Can anyone recommend "easy" training sessions for a decathlete looking to improve his 1500m?

2 mile warm up, 2 mile cool down every day.

Overly simplified to use aerobic/anaerobic, far more complex.

You are looking for a way to develop multiple energy systems which work in synergy and in process avoid impeding progress in jumps, throws and sprints.

No great decathlon athlete should be training as a distance runner.

Try sessions like 4x400 85 w 200 walk or something more basic like 1x 500 1:40 300 walk + 1x 300 <54 or 20x 160 30 w 1' rest. These sessions when set properly should feel more like thorough and extended warmups; knackered is overrated.

In order to reach 4:40 1500 you should think of your goal as <2:20 800 or <1:40 600 or even <1:15 500. Any motivated athlete who can hit those marks has plenty of fitness for a respectable 1500 near 4:40, even if the mileage is <12-15/week.

Solid sessions to try out.. cheers

this is a struggle for me in training kids, but ultimately, I think the best bet is to get in some 1 to 2 mile cool downs, and have a couple days a week of long rep 400m training, like extensive/intensive tempo type thing. im not sure I even like any aerobic running beyond a daily 1 mile warm up. would probably be safer to get any more aerobic work done on an elliptical.

I would love to hear input from others on this.

Also are those suggested paces based on my old pb of 5:30?

Improving your aerobic ability will still help you in the decathon. Don't let people make you believe that working on your engine is going to hurt your other stuff, that's just nonesense. It will help you in most your events in a variety of ways, but obviously 1500 / 800 the most.

Funnily enough, the 1st response is actually in a decent direction—starting and finishing your others sessions with a 2 mile run is great. This will go a LONG way.

Over the past 60 years we have really honed down what is going to help your aerobic engine the best, and that is going to be:
-Multiple sessions at lower HR (like 60%). This is just easy jogging.
-Work at "threshold". This for you would be around 7:00 / mile pace or 4:20 / km. Get 20-30 minutes of this a week. You can break it up into 5 minute sets with 60 second rest between them.
-"Intervals". This will be sets of 2:00-3:00 minutes hard with 1:30-2:00 recovery. These for you will be around 6:30 / mile or 4:00 / km.

So to your normal training week, what you could do is:
-Add ~3-4 miles of jogging around your other workouts as warm ups and cool downs. You can also do a ~3-4 mile jog in the mornings. Do this most days
-Once a week, do something like 6 x 4 minutes @ 7:00 / mile or 4:20 / km pace, with 60 sec rest. This should be moderately challenging at most.
-Once a week, do something like 6-8 x 600m-800m repeats @ 6:30 / mile or 4:00 km pace, with ~2:00 rest. (this would be ~95-100 sec per 400). This should feel hard and hurt, but not 100%.

If you haven't done a lot of this in the past, you will likely see your times plummet in a couple months.

I feel that training for a faster 1500 will hurt the other 9 events. They matter more. What are your better events?

400s at 95 progressing to 85 as you get fitter. Take 1:00 rest in between. This should be 5k effort

100m, pv, discus and high jump

Ugh, that's maybe going to help a little but ultimately you'll want to do some interval workouts. I think you'd be better off maybe once a week doing a ladder workouts or something. Maybe a mix of hard intervals at 1500 pace so you can learn to go out at pace.

Maybe something like 4x300 at goal 1k-1500 pace with 4-5 minutes rest. Do that every couple of weeks.

Other ideas:

200, 300, 400, 300, 200, all at 1500 pace but maybe more like 2-3 minutes rest. You might have to add rest at first until you get stronger.

I think doing 200's on short rest might be a good way to get there. Since you probably have a lot of speed, the goal is to teach your body how to hold it - and how to run tired.

Do 200's at a moderate pace (one that is not a strain to you) but keeping the rest super short will help mimic the effects of running the 3rd and 4th laps. something like this:

200 - 32 (30 seconds rest)

200 - 32 (30 seconds rest)

200 - 32 (30 seconds rest)

then maybe take a full minute or even two before starting the next set.

