Sub 2 800m Training

CopperRunner wrote:

You’ll get there! My friend opened his season in 2:07 the year he ran 1:58.

Try opening the race a bit more aggressively. My coach always told me that the first 7 seconds of a race won’t effect your stamina in an 800, so you might as well full send it and try to get upfront. It always worked well for me.

Passing people in an 800m is very hard to do as you’ll often need to speed up to 400m pace to cleanly get around people, which absolutely years your energy away. If you are finishing second at meets, go out in first and try to maintain it. The 800m is not about who can close the race fastest, it’s about who can hold onto the pace longest.

Agree with this post.

OP, you ran the way you trained.

The 1600m will be okay because of how you trained and how you raced the 800m. Just run 3 laps at a really good pace without trying to slow down or to speed up.

Week of 1/18-1/24 was very solid, 50mi with a decent workout and a good pure speed workout

Week of 1/25-1/31

Mon: off

Tue: 8mi @ 7:13/mi + Strides

Wed: 3x400 (62, 63, 64)

Thur: 7mi @ 7:10/mi

Fri: 4.3mi + Strides

Sat: WU/CD + 800/1600 double (2:08/very bad 1600)

Sun: 10mi @ 7:20/mi

Total 41mi

I have no idea why we did such a specific session on Wednesday I definitely wasn't ready for something like that yet. 800 was pretty good on Saturday, dropped 2 seconds from two weeks ago and I definitely made some tactical errors in that race plus I had a 1600 in my legs but it went pretty abysmal more mental than anything else tho. I've decided to stop slacking on lifting and pure speed workouts and I'm going to start doing both consistently now and I'm confident I can drop a 2:05-2:06 in 3 weeks with more of that kind of work plus with no 1600 in my legs.

OK week, and OK races (TTs?).

I am surprised you are running that fast, because the training is, well I can't think of a word for it.

If you can't embrace better interval training that what you've listed for 2 months, then your longer runs are too slow to run sub-2.

Examples using your last workout week:

Run 8 mi at 6:30 pace.

Run 7 miles at 6:30 pace

Run 4.3 miles at 6:15

Run 10 miles at 6:50-7:00 pace

Mon: Lift

Tue: 7mi @ 7:24 + Strides

Wed: 1mi wu 4x800 hills 2mi cd (2:55, 2:52, 2:42, 2:34) + Lift

Thur: AM 2.5mi @ 8:00/mi, PM 5.5mi @ 7:42/mi

Fri: 8.25mi @ 7:37/mi

Sat: 7mi @ 7:23/mi

Sun: 10mi @ 7:17/mi

Total 47mi

Ran on a lot of snow/ice this week so some easy run paces were slower. Solid week workout on Wednesday was decent cause I'm not great at hills coach says it's about 10-15sec slower than a track 800. Running an 1600 on the 20th hoping to go around 4:40, could've run the 800 and I think I'm probably capable of 2:05/2:06 right now based on how I ran my 2:08 but I probably won't get in another 800 until outdoor given this will be my last indoor race.

Week 2/8-2/14

Mon: 3mi @ 7:15/mi

Tue: 7.3mi @ 7:21/mi

Wed: 2mi SO + 10x(2min on, 2min off) 2mi wu/cd

Thur: 7.25mi @ 7:41/mi

Fri: 7.3mi @ 7:27/mi

Sat: 5mi @ 6:57mi

Sun: 11.4mi @ 7:30/mi

Solid week, ran through a lot of snow this week workout on Wednesday was good averaged about 5:30, and 7:00 for the ons and offs respectively it came out to a 10k in 38min. Racing a 1600 this Saturday.

Good luck with that 1600 man, got a goal?

How did your season end up going? What did you run?

I agree. The only (HS) person I know never ran a 400 all out, but only could run a 56 (admittedly in practice though, at the end of a relatively long workout). I think he ran 1:59 (relay), 4:20, 9:05 so he was slow-twitch, especially for a HS runner