Long Run for 800m.

Guessing wrote:

I did run D1. PR of 1:49.5. I had several teammates in the 1:46-1:52 range. I'd say 80% of us ran over 10 miles once a week, with several guys over 13.

It depends on your individual body and muscle type. The 800 is an unusual event where some are more like pure sprinters while others are more aerobic.

try 50 minutes at a crawling pace then strides. Its enough to get an aerobic stimulus, but wont take away from track workouts. Building up? 70 minutes at an easy pace then strides. Nobody here runs 45 seconds in the 400 sure, but that shows you all have plenty of room to improve your speed. Obviously these super slow runs only work if you also go to to the track, run hills, fartleks etc. its to save energy.

Note also your race strategy. are you trying to even pace? then maybe you do need the long runs. If youre starting quickly you need sprinting speed. run stairs if you dont have that.

Let's say for very specific medical-injury circumstances one Could Only Run Up To 20 Minutes Per Day At Any Pace, but does 90 minutes or more aerobic cross training daily + all the strength, core and stretching, etc. Would the training described by "former D1" (various intervals and strides) make sense to specialize in 800m racing? Background of runner is college-age female formerly very successful high school miler and XC trying to avoid / postpone major foot surgery. Runner can do these training intervals on straightaways off the track, no turns. Please let me know what you think or have heard of anything like this. Thank you.

Personally I think that if you run the 800 and only the 800, one single long run each week is not really relevant. I think that consistent mileage through the week to top up the aerobic tank is much more important.

A long run, especially a long hard run, which is significantly further than your other runs during the week, is more geared towards 10k or marathon style training.

Bumping up another good thread.

I was former 3000-10000m guy before and for 800m endurance guy I say long run should be 10-15 miles in base period.

In base period every week I did 50-70 miles, in race period about 25-30 miles.

And by trial and error I found out, that mileage doesn't kill speed if You still go to gym 2 times a week and don't forgot drills.

I remember Symmonds specifically talking about the variety of 800 runners and how he found that he was one of the types that found high mileage to be useful.

FormerD1 trying to pretend the only way to be an 800m runner is to train like a sprinter when there is a huge percentage of 800m runners who don't train like sprinters and are successful.

You don't get slower by running for 80-90 minutes once a week in the offseason, and you don't need to do intense sprintwork yearround, and the 800m is not harder to train for than other distances.

Not every 800m runner needs to run a good amount of mileage but there are plenty who do and have good success. It's not a sprint, if you aren't a sprinter moving up (and most aren't) you don't train like a sprinter

10-12miles should be enough, you can adjust the pace to your comfort.

I ran 1:52 800 this last indoor season, long runs were usually 12miles @6:30-6:55

Marcin Lewandowski runs 200km a week. Probably around 25-30km for lr.

First off you are very wrong. A lot of great 800 runners run a lot of mileage, as your anaerobic ceiling is limited by your aerobic capacity. You have to run mileage to improve your 800m potential for long term development. These fools may tell you otherwise but take a look Lydiards training.

Furthermore, Donovan Brazier has become so dominant because he developed aerobically. Remember him getting bumped out in semi’s a few years ago and his inconsistency? They worked him up slowly but surely, made him a lot stronger with more threshold and volume. Now he is a world beater. Just go out an run for an hour or so on Sundays along with easy runs all week building through the base phase.

Brazier says he runs about 8mi for his LR. Interview at 4:01

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsYLQ1aN0_k

formerD1 wrote:

Guessing wrote:

Nick Symmonds runs 13 mile long runs

Seb Coe ran 13 mile long runs even during racing season

Yeah great let's use the exception to prove the rule, more moronic hobby jogging comments.

If you go to ANY D1 program, NONE of the 800m runners are doing 13 mile long runs. OK maybe there's 1 or 2 freaks of nature out there, but for the most part, NO NO NO.

Also, you do realize Seb Coe trained differently for his 800m "season" and his mile "season?" When he tried to combine the two into one, well he was running 1:44-1:47 and losing to Ovett in Moscow, and doing better in the mile. Seb Coe ran his 800m PR SIX (6) SIX SIX SIX years before his mile PR.

Jesus the amount of idiotic misinformation here is appalling.

Maybe American D1 coaches should learn from guys in other countries that were better than any America has ever produced - Snell, Coe...

And your best Ryun did regular 20 milers.

USA should absolutely dominate the 800m, at least outside of Kenya. It's the one single event both AfroAmericans and white Americans can excel at. You don't have soccer taking 95% of your most talented 800m guys, unlike Europe.

Per capita, USA sucks at 800m.

even if he writes it a bit harshly, i like the posts of formerd1. if i run continuously for more than 6 miles i feel like i am wasting my time in training. if something is important for 800m, then the different specific workouts and the gym.

i occasionally do a 60-90min mountain bike ride the day after a workout at a high cadence to protect my legs from the impact of running and to get a longer aerobic stimulus.

Yet another good thread discussing long runs for 800m athletes.

Borzakovski and Coe both used to run 15-20miles on a regular basis in the off season.

And Yuri was a 400/800 guy with a 45"xx PR.

Running slow long runs in the base phase does not affect speed if you keep some speed/strength work (hills, drills, strides, core, plyo, stairs, weights) every week.

It is not mandatory since some guys can perform well without but I think it is benefitial to most.

Increasing recovery abilities, reducing risk of injury in specific phase and perform better at 2nd lap.

And mandatory if 1500/mile is also a target distance.

Not sure where you got the info about Borza doing 15-20 mile runs. Here is a thread with some of his training:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1296241

His coach was saying Borza USED to go 20-30k but coach was limiting long run to 12-14k when article was written.

yep that means at one point of his carreer he worked on long runs. Maybe nit every year, maybe his coach thought that he had developped this part of the training and that ist was not usefull anymore.

And I read an interview of borza himself saying that he liked 30km run in the winter and that was at some point in his career peak