Elite HS 800m Training Plan

please let him run the 400 fresh

Agreed. the kid could be running 48xx and 1.48 without the 3200 and 1600 stuff right now. He has done the distance work, let him race fresh without all the extra racing on race days to "get in more work". That is what practice is for. The athlete I coached probably had no more talent, but ran 48.5 and sub-1.48 because he was fresh for races, although not necessarily tapered until later in the season. But then he was running international championship meets (U20) until later into the summer.

Let other kids do the dual meets instead of this kid if there is no competition and let him do a workout for its own sake.

Hey Coach B,

Thanks for this thread; I've been following it all season. My 800M runner was 2nd in this race, running a 3 second PR. It's the first time he got out hard and stayed mentally engaged the entire race. I was really proud of him, and thanks to your runner for pulling him along.

Speaking of 1600/400 double, at our meet the prior weekend I had him do this, mostly with the emphasis on bettering his 1600 PR. He did, then came back and took a half second off his 400 PR too.

Your guy ran a great race. I was kind of surprised when he tried to move up to challenge just before the 500. That was a monster PR for him

My guy talked me into letting him run the 400 fresh at our dual next week. He knows he'll have to do some more aerobic work later. He even offered to do a tempo after the meet. The goal is still for him to run U20 nationals in July, so we're no where near a taper yet and I feel it's far too early to let the aerobic stuff start to slip.

The plan after next week's dual is to race heavily at distances of 200-800. This will be his specific 800m training. We'll run him in the 4,8,2,4x4 at our league meet and the following week at divisional trials and finals. That should be plenty of specific endurance type work leading into our Masters meet and then the state meet.

The plan was to have him try the 400/800 double last night, but as it turns out, I forgot to register him for the 400. I feel like that ended up being a happy accident, since he was still trying to come back from his illness yesterday.

Great overview think longterm. What he achieves tomorrow is important but what he may achieve in 4-6 years might be special. Look after your special athlete with an eye for the future. Good luck!

47.85 FAT in a dual today. Won by 6 seconds. Came back with 23.1x in the 200 and then ran just hard enough to win the 4x4 (52 ish).

from the bottom of my coaching heart, thank you for letting him get a legit 400 mark in

if i were king and everyone was willing to give their best effort, i'd have every kid on the track team run the open 400 at least one time during the track season

lets you know what type of fitness the sprinters and jumpers have, while letting the distance kids know what their current ceiling is in the 800-5000

i'm assuming your student-athlete has already chosen a school, but if not that 400 should let a college coach know he'll be an everyday-of-the-week sub-47 guy soon enough. it's enough for a confident coach to be thinking sub 1:45 and D1 title contender.

bravo for not wrecking the kid while having to balance it all with soccer and that coach and team's desires, as i'd assume he's the star player or #2 at worst. i really hope he doesn't play a single game of soccer in college.

i was looking at the state list for 400 and your guy is the only one in the top 25 to not set their PR at an invitational! and of course he's deep into the top-10. very impressive.

Xai Ricks' 400 speed with sub-16:00 5000 fitness is going to make for a fun state meet.

Agreed. We were disappointed when Sahlman decided not to finish the high school season, but Ricks is the real deal too.

CA is stupid deep in the 800, a lot of guys will be in the mix. I'm a little worried about my guy's lack of big meet experience. He hasn't mixed it up in a fast 800 with other guys around him since last May.

Well, that's not entirely true. He's had some guys go out kind of hard. He didn't take the lead until 400 at Stanford.

80 day plan. Start on day 1 running goal pace of 10 meters at desired elite pace. Each day add 10 meters at same pace. No overtraining but you learn race pace and it’s slow enough to allow body to get stronger and adapt. It worked for hs teammate of mine who ran 1:51.1. Might have run faster but season was over. He went to a SEC school that over trained him and he never got better than 1:49 over 4 years.

Its interesting how your athlete can run a sub 48 400m without breaking 22 seconds in the 200m. Middle distance strength I am guessing.

Coach B, has Joseph committed to a school yet?

He’s not even remotely “elite”.

Never mind!

Looks like I was a little late to the party. I'll definitely keep your school on the radar from now on!

My goodness. Congrats to your runner, and congrats to you. 47.85 is some SERIOUS wheels for an 800 runner. Leagues just started for my section (CCS), and I've been watching some of my colleagues get their runners through. Good luck in the upcoming weeks!

He finally got a call from BYU yesterday. They're going to figure out a way to make room for him on the roster. Until now, they wouldn't even commit to letting him walk on. For obvious reasons, they're not going to spend roster spots on 800m guys unless they're pretty sure those guys can score at nationals and give a boost to the 4x4

He was pretty late to the game, developmentally. Covid Frosh year then not really taking track seriously as a soph kept him off of everyone's radar. He didn't really hit any good (as in D1) times until the end of Junior year. Frankly, I've been surprised that very few coaches have reached out. I mean, last year, he finished the season as the #23 non-senior. I'm certain he would have dropped his time some more, had he gone to some post season meets. (his time was the #11 non senior when he ran it, but went on vacation to Europe with his family the day after state).

The fact that he really only wanted to go to BYU led him to not pursue contacts with other programs. But, it seems that it's going to work out now.

Congrats to you and your runner. BYU is a great choice. My head coach and I both believe he will be a national caliber athlete some day.

Not looking forward to dealing with him once BYU comes into our conference, but we will definitely pay more attention to that area of California in the future!

Joseph quite literally has the potential to win a NCAA title. I would sure hope any program he wants to be a part of can find a way to make room for him.

And to all you other college coaches (that aren't reading this) do you even look through results? I swear I'd be one of the best recruiters of talent in the country. It's not that difficult to spot untapped potential.

Anyway, happy for Joseph that he's getting a shot to continue his collegiate career at a place he really wants to be.