or a as fast as you can average workout.

5 minute rest then it should be at least 1:35 like seriously thats a minimum

I would agree with bRoski. 5 minutes is a long recovery, it seems to me that the coach wants a solid effort. I'd say shoot for closer to race pace, 1:30-1:35.

No 2 flat guy can run 4 x 600 in 1:30 with 5 minutes rest. In fact, no 2 flat guy can run 3 x 600 in 1:30 with 5 minutes rest. Typical rest for 3 x 600 at 800 pace is 8 to 12 minutes. Even with the long rest, this is a tough workout.

SlowFatMaster wrote:

No 2 flat guy can run 4 x 600 in 1:30 with 5 minutes rest. In fact, no 2 flat guy can run 3 x 600 in 1:30 with 5 minutes rest. Typical rest for 3 x 600 at 800 pace is 8 to 12 minutes. Even with the long rest, this is a tough workout.

+1

by some of the previous posters' logic, hell, they should be doing 4 x 800 in 2:00 with what? 10 minutes rest?

Race pace seems impossible. A common 800m workout is 4x400m with 5min rest at race pace. Doing the same workout with 50% longer length is insane.

Here is part of a Renato post from page 2 of the giant thread where he talks about how Bungei's coach had him do 600s with the last 200 faster pace than the first 400. For Bungei (1:42 guy, so race pace is faster than 1:18) he averaged 1:21.5 for 4 x 600:

I want to describe, for example, one type of training that Gianni Ghidini (the current coach of Bungei, Yiampoy and Kamal) and me use with these guys during the last period, having the goal to IMPROVE SPECIFIC ENDURANCE, developing intensity from the Threshold to Specific Endurance.

1) 6 x 600m (rec. 4 min) in 1:28 (60/28) 1:28 (60/28) 1:27 (60/27) 1:27 (60/27) 1:26 (60/26) 1:26 (60/26)

2) (about 10 days later) 5 x 600 (rec. 5 min) in 1:26 (60/26) 1:25 (59/26) 1:25 (59/26) 1:24 (59/25) 1:24 (59/25)

3) (about 10 days later) 4 x 600 (rec. 6 min) in 1:23 (57/26) 1:22 (57/25) 1:21 (57/24) 1:20 (56/24)

4) (about 10 days later, in the case of Bungei 8 days before Zurich) 3 x 600 (rec. 8 min) in 1:19.3 (54.2/25.1) 1:19.5 (54.6/24.9) 1:17.2 (53.0/24.2)

The next workout (before OG) will be 2 x 600 (rec. 10 min) in 1:16 (52/24).

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jay520 wrote:

Race pace seems impossible. A common 800m workout is 4x400m with 5min rest at race pace. Doing the same workout with 50% longer length is insane.

Agreed. I used to do a workout that consisted of a single 600m at 800m race pace followed by a few 200s at the same pace after complete rest. I was always pretty spent after a single 600m at race pace. I don't think I could have run a second 600m at the same pace. No way I could have done four.

5 minutes is a lot of rest, so I imagine you're supposed to do them fast, but definitely not 800m race pace. Maybe 1:36-1:40 or so would be realistic.

64 pace / 1:36 for your 600s is perfect with 5 mins. rest. Hit the last rep harder if you can (i.e. 1:33).

I didn't mean to actually do race pace (my fault for being very unclear). The previous posters at that point were saying around 1:45. That's too slow. The 1:35 is what I had in mind. I think that is quite doable for a 2:00 800 guy. I just felt a range would be more appropriate than saying hit 1:35 every single time.

i would do them at mile race pace

fghrunner wrote:

i would do them at mile race pace

This guy is correct - 1500m/mile pace is about right, with that recovery. Can he go faster, sure but why? Can he get less recovery? Sure. What no one seems to ask is what the coach wants in the future, in other words what is the progression of this type of sesssion? Workouts don't just exist in a vaccuum, they are related to other workouts already completed and to thos planned for the ensuing weeks/months. This is what the athlete should know and should be getting from the coach. That is the problem with coaching/athletes these days - see the Canova related pace (although that is specific to what Canova does for HIS athletes, which may not be relevant to others, like HS runners)- that athletes seem not to know where workouts fit in the season plan, no wonder there are so many threads about workouts.

Did this same workout yesterday. Did 4x600 in 1:34, 1:32, 1:31 and then i went under 1:30. Felt pretty comfortbable, didn't expect i could do this. Rest was 10 minutes. I'm a 2:01 guy and my next goal is to break the 2:00 barrier. What you experts think is possible. 1500m pb is 4:03, which i ran a month ago, but i feel i'm in far better shape now.

fghrunner wrote:

i would do them at mile race pace

Yup, or marginally quicker.

For those saying 4 x 400 with 5 mins rest is a classic 800 workout, don't you think that's too much rest. Certainly athletes can do 3 x 400 with 5 mins rest a couple of seconds faster per 400 than 800 race pace. Maybe the 4th makes it tougher.

I get them to do 2 x 400 at 800 speed with 2 mins rest, then 5 mins rest, then same again. They actually do this at about 1 second slower per 400 than 800 speed. Pretty tough session.

Then 10 mins rest and some speed - like 4 x 100 hard flat out, or 100s to practice changing speed (eg off final bend).

You are right. Not sure what the other athletes are thinking on this.

Mile pace? Are you kidding?

5 minutes rest for 4x600m at mile pace is waaaaaay to much rest

or

waaaaay to slow

The correct pace is slower than 800 pace, but faster than mile pace