My quest for sub 1:50 in the 800m

Try water running. 3 times a week, 15 minutes will do the trick, and OP can still lift.

If injuries return after healed from the water training, structural problems rather than bad luck.

Quick TAR bump.

I'm alive!

Been focusing on coaching and life but i've been getting some running in. Probably in decent shape for a 5k at the moment, and in poor shape for a 400/800, but we'll get back there. Been doing many of my runs on the treadmill because of the dark/poor weather. Working mostly on the aerobic side of things, but I did hire a lifting coach so i've been lifting 2-3 times a week for a few weeks now as well. I'll post more complete training later but I wanted to bump the thread since its been a while

Good to hear brother I enjoy ur posts

Hows training currently

ozboi wrote:

Good to hear brother I enjoy ur posts

Hows training currently

Not bad. I was likely in decent mile-5k shape but there's no local track races this year so i'm taking a couple weeks to do some mechanic and physical strength work. barefoot strides, hills, lifting, days off here and there when I want. Going to switch gears and train for a half marathon (and 5ks here and there) because a buddy challenged me and hopefully i'll be able to do get back to track races in the winter. But working on basics and my general endurance will be good for me.

Just getting into the thick of my half marathon training for a race I'm running mid July.

Only two workouts last week because I was busy with my last week of coaching high school track.

Workouts were:

-2x2400m, 3x1600m, all with 60s rest.

Mile paces were: 5:46, 5:42, 5:39, 5:36, 5:30.

~70 degrees but very humid. Wore on me towards the ends of the reps.

- 15 miles @ 6:15 pace. Perfect weather and completely flat route. Moderate effort.

Looking to have the mileage be in the mid 60s the next 4-5 weeks before cutting back for the race.

Say farewell to the thought of sub 1:50 800m..

Kenaneeser Beckelay wrote:

Say farewell to the thought of sub 1:50 800m..

Nah. Ran a 12.2 barefoot (jogging start) 100m the other day. Good enough speed in the middle of half marathon training for me haha

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Kenaneeser Beckelay wrote:

Say farewell to the thought of sub 1:50 800m..

Nah. Ran a 12.2 barefoot (jogging start) 100m the other day. Good enough speed in the middle of half marathon training for me haha

But you’ve had that speed within you the whole time and never broke 1:50. Your marathon training has very little

to zero connection to the 800 meters.

Kenaneeser Beckelay wrote:

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Nah. Ran a 12.2 barefoot (jogging start) 100m the other day. Good enough speed in the middle of half marathon training for me haha

But you’ve had that speed within you the whole time and never broke 1:50. Your marathon training has very little

to zero connection to the 800 meters.

I’m not marathon training, though. I’m training for a half mid July, taking a tiny break /easy week or two then going into mile centric training for indoor (with some other various distances too), and 1500/800 for outdoor season. I also plan to get back into some top end speed training then too, just not worth it right now. I would like to be better about strides and lifting but this is still a good endurance phase for me, especially being so far out from track season, so I’ll have lots of time to get my speed legs back under me.

Week ending in 6/12/21:

Sunday: 14 miles @ 6:43 pace. Warm and hilly. Felt pretty decent.

Monday: 6.7 miles EZ

Tuesday: 4800m, 3200m, 3200m with ~75s rest.

17:48, 11:38, 11:21

Only in the low 70s but very humid.

Wednesday: AM 3.2 EZ

PM 5.2 EZ

Thursday: Off

Friday: 6x1000m with 200m jog rest @ 3:24, 3:24, 3:24, 3:22, 3:20, 3:18 + 4x200m in 30.

Saturday: 8 miles easy

Week total: 55.6 miles. Low week because of the day off but not bad overall. Nothing flashy. Felt pretty heavy all week.

Week Ending in 6/19/21

Sunday 1 mile up, 4.5 steady at 6:00 pace, 4.5 mile cool down.

Was going to do a steady 8-10 but really wasn't feeling it and ended up calling it at the turn around point on the trail.

Monday AM 4.5 @ 7:36 pace

PM 5.5 @ 7:15 pace

Tuesday 11.1 miles @ 6:30 pace. 3 miles up, 15x1min on, 1min off, 3.1 miles down.

Good weather. Legs were heavy, though.

Wednesday 7.5 @ 7:38 pace

Thursday 5.6 miles @ 7:40 pace plus strides

Friday AM 4 mile tempo @ 5:33 pace (5:39, 5:34, 5:28, 5:27. 1 mile warmup and cool down

PM 4x1mile on the treadmill (to make sure I finished in time for trials and to save my legs lol) in 5:32, 5:29, 5:27, 5:27.

Saturday Off

Mileage: 56.6 miles

Happy with this week even with the day off. Felt pretty bad early in the week but was happy to get in the work.

