1500m Workout

Try the "Perfect Mile" Workout

400-sub 60

jog 400

4x200-approx 26-30 with 100m walk in between

jog 400

400-sub 60

twice a year we do 3x400 all out with full rest (7-10min) in between each...usually run them between 51-53

4-5 x 500 @1:15-1:18 300 recovery

800-600-400-200 each rep faster

200 recovery

8x300 @45 100 rec walk

2-3 x 1000 each 200 faster

Example: 40-37-34-31-28

4 min recovery

Good luck!

congratulations with an excellent start to your running. those are good times for someone with just 1 year of running behind him and you obviously have a lot of talent. your 800m time is a lot better than your 1500m time, but that is to be expected at this stage.

unfortunately, progress from here gets harder and it will come from a thorough program of careful hard work. there is no single workout that will bring you success.

1:54 for 800m indicates that you could run 400m in around 55 seconds right now, which is almost fast enough, but 4:01 for 1500m suggests you need to work on your endurance and your speed endurance.

1:54 800m = 57s per 400m

4:01 1500m = 64.2s per 400m

64.2 - 57 = 7.2s and you want this to come down to around 5 seconds.

the most important thing is to be consistent in your training, take as much rest as you need to make sure you recover well and gradually build up your endurance with some easy mileage. for you, easy means at around 6:20 - 6:50 pace (where pace means per mile).

you should build up gradually to the point where once a week or so you can run for around 90 mins at a nice easy pace.

once a week do a run of around 45 mins to include 3 x 1 mile at about 5:20 pace with a short recovery. start with recovery around 2:45 and work on reducing the recovery. don't try to run faster, just bring the recovery down.

run fartlek somewhere off the road, over country, through a forest, over a golf course or in a park. just play with running at different speeds but try not to make any of it super fast. from around your best 10km race pace to around your 3km race pace. vary the recoveries and try to avoid a routine or pattern, just make it up as you go and treat it as a game.

after a couple of months of that sort of work you can start on some long intervals. switch the fartlek for one of these sessions:

long intervals - once per week

3 x 1200m 3:40 (2:15 recovery)

3 x 1000m 3:05 (1:50 rec)

run one of these sessions approximately once a week and work on bringing the recovery down in easy stages. when you can comfortably run 3 x 1200m 3:40 with a 1:50 recovery, and you are recovering well and able to continue with your other training without fatigue then you are ready to move on to some more specific work.

to bring out your top end speed, you should introduce some short sprint work over 60m - 80m. run a set of 4 - 8 x 60m at around your best 400m speed with a long, slow, walk back recovery. try to run nice and relaxed and try not to push too hard at running faster. do these before every track session and follow them with a few minutes easy jogging to recover before starting the main session.

start with 6 - 8 x 400m 70s (55s rec). when you can do that move on to 4 - 6 x 600m 1:42 (75s rec) and then to 4 - 5 x 800m 2:18 (1:45 rec). this progression should take 6 - 8 weeks. don't rush things.

short intervals - once per week

6 - 10 x 200m 30s (90s - 2:00 rec)

4 - 6 x 300m 48s (2:00 - 3:00 rec)

start these after you have been doing the long intervals for 6 weeks or so. try to time it so that you get 3 - 4 of these done before your main race of the season.

this is only a very rough plan of the sort of work you should be doing so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I wish you well, you have a very exciting time ahead of you.

cheers.