As you get adapted to this type of workout, you can string together longer sets if you wish. I would shoot for about 9-12 X 200...you can also adjust the pace and the rest as you go. So maybe on the next set if you are feeling good - drop to 31...or if feeling bad - add more rest and or go slower. Find the pace that is right for you - not necessarily the pace you will be racing at.

When you do 400's you might be closer to racing pace. One way to build up to 400's is to splice 200's in between. something like this:

200 - 32 (30 rest)

200 - 32 (200 rest)

400 - going out in almost the same pace - but hold back a little 33-34 and then just try to float the second 200 (knowing that it will hurt, but just try to relax and not worry about the time so much) maybe you run 34/37 = 71 then take a couple of minutes and repeats 200/220/400.

your goal in the 1500 race is to be able to use your speed at the beginning (not sprinting at the start, but not jogging - then settling into a pace for the middle 2 laps) and then digging for a good final 400. Your race is essentially a 400, floating an 800 and finishing with a strong 400. That middle 800 is what these workouts are for - teaching you how to run while tired. the better you get on the middle 800, the faster your overall time will be.

that should have said

200 - 32 (30 rest)

200 - 32 (30 rest) not (200 rest) in the second listing

I would just start with 100m @ 1500 pace, 100m jog, x 12 - 16.

If that's too easy, try 150 on/250 jog. Then 200 on/200 jog. I wouldn't go much past 200 - 300m reps. Total "ons" should be anywhere from 1200 - 1600m of work.

Can precede the workout with some mobility, drills, plyos, or sprint work if you like.

The “2 miles up/2 miles down” every day suggestion gets at a reasonable thing (you need some aerobic work to run a passable 1500), but doesn’t acknowledge the realities of the decathlon, where 9 events are explosive (and finite training stress and time should be more focused on that). You’ll want some endurance-focused training, but less than that. Here’s what I propose:

When doing general conditioning early in the season, 2-3 days/week with a 2-3 mile easy run attached to the traditional dec workout as either a warm-up or cooldown is “base-building.” One 1500m-focused quality day week might include that easy run for a warm-up, then 4-8 x 30-60 second hard hills with walk-down recovery (1-2 minutes) or 2 x 1500m at a hard pace (maybe around 6:25-6:30 at the beginning of this phase, progressing down to 6:10 over 4-5 weeks) with 3-4 minutes recovery in between.

When you’re in the immediate pre-comp/early phase, keeping up 1-2 miles 1-3 days/week as a warm-up or cooldown attached to a dec workout to maintain some strength seems worth it, as well as a day/week of 500-1000m intervals at or just over goal pace: something like 3 x 1000m at 2 mile effort w/ 400m walk/jog recovery, or 3 x 800m at 1500m effort w/ 5 minutes walk/jog recovery, or 5 x 500m at goal 1500m pace w/ 300m walk/jog recovery.

And then once you’re peaking, drop all the strength work and do occasional shorter, goal pace (or faster) intervals as an easier workout day, like 8 x 200m w/ 200m walk/jog recover, 12 x 150m w/ jog across infield recovery, or 20 x 100m strides w/ decel then 30s walking recovery. At most, a mile or 10 minutes easy as a cooldown 1-2 times/week seems appropriate (to maximize overall dec performance) during this point in the training cycle.

Take this all with a grain of salt, as I have no decathlon training expertise, but it’s what I would recommend as the maximum “bang for your buck” 1500m training for someone who is focused on performing their best in the decathlon overall (and is thus doing more explosive training in their remaining 5-12 sessions each week).

Oh, woah, somehow misread or misremembered the paces you are currently and hoping to run in the 1500. Hack about 20-25 seconds/1500 off the pace I proposed in the 2 x 1500m workout.

First realize that improvement is never “easy”

Maybe once a week(every other week) do 5x300m @ 1500 effort with 100m jog recovery.

Ultimately you get more from the 9 other events, put most of your training effort into those events.

I've done a similar pyramid session like 300,400,500,400,300 with a minute rest for each 100m and aiming for like 17.5/100m pace. I did this session at 19 second pace before I injured myself last year.

Thanks for the suggestions. Just to be clear, did you mean make pace faster or slower by 20-25 seconds?