TilesOfMrials wrote:
Law of specificity.
If you want to be a good miler, run the 1600 a lot.
I am not sure I fully agree with this. It depends on what somebody means by "a lot," I suppose.
TilesOfMrials wrote:
Some meets you could run 16/8, other meets you could run 32/16.
I agree. I think on occasion it might be valuable to do the 32/8 double as well. But some meets should only be the 16.
TilesOfMrials wrote:
How many miles are you running in the offseason? Your endurance base should be good enough where you don't need to rely on racing the 3200.
Racing the 3200 isn't to make up for a lack of endurance base. It is good experience to work on running evenly, run in a pack, stay focused for a longer race, etc. Also it is hard to replicate kicking in for a hard 400m after racing 2800m, and that is a good confidence boost to have going into a mile/1500/1600 race.
I think a good idea for the OP would be to double up in the early season (mix up the specific double each race), with an occasional 1600 only race.
Later in the year, become more specific, ending the year with the last three or four races in a row only having a 1600.
Of course, I would add the caveat of not over training/over racing.