I recently ran 4x800 with 90 seconds rest, averaging 2:25. What race distance should I be able to run at this pace? Somewhere between a mile and 3k?
I've also run 8x200 with 50 seconds rest, averaging 31 seconds. Both of these were run on a path along the river in old road flats, because all the nearby tracks are locked up.
I would guess it is between 1500 and 3k pace.
That's about what I was thinking, at least for the same shoes/surface. I'd like to think I could run around 9:00 for a 3k race on the track with spikes, although I'd probably need a couple workouts on the track first to get my lower legs ready.
I don't think either of those workouts suggest you can run 9 flat for 3k. That is not to say you couldn't run that fast but but 9:30+ athletes could put those workouts up in my opinion if they were pushing it. If you were looking to break 9 I would think those would be like week of target race type workouts to sharpen up a bit and take literally nothing out of you.
You can definitely run that 800 pace or better for a mile.
It's not a bad 3k indicator, I think I'd like it more if the interval was 70 to 75 seconds, ie half the duration of the repeats.
highhoppingworm wrote:
I don't think either of those workouts suggest you can run 9 flat for 3k. That is not to say you couldn't run that fast but but 9:30+ athletes could put those workouts up in my opinion if they were pushing it. If you were looking to break 9 I would think those would be like week of target race type workouts to sharpen up a bit and take literally nothing out of you.
About a month ago I ran a hard two mile (nearly time trial effort) on the same river path, and ran 10:15. I doubt I could run a 9:00 3k/9:40 two mile in flats on the river path, but I don't know how the times translate to the track. None of my racing shoes are new, but I'm pretty sure my old Nike Victory spikes would help me run faster than my well worn Saucony Type A5 flats.
Neither of these workouts are great predictors for anything, that being said, those 800s are a good tune up for a 3k/2 mile, and if you can honestly say you could have ran 1-2 more reps then 9:40-10:00 is feasible
9:10 for 3000m and 4:10 for 1500m
More like 9:20 and 4:20
Bythebay12 wrote:
9:10 for 3000m and 4:10 for 1500m
I think those would be fairly accurate for me at the moment.
I drove to a track today and did a little workout to see how my legs felt on the track:
3x100 meter strides
800 meters
change into spikes
3x100 meter strides
800 meters
3x100 meter strides
400 meters
I ran 2:20 (flats), 2:11 (spikes), and 61 (spikes) - with short rest between the strides, and 1-2 minutes before/after the 800s and 400. Looks like the whole "workout" listed above took 19 minutes, so it was pretty quick.
Not sure it tells me too much, aside from that the measurements on the river path are probably pretty much accurate. I was aiming to run hard but controlled, as I didn't want to tear up my legs after not having run on the track lately.
Went to the track to do a test run of 800 meters today, and ran 2:04.4. Effort was not quite time-trial level, but not too far off. I'm hoping to go back and run a 1500 in three or four days, as I'll be traveling for a week after that and am not sure how consistently I'll be able to train in the meantime.
Ended up running a 1500 at the end of last week in 4:13. My hamstring had felt a little tight the whole week after the 800 so I was 50/50 on whether to even run any other hard effort. I'm pretty sure I'd benefit from a few races to actually get the most out of my fitness, but I don't think many/any track races are too likely this summer.
As a followup to this thread, I entered an indoor mile this winter and ran 4:21. Workouts were only moderately more impressive/faster than leading up to my time trials last summer, but I had a better base of mileage in the fall. Also, I did more hill workouts in this buildup.
You need to evaluate the session in context if your overall training load and fatigue. If you are carrying high levels on chronic fatigue, 4 x 800m with half rest might be a reasonable indicator if your 3km time. But if not especially fatigued, then you would need to drop to quarter rest to get a similar evaluation.
It depends wrote:
You need to evaluate the session in context if your overall training load and fatigue. If you are carrying high levels on chronic fatigue, 4 x 800m with half rest might be a reasonable indicator if your 3km time. But if not especially fatigued, then you would need to drop to quarter rest to get a similar evaluation.
That is a good point. I don't know that I am very fresh for workouts much of the time, half due to running load and half due to work/family/etc. Additionally, I don't think I've ever been one to really crush workouts.
I looked at my log and see that I did 4x800 averaging 2:21 with a minute rest in December (that was with spikes on a track). I think that would be a good approximation of my 3000 meter race pace by the time I raced my mile, but probably a little optimistic for 3000 meter pace at the time of the workout.
Id personally run this workout at 3k-5k pace, but an all out effort as others have said will land you probably 10 seconds a mile faster than 3k pace.
mid 30s guy wrote:
I recently ran 4x800 with 90 seconds rest, averaging 2:25. What race distance should I be able to run at this pace? Somewhere between a mile and 3k?
I've also run 8x200 with 50 seconds rest, averaging 31 seconds. Both of these were run on a path along the river in old road flats, because all the nearby tracks are locked up.
2k
Try 6 x 800: 5 min to run and rest then repeat. Drop it down to 2:12 - 2:15 w/jog recovery. Gotta get the heartrate up and keep it up.