If you are Femke Bols coach, how do you approach training for the 800m

Eveline Saalberg is already testing the 800 last year (and has a 2:02 to her name)

A fair amount of the training Femke will probably follow by what Coach Meuwly has worked on with Eveline.

If she does run 3:55, what will she be capable of in the 400/400H? Will it be something like losing one second in the lap races will mean being capable of running 3 seconds faster in the 1500?

I believe she’s closer to being 200/400m than 400/800m and trying to focus on the 800m won’t change her stripes. Maxing her ability at 400m is the best way to prepare for an 800m.

I think more of a Coe training approach doing more the multi-tier training approach would be best for her. If I recall her 400m training was pretty high volume already so starting with a low volume Coe style training approach maybe good for her.

Why do you say that? Rudisha ran 45 FAT and he says he ran 60-70 mpw and thought he could have gotten down to 3:36 for 1500.

If a runner ever wants to get to the point of doing one of these hard 4 x 400 or 3 x 500 at 800 race pace workouts, you need really strong endurance to handle that.

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I would coach her as I coach my promising age 18 Kenyan 400m/ 800m runner.

It's a matter of building max individual sprint speed, anaerob and aerob capacity.🇰🇪🧙‍♂️🇸🇪

Don't neglect the hilly 22 miler on Sundays in your build up period.

Rinaldi actually coaches Van Diepen, another dutch 400 runner who moved up to the 800!

That was my impression. Meuwly has wanted her to try the 800 for a few years. Bol mentioned that in several Diamond League press conferences. She was reluctant and would say things like, "Stop putting ideas in his head. It's too far for me."

Apparently she doesn't like sprint training. I think that played a major role in the switch. Bol realizes she won't have to do as much short sprint work while preparing for 800. Also, the 800 probably provides an additional Olympic cycle. As 400 hurdler she would be prime through 2028 but in serious decline upon Brisbane 2032. A middle distance event has considerably greater prospect of extending four more years, other than greater risk of injury. Bol is not the most agile. I expect she will fall more than once if she sticks to 800.

The Dutch travel to South Africa three times every season...after Thanksgiving, after New Year's, and after indoor season. They are transparent on Instagram. I suspect that's when we'll get a glimpse of Bol's training regimen, especially if she and Saalberg are doing one thing and the pure 400 group something else. Normally the 400 group does lots of hills training.

Netherlands media always travel to South Africa briefly and do articles and videos on the Meuwly group. This topic will certainly be a focus.

5x18

I also think believe she has adapted her training prior to the announcement, more significantly after Paris 24 but in the year before that, she had been separated from the other 400m women on endurance days and was running with the men (I saw footage of her with Ramsey Angela and Terence Agard) Of course, she ran that 500m indoors in 2023 too.

In hindsight, I'd guess the decision to not run the individual indoors last winter season was actually partly due to already adapting her training. We could see in both her hurdles and relay runs she took the opening 200m out in a very measured fashion.

On Saalberg, they need her in the 4x400, so I would be surprised if they transitioned her fully to 800m, I expect she will have a season similar to this year where she runs both but her focus is still 400m. I'm also guessing Bol will still run a couple of flat 400s as one would expect, just no hurdles, obviously.

I agree and would prioritize developing her aerobic system through threshold and multi-paced runs. Incorporating longer efforts at 5k to 10k pace will be highly beneficial for her progress. I also believe hill training is one of the most effective stimuli for all athletes, and I’m curious to know how much of this she has included in her training.

My college coach took this approach with a 46.high guy and turned him into a 51/1:57 guy who could also run a sub 18:00 5k.

We shall see this winter what hill training she does, but as Awsi Dooger stated earlier, the Dutch team have been doing hill runs regularly during off season/winter training, at both South Africa training camps but also back home in the woods by Papendal.

Was the Coe low volume training not a myth?. it was just that he didn't count easy running or warm ups towards totals.

He actually ran 100mpw regularly and the myth persisted into train less train smarter type thinking.

It's such a great distance and her making that announcement reminded me that i was probably a better 800 meter runner than a 400 meter running in school

The thought did occur to me and its obvious on a track why its the case, but kind of wonder why a 1 KM distance didn't even become the standard. Yeah it would require 2 and half laps on the track but it still seems like numerically it should have become a standard.

In terms of her training her closing speed would keep her in alot of races. Did she ever say why she made the decision to run the 800 meter. My suspicion is that there are just too many strong 400 meters and she might slowly be aging out of that group.

Really surprised about everyone's volume fetish for a 400/800 type runner (from all we know).

Also not sure where she lives exactly but hills might be in limited supply.

Come on. He really slowed down by 5 seconds in the 400m? Did he have fast-twitch muscle surgically removed? 47 is equivalent to about 1:49, so trying to him into a 400/800m guy made no sense.

She is almost certainly more fast-twitch muscles. Tempo runs and long runs are tiring for fast twitch runners. She should limit her "long" runs to 60-75 minutes and do modified tempos (splitting a tempo run into 2-3 shorter runs). The concept of mixing 1500m training with 800m training to improve 800m times didn't work for me.

As a 400/800 runner, I personally found that continuous tempos tired me out so much that I could not get in a quality workout two days later. When I started doing Billat 30/30 workouts, it allowed me to crossover between the 400 and 800 better than traditional tempos.

Athing Mu is a case study of n=1 on what not to do.

She is not going to go up to 1500m - ever. Coe started off as a 1500/3k guy in HS, who moved down to 800m in College, so his experience/development has nothing to do with Femke.

Agree somewhat with Fisky - Tempo runs or even long runs (1hr+) are really not necessary (hasn't helped Mu). More VO2max work would help, but needs to be careful to not overdo threshold work (if any), as she wants to maintain her speed (400 in 49). If she wants to save her legs, some volume XT might be better than just longer runs. More volume of shorter VO2max reps may be better than longer reps (like the Billat reps, which are VO2max, not LT.)

49.0sec + 7.5sec = 56.5sec x 2 = 1.53. Is that too low a differential for her?

Keely at 51.6 slows 5.7sec to 57.3 for 1.54.6. Werro slows 6.9sec (hasn't run a 1500) from 51.0 to 57.9 for 1.55.9. Werro has also run 2.34.8 for 1km. Keely hasn't run a 1500m this decade. Kratochvilova ran 47.99 to run 1.53.28 (56.64) so a differential of 8.65 at an even later point in her career.