800m Winter Training Questions

Hey, can anyone help?

I can't help you a lot on the lifting part, but squats, lunges, and some basic core work and upper body exercises would be a good start. Plyos could help if you have a good plan and a coach to supervise. Take at least a week off after XC ends. Two weeks would probably be better. Your PRs indicate that you are lacking in endurance, so

after that I would do something like this:

Weeks 1-4: Easy mileage with strides 2-3 times a week, work into a lifting routine a couple times a week as well. Have one run be a decent amount longer than the others.

Weeks 5-8: Keep building mileage slowly, work in a 20-30 min tempo and some 200s at 800/mile pace, try to add in a longish run most weeks. "Long" is subjective, so base it off what you've done in the past. Keep the strides and lifting going.

Weekes 9-12: Trade the sustained tempos for some cruise intervals at a little faster pace at least every other week. Think intervals in the 800-1600m range, but don't kill yourself on these. Keep up with the strides and lifting. Mix up the 200s with some 100s/150s at a faster pace and some 300/400s a bit slower.

That was pretty broad advice, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what you should be doing. The worst thing you can do is tire yourself out before the season starts, so don't overdo it. At your level, you should get faster just by running consistently, so make sure you put in the miles. However, make sure you get in some uptempo running and don't neglect your speed. If you post more about your training history I'm sure people smarter than me could offer more detailed advice.

Thanks for the outline! You're right about the endurance part. I run the second lap of the 800 5-7 seconds slower than the first. so endurance is definitely an issue for me.

As far as training history goes, I've really taken the offseason between track and XC off. In the past, I haven't started running again until late January to "get back into shape" for track season that starts training usually in early February. I also haven't done any lifting for track before, so I'm looking for some advice on how best to mix that in with my running (can I lift and run on the same day, and if so, should I adjust eating habits or anything like that). I'm just kinda looking for a good place to start, since I'm really new to the more advanced 800m training.

I appreciate the advice, sorry if my questions seem dumb, I just wanna make sure I have a good plan going into the season.

Sub 1:50 guy here.

Focus on this during your off season:

-Lose 5-10 lbs by eating well and running higher mileage. Dont worry about actual mileage just lose 5-10 lbs.

-At the same time, strengthen your hips, quads and gluts doing squats, lunges, dead lifts etc.

-dont worry about upper body strength or abs. These do not help you run faster.

Bottom line: you will need to train harder. Your PRs indicate that you lack the proper ratio of leg strength to body weight to carry your body around the track.

etwertwertwertwertertw wrote:

-dont worry about upper body strength or abs. These do not help you run faster.

BS. Strong abs/core are very important to keep you healthy and that there´s no "leak" of power when you stride. The arms are important as well, to keep the good rhythm throughout the race, especially at the end when your legs are full of lactate. Just don´t build any unnecessary muscle.

I'm going to call BS on you being a sub 1:50 guy. if you really are a sub 1:50 lets see your name bud. How can someone say that abs aren't important. Your the kind of person that makes this website suck because they lie about stuff they don't know about. What's your PR 2:25?

Classic distance runner approach.

Depends if they're training solely for 800, or for 800/1500. If you're focusing on 800 you need speed development in base.

Bump because my times are relatively close to the original poster's (ran 2:07 for 800, 4:53 for 1600, 52.6 for 400, and 17:38 in XC 5K), as are my goals (1:55 for 800, sub-50 for 400).

Anyways, can anybody give examples of what "speed development" workouts look like, and how/where they would be implemented into the timeline above?

Just to clarify, I am focusing more on training for the 400/800 double now rather than the 800/1600 double (although I've been training primarily for the 1600 the past two years, my surprising performance in the 400 has influenced me to pursue the long sprint event zone, per the advice from friends and coaches.

seagull wrote:

Karma Police wrote:

Classic distance runner approach.

Depends if they're training solely for 800, or for 800/1500. If you're focusing on 800 you need speed development in base.

Bump because my times are relatively close to the original poster's (ran 2:07 for 800, 4:53 for 1600, 52.6 for 400, and 17:38 in XC 5K), as are my goals (1:55 for 800, sub-50 for 400).

Anyways, can anybody give examples of what "speed development" workouts look like, and how/where they would be implemented into the timeline above?

Just to clarify, I am focusing more on training for the 400/800 double now rather than the 800/1600 double (although I've been training primarily for the 1600 the past two years, my surprising performance in the 400 has influenced me to pursue the long sprint event zone, per the advice from friends and coaches.

Great general(key word) foundation phase from He Hate Me.

For more speed work I would dedicate 1 day a week to PURE speed work. You need to work SPEED before SPEED ENDURANCE. This can come in a few forms but with a Foundation Phase I would suggest hill sprints (if you don't have hills or weather is bad stairs can work) A simple progression to follow could be similar to this:

6 x 8sec

8 x 8sec

10 x 8sec

4 x 60m flat sprints

8 x 10sec

5 x 80m flat sprints

10 x 10sec

2 x 60m, 2 x 80m, 2 x 100m

8 x 10sec + 1x20sec

4 x 60m, 1 x 150m

8 x 10sec + 2 x 25sec

2 × 60, 2 x80m,100m, 150m, 200m

4 x 100m, 150m, 200m