Roger meyers wrote:
How old are you?
Also, your 800m time doesn't do justice to your ability.
Edit: your workout is fine BTW
I'm 75. I know my 800 is ridiculously slow compared to my 400. Let me explain why.
In early 2020, I was highly competitive in the 800m in my age group. Then, a series of injuries/illnesses occured... bladder cancer, chemo, prostate surgery, torn glute tendon, retear of the glute tendon, arthritis in the knee, etc. I wasn't able to race for 2 years. In summer 2022, I tried to return to running and... I. could. not. run. No matter how slow I ran, I couldn't go 200m nonstop.
I decided to try something radical. I ran 10 meters hard, walked until I recovered, and ran 10 meters hard again. I did that 3x/week and I improved quickly to 50 and 100 meters, but these pure speed workouts caused other injuries. I discovered that I could still run with those injuries, but I couldn't do all out speedwork. Worse, another pair of injuries would flare up if I tried to run more than a couple of miles.
I found that I could still do 150s and 200s so I focused on training for the 400m using 150, 200, and 300m reps. My longest run nonstop was 300 meters until June when I ran the 400 in June and again in July.
Now that those races are over and my injuries are mostly healed, I'm focusing on a 4x800 relay in December as my next big race. I'd like to run 2:56 in my leg of the relay and be sub 2:50 by the Masters Indoors Championships in March three months later.
For reference, 3:03 won the M75 at USATF Masters Outdoors and 2:53 won at Masters Indoors.
I appreciate everyone's comments. I've gone from 800 training down to 400 before, but I've never gone from short to long training with no endurance base at all. It's new territory and I'm learning what I can and can't do.