What do you think of this goal-paced 800 meter workout?

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What is your goal time?

It depends on what you're hoping to get from the workout. Starting out, I presume that you're looking for form and getting used to running fast. If so, then I would just let the recovery between 100s be whatever you need to be able to knock out the next one fast and relaxed. You have plenty of time until March (would that be USATF indoor?), so take your time now and do many workouts at pace before starting to incur serious oxygen debt.

My A goal is 2:49. My B goal and the one I will use as pace is 2:56. That's a convenient 22.0 sec/100m for the workout I'm thinking of trying.

For our March M75 Indoor 4x800m World Record attempt, we'll need to run 13:07.96 or about 3:17 each. That should be no problem for the four of us. The hard part at this age is staying healthy.

No. Not USATF Indoors. We'll be racing multiple events and my teammates have individual race goals. We'll find another indoor meet somewhere.

To minimize injuries as an older 4/8 guy, I prefer fartleks for the 800 pace stuff with lots of hills and mixed surfaces.

But the best tip I can give you for all that interval work: Nike Next%. I had the 4% for years and they were super cushy but clunky, especially on the track. Next % are a dream shoe for us old blokes.

Obviously you know your body better than I do, but I feel like all of the stopping and going could be a bit dangerous for your age. Most injuries happen during acceleration and deceleration. Maybe slow jog/shuffle the curves and striding the straights would be a better alternative? Just keep it nice and smooth, easing in and out of the paces. I personally love doing 2-3x1600m of this to get ready for 800m training.

I did the workout today and followed your advice. I did 16x100m. After the first couple of reps, I felt recovered at 130bpm (around 60-90 seconds) so I used 130bpm to start the next rep.

I did the first four at 21 seconds (2:48 800m pace) and the last 12 reps at 19 (2:32 800m pace). After 10 reps, they got easier and my recovery came faster. I think I was figuring out how to run relaxed at that pace. That was one of my desired outcomes.

It should be fun to see if I can reduce the recovery time between reps the next time I do this workout.

I think 6’/mi pace even 4’km pace is fine. You on turf? Go w 110m on a good hybrid turf field if it is available The extra cushioning will help

That said I’d vote 50-52 200m w 400 walk Workout over of effort moves above somewhat hard

If you can pile up 50s 200m reps w medium effort then 45s will be manageable without touching on hard efforts.

good luck w it

Is that the Alphafly Next% or the Vaporfly Next%?

Great point. Thanks for reminding me of this. I always use rolling starts and stops to avoid injuries. I've tried 1600m repeats, but I've decided on 6x1200m instead. I have great dirt road in a park to do this workout. I've been doing them with a 3 minute walk recovery.

dsrunner, one of my other workouts will be 8x200m. I'll be doing them a little faster than 50sec because I'm also training to race the 400. I have access to a great turf soccer field. I do my warmups and first warmup strides on the soccer field, but I don't like doing reps on the turf.

Vaporfly

Thanks. I'll look again for them, but all I can find is the Vaporfly Next% 2. The reviews I've read said that the Vaporfly Next%2 wasn't as good as the original Vaporfly Next%.