Minimum 200m speed needed to break 2:30 in the 800m?

Hello! First of all, exuce me for my pure English! 07/07/2019 I run on the Hungarian Masters Championship 800 m 2:30,05 and 200 m 29,99. My PB-s are 2:28,77 and 28,3 respectively.

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I ran just under 2:31 in my early 60s after starting to train seriously at 59 (I had run 5K to 10K and a few half marathons over the years before that). I ran 200s in competition a few times and my times were always in the 32s. But 200s were always part of the workout cycle, although never all out. The purpose was to increase endurance, essential to a fast 800, while getting your body accustomed to decent speed, also essential.

So a typical workout when I was in near-top form would be 4 sets of 3 x 200, with 30 second rests and 3 minute set rests:

45-43-41

43-41-39

41-39-37

39-37-35.

You can start higher (say, 47 or 49 for the first set and then 2 seconds faster to begin the next set) depending on where you are. You can also vary the rests although keeping them as short as you can without dying helps sustain the intensity for the whole 800.

Your best 200 time doesn't exactly predict how you will do in the 800. Some people have more natural speed but less natural endurance and vice-versa. I'm not heavily fast-twitch. My competitive 400s were always in the 68s.

Nice. With the Tabata research on short intervals and more evidence that 30s intervals are very efficient in building performance. You workout is also very interesting. It also seems to be that the older one gets, the more important it is to develop and maintain the speed and power.

I am 50 and have realized that speed, power, strength, muscle volume are all very important to incorporate. I do 5x10s hill sprints twice a week, I do heavy strenght work for the legs weekly, I have started to do 5x30s sprints with 5min rest weekly, I emphasize short and fast reps with 30s rest.

I think this workout is very interesting. I have not run a 200 ever, but based on my 30s sprints I could do a single 200 on track with spikes in approx 30-31s.

I might as well try your workout some seconds faster. Apart from the 5x200 and 2x5x10s hill sprints, I do little true speedwork so I might as well take your advice.

I am trying to be fast at approx 15min XC, 3k-5k paces. I am very well fit at threshold and 10k paces, but struggle with running fast at 10-30min

Roughly 30 sec 200m speed is needed for a sub 2:30 800m.

How to calculate this?

- Use a 400m index to estimate 400m pace from 800m pace:

200m - 106% of 400m speed

400m - 100% of 400m speed

800m - 85% of 400m speed

A 2:30 800m is 75 sec 400m pace, thus 75*.85 = 63.75 for estimated 400m speed. We can then calculate the 400m pace for 200m (63.75/1.06 = 60.14) and divide that result in half to get the estimated 200m time (60.14/2=30.07).

Nah I think 33 is enough

33 seconds should get you 70 sec for the 400, 800 potential off 400 is +5 your 400 time

so 70+5 =75 which is 2:30 pace

OK agree to disagree. People often underestimate the speed reserve needed to race 800m and how much you slow down on the second lap. It can take years to develop the stamina and the lactate buffering necessary to keep your 400m splits within a 2-3 sec differential and keep your speed over the last 300m of the race as you fight acidosis.

Also, I find that Horwill's 4 second rule (in this case you are using 5 sec) tends to overestimate ability with race pace and has folks training way faster then they should.