Is double Threshold Viable for 800m runners

I'm curious as to how you ran such a good 5k? My 3k PR is 8:25 but I could barely break 15.

if you actually want to be most ready for an 800, you'll have to change a lot of what you have here. While its not necessarily a bad idea for you to keep your mileage relatively high since you're from a true distance background (looks like youre at 70-80mpw right now?), not many of the sessions you're doing are gonna directly impact your 800m running. For that you need a lot lower volume, higher intensity. actual speed development, 400-800m paced reps, some mile/1500 paced reps. Those might take the place of 1-2 of your sessions a week. and adding those in will likely make it harder to keep your mileage that high, which is a trade off a lot of 800m guys have to take. I usually advocate for maintaining 45-60 range depending on the time of year. my basic checklist of the 800m base phase is to attack the event from both extremes, laying the foundation for the specific training to come. so 6x8'' hill sprints, max effort with 3-5 minute recovery inbetween, 4-6 flat sprints of 40-80m max effort with full recovery, strides almost every day, plyos and heavy fast lifting. then at the same time adding the layers of low intensity aerobic work, mileage, progression runs, threshold, the occasional mile/3k/5k workout in a lower volume than you would for distance training. those faster aerobic sessions would be more a way to break up the monotony than get a serious stimulus out of it. maybe once every 1-2 weeks you do a few 100-200m at a faster clip, close to goal 800m pace with full rest after an easy run. then as the months progress, you make your sessions more and more specific until you're pretty honed in on 400-1k pace for your main workout every week, and alternate between either a speed maintenance day or an aerobic focused workout. without getting into too much specifics, that'll get you 90% of the way there so long as you are prudent about progressions and mindful of overtraining when introducing new stimulus.

How many MPW did you run? I am guessing my higher summer volume is what got me there since I was hitting 100+ majority of the summer when I ran that. One of my key workouts my last year of college was 5-6x1k @2:40 2.5-3m rest. could have also played a factor since it was around 6k volume workout excluding the jog rest.

In the past I have done a week of

30/35 fartlek for 30 min and in the afternoon 8x300 45 down to 41

and on that Thursday I did a similar morning workout and the "afternoon" one which was only 4 hours apart I did 2x (600, 15s 200) in which I hit 1:29 and 29 for both sets 10 mins between.

I only did one week of workouts like this just because I had not touched speed and wanted to jump start it for a fun race. So I am unaware of the progressive fatigue of doing it for weeks. Is double workouts a viable option for 800M training? is there any top pros in the 800m or have done similar

This guy has it. Great advice.

Not to detract from the discussion, but you should really evaluate if you want to do this. Running is about your personal journey and enjoyment, so of course take whatever route you want, but from my perspective, you are a freakin' great distance runner, but maybe not so mid-distance. HS PR 2:06 doesn't say a whole lot. Your endurance will definitely take a temporary hit while you do 800 training, so it's more than a 6 month commitment because you will have to spend some time getting distance fitness back to baseline if you want to go back to longer events.

I haven't hit 80 in my current block but been mid 70s for it. would like to be in the 100s for September as that is where I am most confident. But I am not trying to over train. I consider myself smart in the terms of progressive overload and maintance.

Goal would obviously be sub 1:50 but I would be happy with 1:53 and disappointed in anything over 1:55.99

I did run 9:20 in high school for 3200m but didn't run the 800m after sophomore year because we had a sub 8 4x8 and a 8:15 B squad

the double thresholds will give you a great base of strength to slowly transition into real mid distance training, but you will need to be far separated from it to really nail the 800.

Sub 1:50 is an extreme goal for somebody who hasn't shown anything in the event. For an endurance based runner, it puts you in the neighborhood of a 4 minute mile.

just enjoy the process. break 2 minutes, and then work your way down from there. Going under 1:55 is really fast. Just keep going until it isn't fun.

I would look into Seb Coe style training--5 paces--400, 800, 5000, 3000, 5000--to get where you want to go. You can't hit all that in a week, I find it best to try to hit it all through a 2 week training cycle. And of course, you will want to take some time to bridge the gap between what you are doing now and and where you will end up.

Think ends to middle. Start out with your threshold stuff, but also have a day of max speed. 5x60 all out, flying 30s, 8 second hill sprints, etc. Transition those ends into 5k pace stuff along with 400 pace 100s, 150s, 200s, etc..and move from there.

Just in case you hadn't found this thread yet

A sub 4 mile would be my long term goal as is for most runners. the 8 is my favoirte event but I am hoping not to spend to much time racing it just hoping for a one off fast mark to base my future off of and if it doesnt go where I want ill dedicate the rest of the winter to it because I want around 1:50 on my resume if possible.

At the moment it seems like no one in the world knows how to train for the 800 m.

I was waiting for someone to link this. this training would be best suited for someone in OPs position, coming from a heavy distance load. Personally OP, 100mpw just feels like way too much when trying to pair it with workouts that hit 800 pace and faster. I can't say for sure as I was never a high mileage guy, and rarely went over 60mpw. But from my own experience, it was really hard to maintain above 50-55 for multiple weeks in a row while also having 1-2 sessions that were 800m specific. I was kind of injury prone though and plenty of guys get up to 70/80 though. The poster OldSub4 mentions that in his training on that thread. The first several pages would have some super useful insights for you specifically, as its a higher mileage program than most 800m runners would do.