Week Ending in 6/26/21

Sunday 16 miles @ 6:55 pace. Last 6 at about 6:30 pace.

Monday 8.3 @ 7:05 pace plus 4 strides

Tuesday 5.8 @ 7:40 pace with some strides

Wednesday AM 13min shakeout jog

PM 5k race gone badly. 16:48 with splits of roughly 4:58, 5:28, 5:40. Recap below

Thursday 8.5 miles @ 7:40 pace

Friday Off

Saturday 8x200m hills with short jog back down rest (1min).

Mileage: 54 miles

Again not too bad with the day off. Last friday's double threshold day left me a little tired, and even though the long run was mostly easy, it still didn't do my legs any favors going into the race wednesday. We got out hot and I just didn't have it and essentially packed it in after the first mile once I basically had my place locked up. That's actually the main reason I took friday-saturday easy. The hills were a good way to get a little spring back in my step. I'm also not really someone who prescribes to the long run every single Sunday mantra so I was okay with getting in a different kind of work this weekend.

Week Ending in 7/3/21

Sunday 8.5 miles easy @ 7:30 pace

Monday 8.1 miles easy @ 7:00 pace plus strides

Tuesday 11.1 miles @ 6:35 pace with 5x2min @ CV effort, 90s easy jog rest. Very Very hot.

Wednesday 8.5 miles @ 7:41 pace

Thursday 3.6 miles @ 7:31 pace plus strides

Friday 3 mile tempo, 2 mile tempo, 4x200m

2.5min rest between everything except a 1min between the 200s.

3 mile in 17:03 (5:45, 5:33, 5:35) on the roads

2 mile in 10:39 (5:20, 5:19) on the track

4x200m in 31

Saturday 6.2 miles @ 8:14 pace (group run). Heart rate ridiculously low lol, like 110 ish.

Mileage: 54.1 miles

Another average week mileage wise, but some good efforts thrown in. I made the choice after that bad 5k a couple weeks ago to not stress about the mileage for this half since I am only a few weeks out, and adding a few miles here or there with easy runs won't help me as much as the workouts and long runs will, so I am making sure not to stress about or force the mileage. I've got a lot of good work in, more than I ever have for a race in this distance range, so the most important thing going forwards is just to hit a couple more good sessions, my longest long run Sunday, and remain feeling good and I think if the weather is decent I'm hoping to be able to run in the 1:13 range. About 2 weeks out at this point!

You obviously have a ton of talent for the shorter stuff and maybe you'll pop a good HM out of nowhere but I would be blown away if you ran 1:13 based on the above posted training. If I were to see this and make a prediction without knowing how fast you were at shorter distances I would probably put the over/under at 1:18-1:19 or something in that vicinity. I really hope you prove me wrong but I have a feeling if you head out at 5:30 pace or faster it's going to be a rough day.

highhoppingworm wrote:

You obviously have a ton of talent for the shorter stuff and maybe you'll pop a good HM out of nowhere but I would be blown away if you ran 1:13 based on the above posted training. If I were to see this and make a prediction without knowing how fast you were at shorter distances I would probably put the over/under at 1:18-1:19 or something in that vicinity. I really hope you prove me wrong but I have a feeling if you head out at 5:30 pace or faster it's going to be a rough day.

I've run 5:42 pace for a 10 miler on a hilly course off of much lesser training and fitness. I could run 1:18 in my sleep. In fact, I probably came somewhat close to 1:19:00 during my 15 miler @ 6:15 pace. Not including a couple 10 milers near 6:00 pace pretty comfortable. Nearly every long run since January has been 13+ miles and either at ~ 6:30-6:40 pace, or at least at that effort, depending on the route and conditions. I also have not shied away from doing most of my workouts in poor conditions because it's likely going to be pretty humid at the race, so many of my workouts don't look too pretty on paper. but I am aware of my own fitness levels and roughly where I am at. People on this thread thought I was lying when I ran my 5k PR of 15:49 because I had only done one 5k pace workout before it and mostly all 'slow' tempos.

When I ran my 15k PR at 5:39 pace, I had only been running my 5-6x1km with 200m jog rest workouts at a similar pace. I've never been much of a workout hero, especially with the longer stuff, being an 800m runner and all. 1:13 would be a good day for me with good weather, but based on past performances I think it's definitely doable.

I read your thread for the first time a couple years ago and I always check it out when I see it because I’m always rooting for you after that crazy season you had your 800 PR. When it comes to your half training, I’m not really sure why anyone would doubt being in 75 min shape or 73 on a good/great day. Your workouts average out to that pace every week and your mileage is okay, it’s not a marathon. The only thing I’d like to say about your training is, I’ve recently added hill sprints to mine and I think they could do a lot for you. I’m someone who also responds really well to tame easy days and long slow tempos like you, but these hill sprints have my speed on another level. I just do 3 hill strides of about 10-15 seconds, then 9 hill sprints of about 7-9 seconds, and 2 strides on the flat after that all with 2:30 rest. It sounds like your speed is doing fine, but who knows, just thought I’d share. Good luck on the upcoming race(s?)!

