I challenged a former college teammate of mine to an 800m duel, which will take place on August 1st. I believe I'm screwed-my friend still runs for general fitness, while I mostly became fat and lazy, though I lift here and there. I am practically untrained at this point, but have been running the past few weeks to attempt to get back into shape for this race.
I am looking for some recommendations as to how to show up in 5 weeks with some semblance of 800m fitness. Workouts, mileage, whatever.
It has been about 2.5 years since I consistently ran ~50 MPW. I've jogged maybe once a week since then. In my prime, I was around 53 for 400, 1:56 for 800, good for an 8:30 3k off of 65-80/week. 6', 140#. Current fitness: 155#, still lean, I've been running about 25 mpw for 3 weeks, can hit 3x200 in spikes in about 25.5 with long rest, 4x800 in ~2:50 off 1:00 ( a bit tougher than tempo effort), and get pretty gassed after a 5-miler at 7:00. I've been running 2 of every 3 days, give or take, but have experience running doubles. I'm willing to try whatever seems like consensus on here. to try and dip below 2:05 on race day.
Any and all advices appreciated.