GUYS HUGE 800m PB

Congratulations! Whatever you are doing is working! Impossible to say at this point if another training program would have made you run faster or slower.

Main thing is to keep healthy going forward. No harm in introducing a tempo or threshold workout once every 2 weeks or so.

What is your 5k time? One approach would be to modify your 3 x 1000 workout and make the intervals CV pace. With CV intervals , which are a little slower than 5k pace, the rest is on the short side and controlled. For you, the workout could be 5 x 1000 at CV pace with a 200 jog in about 90 seconds between each 1000.

The cool thing about CV pace is it gives you some of the benefits of VO2 max training and some of the benefits of tempo/threshold training in the same workout. Plus, you can do them just about year-round without burning out.

Let us know how it goes. Again, congrats on your big PR!

Depends on also how old you are, how much experience you have running over time, and how often you've run this particular event to begin to comment on this type of progression.

Just to clarify about adding a minute to your 5k time to get CV pace: Suppose your 5k time is 17 minutes. You add a minute and get 18 minutes. So you would do 5 x 1000 in 3:36 with a 200 jog in about 90 seconds. If that feels really easy, you can jog the 200 faster.

My 5k time is 17:21

I'm 14 and in 8th grade

thank you

Bingo. Puberty is a powerful drug.

I don't know your history with training over the last few months, but if it has been mostly somewhat easy/medium level effort interval sessions as well as easy mileage than I'd say you could probably shave off a few more seconds by the time this season ends. Maybe even sub 2 which would be crazy as an 8th grader. I'd recommend one super tough session a week that actually simulates the effort you'd feel during a real 800. I do 2×(10×100m)@sub 15s with 30s rest, and 3min rest between sets. But seeing as you're young and maybe less injury resistant, I'd drop it to just 10×100m. I think the 15s should still work for you though.

As you progress through the season, start increasing the rest, as well as the speed. So the first week 30s rest at sub 15, and the final week 1min rest at preferably sub 14, but it's perfectly fine to run 14.0s, 14.1s, 14.2s, 14.3s. Assuming you have an 8 week season which I think is typical for middle school, then I'd do first 4 weeks with 30s rest, then 5th week 40s, 6th week 50s, 7th week 1min, and 8th week would likely be around your final races so I'd recommend not doing the workout and focusing more on the races

Do this session very close to the end of the week so you can have a rest or easy day afterwards so it doesn't negatively affect your other interval sessions

I know some coaches prefer runs like 20×50m, or 3×400, 6×200 etc, but I find these either too physically taxing and lead to injuries or they're not specific enough for 800 effort.