Centro 3x800 workout

gateshead83 wrote:

agc5k wrote:

Seb Coe once did 4 x 800 in 1:52, but don't know how much rest he head.

Seb Coe said he did regular workouts of 6 to 8 half miles on the road "most of them run significantly under 2 minutes". Recovery was 30 to 90 seconds ---->

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgUuMzMWk4

It wasn't 30 secs rest! That would be impossible.

It was 90 secs.

In an AW interview in 1979 Coe said that he ran one session of "6 x 800m with 1 and a half minutes rest recovery between each - the first 5 in 1:52 apiece, the last in 1:49.5."

BS meeter wrote:

More details wrote:

Those were in a driving rain, with 30 second recoveries, and pushing a car up a hill.

Documentation of the 1:52s?

P.98, "The Coe & Ovett File" published by AW.

"6 x 800with 1.5 minute recovery between each - the first five in 1:52 apiece, the last in 1:49.5."

Another documented training session of repeat 800m on the track by Coe is this, by Frank Horwill, who was the UK National Middle distance coach around that time and the coach to Tim Hutchings (who he alludes to in the quote below) : -

"But where did Coe get his amazing endurance from? The answer came to me in 1986 when I went to Battersea Park Track one Saturday morning with a 13:11 5km performer to do a session of 7 x 800m at 5km speed with 45 secs rest. The rep times were fixed at 2:08 because the 5km runner was returning to fitness after injury. Coe was on the track and came across and asked what we were doing and could he join in? I felt a little apprehensive that an acknowledged 800m/1,500m runner would not survive a 5km pace session with a short recovery. The 800ms went like this: 2:08, 2:06, 2:04, 2:02, 2:00, 1:58 and 1:56! Coe led them all. Afterwards, he confessed that he did a 5km pace session at 13:20 speed each week. I ventured the opinion that he could run a good 5km anytime. He agreed, but said he didn't like the event! It is doubtful whether any 800m runner before or since could have completed such a session in such times."

It's basically 3 x 800m at an average of mile pace with a nearly full rest. About equivalent to a 4:20 miler doing 2:12, 2:10, 2:08. I don't see what's unbelievable about this. Seems like a standard workout.

Wrong, it's pu##y.

so odd that Centro can do this work out but cant break 1.51 for 800m in Britain....

http://britishmilersclub.com/results/results.aspx?meetingid=105292