Elite HS 800m Training Plan

i thought the negative splits were pretty telling with Joseph and Ambodai looking comfortable on paper (haven't seen the races)

i could see Tarron Johnson taking it out the first 400 in 52-high/53-low then getting swarmed by several guys around 500. Joseph and Ambodai follow that move around Tarron, then are the top-2 by 100 to go and battle it out to the line.

winner goes sub-1:49. maybe 2nd place too.

We’d be extremely pleased with sub 1:50, even if it wasn’t a win.

Congrats to Joseph for the win!

i can’t believe it. CIF state champion. congratulations x10000 to your athlete and you. this thread needs to go in a hall of fame or something. state champion in the most competitive state meet in the country.

Big congrats to you and Joseph, coach!

Had the lead through 400 and held it to the line.

What an exciting moment for you two, his family, the school, etc. He wouldn't have done it without you. Hope you know he's only going to appreciate your more with time.

Was going to post this. Absolutely insane to see

Great race. Only thing is that your athlete kept looking back when he just needed to run. Can't believe a 1:52 won state though. Last year it was a 1:50 in heavy wind.

Wow. Big congrats.

What were the splits?

Description of race?

Any video?

ca.milesplit.com

High School Boys' 800m, Finals 1 | CIF-State Track & Field Championships

Jason Byrne

High School Boys\' 800m, Finals 1 CIF-State Track & Field Championships

Open link

this is behind a pay wall, but if you have a mile split account then you can watch it.

he had a bunch of family there recording it. I’ll see if I can find one of those too

A crazy fast third 200, an excellent move. When I was there watching it live I wasn't sure he was going to hold on to it but he did it. Good to see him get up fairly quickly after that spill at the finish line too. Congrats!

Yup, me too. I was watching it from the stands - I remember telling the other coaches I work with that I was confident he would win before the race started. Incredibly brave running on Joseph's part, not very many people are willing to actually run like that or even have the tactical awareness to run like that, especially at states. I was confused why no one was making a move, Cathedral only started his kick at the last 150.

Brilliant thread. Thank you.

OK. We're in the build up for Nike Outdoor Nationals

Mon - 5/29: 1.9 easy + 1.9 easy about 40 minutes later. One of his buddies did a 7 mile threshold run on the track and my guy did the WU/CD with him. It was supposed to be a day off.

Tue - 5/30: 2 MWU + Drills + 3 x 50 acceleration + 4 x 2 min on 2 min off + 4 x 1 min on one min off. (averaged 5:05-5:10 for the on and 8:00 for the off for the 2 min reps. Averaged 4:35 pace for the 1 min reps, but did the last one pretty hard and covered 410m in the last minute. 8:00 pace on the recovery jogs as well). + Weights. He ended up feeling pretty dead after the weights.

Wed - 5/31: 3.9 miles @ 7:37 pace

Thu: - 6/1: 4 miles easy + 6 x wicket run to help maintain stride mechanics + 1 x 150, accelerating ever 50.

Fri - 6/2: AM 1.6 mile WU. 6 x 1 min uphill HARD. + 1 x 400m uphill VERY Hard (78 Seconds). 1.4 mile CD. PM - 4 miles @ 7:30 pace

Sat: 30 min very easy. His glutes are sore from the hills

Sun: Scheduled to be: AM 4 miles easy + drills + 3 x 50 accelerations + 3 x 50 FAST, full recovery. PM easy shake out + weights.

Monday will be a big aerobic day, last one before NON

Thursday will be a very race specific workout. Probably 4 x 400 @ 53-55 with 5-7 min recovery.

W%s Recap

Monday 6/4: Aerobic Focus. 2 mile WU + Drills +3 x 50 +4x5 minutes @ 80% vVO2 with 1 min recovery (6 min pace avg). + 4 x 3 min @ 90ish % vVO2 (5:17 pace avg). with 2 min jog recovery @ 8 min pace. Weights, super sets lift for upper body anaerobic tolerance

Tue: 20 min easy shake out

Wed: 3 miles easy + drills + 3 x 50 + 4 x 200 (28, 32, 32, 27.5) supposed to be all 32.