Bumping because why not.

I have not updated in a while but I have been running semi consistently. No races of note as of late. Going to hop into a couple indoor races for fun and to get some work in. I live in the snow belt and we've been getting hammered since early january with sub 0 temps or feet of snow, so I've been doing a lot more aerobic workouts the last 4-5 weeks than anything else. Which is fine because even though the original intention of this thread was to break 1:50, I am also going to be realistic with where I am at in life and running at the moment.

So for this "season", I am making a few realistic goals I'd like to train for:

1) Break 4 for the 1500m

2) Break 15:30 for the 5k

3) Break 1:55 for the 800m

I have a number of my own little step goals along the way. Most are process oriented rather than result based, minus these 3 above I named. I had big dreams for my post college running after the way my senior year ended (really well), but life/work/motivations get in the way a bit. I do still love running and am only truly too busy to train super hard in the falls when I am coaching on top of work, so I'm going to give this an honest go for this track season.

The above goals aren't necessarily equivalent to each other, but I feel like they are all reasonably obtainable by myself this year. I generally suck aerobically so I am going to put much more focus on that going forwards, as the 1:55 800m will come easiest to me from a physiological standpoint and the 1500m training will help that too. I'd like to hit the 5k goal earlier in the spring and focus on track specific speed stuff after that. I did run my mile PR (4:20) off of mostly aerobic work, tempos and cruise intervals, so that's going to take a bit of a focus in the short term. Like I mentioned, I'll be running some indoor races here but just as workouts / fitness checks more than anything. Not putting a lot of emphasis on them.

Bumping - how did these go?

Bumping this thread for fun. I'm back! (on letsrun).

I have been running to some degree the last few years. I have certainly had ups and downs with life / training balance and motivation, but have gotten some stuff more on track the last 6 months and am healthier and more motivated than I have been in a while.

Ran 2 indoor track races off of pretty chill training (~50mpw + some threshold workouts and semi consistent lifting) this winter. Mile in 4:30 (2:18 / 2:12 splits) and a 5k in 15:55 in which I went out a little quick and didn't have my best day, but is still my 2nd best 5k ever and fastest in like 6 years.

I have signed up for my first marathon recently, which will be in early October. I'm not fully transitioning to slow road races, though. I plan to give Mile-5k PRs a go again in track after my marathon, and barring injury, I am pretty confident I'll be able to crush some PRs. I'm not too worried about my speed, I have more than enough to run sub 4:20 in the mile and have been lifting well lately, and plan to lift most of the marathon block as well.

I am doing the marathon for a couple of reasons:

1) I know that it'll get me to train more consistently and with an aerobic focus, and I know that will get me in great shape at shorter events based on my physiology.

2) It's more exciting to give something new a try.

3) I have some friends in my running group who are marathoners and would like to get my name in the hat haha

4) I think I can do better than some people think. I have been practicing fueling on long runs and some longer workouts already for recovery purposes, and think that is an area I can really excel at compared to some of my peers in the marathon. That and the lifting aspect.

My goal for the marathon is going to be conservative. I would rather leave minutes on the table and finish strong than go for broke my first time out and blow up / run tens of minutes slower than I'm capable. I will refine my goal closer to the race, but for now we're just going to aim for 2:45-2:50.

Recent training: I ran that 15:55 5k 2 months ago and have been slowly building mileage since, with a focus on keeping the HR under control and being consistent with lifting, not too worried about workouts for now, but I have done a few threshold / tempo workouts. The last 4 weeks have been: 61, 60, 62, 66 miles, with the first 3 of those weeks being done in 6 days of running (1 day off). This is probably my biggest 4 week block in years tbh. I am taking a down week of 45-50 miles this week then aiming to build slowly to low 70s and am going to try to maintain that for a bit while I build the long run and focus on consistency. I'll get more specific with workouts 3 months out, but am most concerned with building mileage and the long run currently.

My rough weekly plan will look like:

Sunday - Long Run

Monday - Active recovery, most likely bike ride (no running)

Tuesday - AM short run + Lift

- PM Workout

Wednesday - AM medium length easy run

- PM medium length easy run

Thursday - AM short double

- PM longer easy run

Friday - AM short run + Lift

- PM Workout

Saturday - Medium easy run

The schedule might change slightly depending on life and weather, but this is my current ideal schedule. When I get more specific there will likely be a longer mid week run / workout instead of two workouts + long run, but we'll see as we go.