400/800 meter athletes range

We had a 48.xx 400m runner at my college also run cross country for us. The summer before his first cross country season he ran a high 21:xx 4 miler. He unfortunately got hurt and didn't race the rest of the xc season, but thats some good range!

getting the 1600 is pretty easy. gets a bit harder to have them run crazy fast 3200.

better to get a 800/1600 guy to be able to do all 4.

example me and my buddy. I was a 400/800 guy (50/1:55) and he was a 800/1600 guy (1:54/4:18) although he was overall better. in the mile I could still drop like a 4:25 and he could hit 52 for the quarter. In the 2 mile I couldn't break 9:50 and he could run 9:3x off of no 2 mile training.

This season I coached an athlete who ran a 50.4 split in our 4x400 and also ran a 4:22 mile along with a 9:15 3200.

There are freak athletes that are capable of doing events from the 400-3200 at an exceptional level.

David Rudisha also runs a 3:50 1600 and 8:10 3200.

If there are 400/800 why but try and extend to 200 and 1600?

A friend of mine could've hit 50/51 in the 400 with no 400 training. Still hit like 9:09 in the two mile and did pretty well in XC. Though he wasn't a 400/800 runner, I'm sure they can do well if they are more of an 800 guy than a 400

too much rest for 5k pace wrote:

getting the 1600 is pretty easy. gets a bit harder to have them run crazy fast 3200.

I'd tend to agree with this. The true 4/8 guys--not the speedy distance kids who can run a 52 4x4 split and maybe a 53 open, but the 49/1:53 guys--often really start to hurt by the 3200, and some of them are relatively terrible at cross (think 49/1:53 guys who can only go 16:30 xc). If they do run fast times for the 16/32, it'll generally be early season when they're coming off XC and higher mileage, not late season when they're tapering with ~25 mpw and lots of speedwork.

Mr boring wrote:

If there are 400/800 why but try and extend to 200 and 1600?

Part of the idea of running 200/1600/3200 is to see the range of the athlete.

With 200 you can see a better indication of their speed and what their 400 potential is.

With 1600 you can see if they are a miler with speed. Maybe they're a 400/800 guy or a league/section/state/national caliber/world class 1600 runner because of their speed.

A test at 3200 can show 5000m potential. Farah, Rupp can break 1:50.

And to answer the actual question at hand, it depends. Most 4/8 guys have the ability to considerably improve their 800 by putting in miles and more distance training, but that's because most guys who think they're 4/8 are actually 8/16 runners who hate racing/training for the mile. Furthermore, building the strong aerobic base needed to run fast times in the 32+ is something that takes years; while many 800 runners can benefit from developing this aerobic strength, for athletes looking to see more rapid improvements, training primarily from a speed side is often going to yield better results.

If you've got four years to train a kid who goes out and runs a 52 second quarter and a 2:00 800, make a great miler. If you've got one season to train a kid who runs a 52/2:00, put him through lots of high intensity work, focus on a mixture of speedwork and workouts that'll help him handle lactic buildup the last 200m of the 8, and you'll have a guy who might run 50/1:56 on good days (on bad days he'll blow up the last 200 and run 2:10, but that's a risk all 4/8 guys run).

This sentence is false. wrote:

David Rudisha also runs a 3:50 1600 and 8:10 3200.

Has rudisha ever raced a 1500 or mile?

Very curious as to what he could do

If they're true 400/800 guy they'll have a huge drop off after 800. Unable to break 4 in the 1500, closer to 10:00 in the 3200.

Official times for Rudisha only for 4/6/800

I agree. Although I think that if a mid distance runner isn't a fast sprinter it is better to correct that before building the aerobic system. Let's say their running 57 or something. Getting that time down to low 50's will be very valuable for the rest of their career for all distances 800 up. That's my opinion.

Sammy Watson is the ny state champ in the 400 and 1500 and an international 800m runner