Thu: Anaerobic Power Focus 2 mile WU + Drills + 3 x 50 + 1 x 150 + 4 x 400 FAST with 5 min recovery (54.9, 54.3, 55.3, 57.3) Threw up after #3. 1 mile CD. Weights later in the day.

Fri: 30 minutes easy biking. Sore from previous day

Sat: 6 miles easy (7:07 pace). + 4 x 200 on dirt track in trainers (30,29,29,29)

Sun: Scheduled day off.

This week was scheduled to have 2 VERY hard days. I'm currently traveling abroad, but we've been communicating daily.

Monday workout was exactly as planned, but he went a little faster on the 3 minute segments and took an extra minute. This is actually probably a good thing. I didn't want much anaerobic contribution, but the faster pace/longer rest made the secondI half of that workout more like a VO2 session. Probably fine.

Thursday workout was probably better than it looks. He tried sodium bicarbonate loading before the session (this is something we'd discussed doing, and he'd done it prior to running his 47.85 in April. That time, he didn't take very much, this time he took the prescribed amount and it messed him up. He didn't think the puke was from the effort of the reps, rather from the baking soda). I would have preferred to see slightly faster times, but on the whole, I think it was a good session.

I'm actually very pleased with Saturday's session. He has been running his easy stuff around 8:00 pace lately, but said he just felt good and ended up going 7:07. Those 4 x 200 are basically glorified striders and we've been doing them around 32 seconds for the past year, (in spikes on an all weather track). So, the fact that he just cruised them all in 30 or faster is very encouraging)

I'm sitting down to write and email this week's sessions to him. They leave for Eugene on Tuesday

Good luck! We race Tuesday in Czech Republic then 4 days later in Vienna. Time to race!

Good luck, Coahc! looking g forward to seeing some fast times from Riley

I’m “the athlete in question” and don’t know if y’all will see this but just wanted to thank everyone who has been supporting this blog and giving encouragement, it’s meant a lot to me to see all your input this season, Nike nationals was disappointing but I’m so satisfied with the season and can’t wait for the next steps in my career. Thanks again for all the support!!

Hi Joe

Last update on this thread.

NON was disappointing. If I had to go back and do a few things differently, I'd have started with not going to Iceland. (This was not a possibility, my wife is Icelandic and we booked the trip to see relatives back in 2020, but that was canceled. This was the first chance we had to go since then and I want to stay married). I feel like if I was around the last 2 weeks, I'd have been able to help modulate the workouts to how things were progressing. As it stood instead, Joe was very good at doing the sessions that I emailed. He might have been a little too good....going a bit deep in the well to hit times that were kind of ideal.

That being said, the 3 week plan between state and NON might have simply been too aggressive. I thought for sure Joe would smash his PR at NON, but it didn't happen.

Monday 6/12 - 2 mile WU + drills + 3 x 50 + 3 x 1k with full recovery (6 min) 3:12, 3:08, 3:00

Tue: 3 mile warm up, drills, 3 x 50 acceleration + 2 x 150 accelerating every 50

Wed: 2 mile WU + drills + 4 x 300 with 2:30 rest (45, 46,46,46) + 4 x 200 with 2:30 rest (26.5, 27.5, 26.5, 25.5)

Thu: Travel day, 10 minute shake out on arrival

Fri: 3 miles easy on Pre's trail + 4 x 30 second stride outs.

Sat: NON 800 1:54.69

In hind sight, there are a few things I likely would have done differently. I titled the thread "elite 800m training" because I truly believed Joe was going to be top 10 in the US by this point in the season. As it turns out, he PR'ed by 2.2 seconds in the 400 but only 0.5 seconds in the 800. In the end, he DID end up in the top 10 in the US on the list of 400/800 combo guys. Maybe I should go back and change the title of the thread ;)

If I had the season do do over again, almost everything would be the same, but I would have liked to have him race less and be able to do some more VO2 max type sessions. My original plan had him running more VO2 max type sessions as fartlek runs, but I think I got a little over cautious and ended up emphasizing the less stressful CV intevals and Tempo intervals a lot more.

To be sure, Joe was probably the most aerobically strong 400/800 guy in the country, but just being aerobically strong isn't enough.