Bread and Butter 1600m workouts

1. lose weight

2. run more mileage, especially high-end mileage

3. run 10x400 at 75

3x8 + 4x300

10x400@ 75

20x200@ 33

10 miles@ 60:00

2x 4/6/4/2 @ 75sec with equal time recovery and 10 min between sets

8x 600

Not sure on volume so….

8x400(200m jog 90sec) @ goal pace

5x(400(1min)-200)(3min) @ goal pace/200s faster

8x600(200m jog 2min) @ GP

4x(600(1min)-200)(3min) @ goal pace/200s faster

800(3min)-2x600(2min)-3x400(90sec) @ GP

current volume = ~35mi/wk.

workouts typically:

3-4x mile at 7:10/mi w 2:30 non active rest

10x200 @~40sec with 1:15mi non active rest

OP please ignore this post, this guy is completely insane

I bet if you did 16x200@37-40 w/ 200 jog recovery and 5xMile@6:00-6:30 w/ 60s standing rest every single week, along with ~50 miles a week (fill the rest with easy running you could probably break 5:00 within a few weeks. Start at the top of the pace range and work your way down as you get fitter. If you want to get fancy with it, you could cycle like this:

Weeks 1/3: 200s and miles

Weeks 2/4: 16x400@85-90 w/ 1:1 standing rest and 8x1k@3:40-4:00 w/ 60s standing rest

This would give you a bit more variety and also work your aerobic capacity a bit. Also do fast strides 2-3 days a week after easy runs and as part of your warmup for workouts. It's not fancy, but these 4 workouts and some easy running comprise 90-95% of the training that is necessary for maximal 1500m performance.

will have to give these a shot, not sure if I want to devote myself to 50mpw, but it may the only way to get there.

You can scale the same thing down to 30-40 mpw, just do 3-4xMile, 6x1k, and maybe 12x200 and 12x400. I just personally believe 50 mpw is doable for just about anybody if you take it slow.

You have no clue if you think anyone can run 8x600 at mile effort... Hope you are not coaching anyone pal

Sorry typo typing fast at work. 5x600 not 8x600. And i meant to say mile pace not mile goal pace. Hopefully those are close and not dream mile pace lol.

I was in a pretty similar spot back in mid February (but I'm younger, a little shorter and lighter) and I managed to drop down to a 4:46 1500 at the end of April. Basically I just bumped my mileage from 15-20 range up to consistent over 30 and a few weeks of high 40s to low 50s. I kept my workouts pretty simple, doing one longer/tempo style workout and one shorter, faster workout a week. Final race prep workout 8x 400 on 1 minute averaging low 76s, which told me I was in shape to run about what I ran. I think if I kept going for another month or so I would've been ready to run sub 5 for the full mile but I ran out of races and had a vacation scheduled.

Do what Spencer Brown does: 8 x 400m at pace with 1 minute rest. And when you don’t PR cry like a little b****

Also forgot to mention but one way I got my mileage up was progressively building my long runs over time from 7-8 up to 10-12, giving myself 10 days between so I wasn't forcing the long run in at the end of every week.

I do that too throughout training blocks. Start at like 6 or 7 and add a mile to the next run, repeat every 10 days.

Not sure the long run is whats impeding me though. Probably weight, footspeed, etc. Just need to adjust diet a tad and put in more work.

I broke 5 at the age of 40 with a fairly simple schedule:

Gradually increase easy mileage

Strides moat days

Once a week rotate between the following 3 workouts: 10x400, 3x800, 1x1200.

Once I got my 1200 down towards 3:35 I did a short taper and broke 5.

Spot on!!! Maybe 5x 600 with 3-4 mins