800 High School Training

Is this a troll? If not, your runners will die doing 3 workouts + race + all out/fast strides 2 other days in a single week. Just because 800 is more similar to sprinters than the 1600/3200 does not mean you can work out as often as sprinters and expect anything other than injury.

These speed oriented 800m runners do lower mileage, less strength and more speed work than a 800/1500 strength oriented guy, but they take adequate recovery between workouts, which this example plan does not.

You cannot expect rookie high schoolers to train even close to the level of a collegiate athlete. In this case, you have them doing levels of work that would quickly injure or burn out any college/pro runner, much less a new to running high school athlete.

I'd say it's a bit too much, but you're not too far off.

1) Speed on Monday and tempo on Tuesday is a time honored classic. I love doing this. The stresses are polar opposites. I would probably aim to work up towards ~5k of volume for younger runners.

2) I would have an easier day on Wednesday after the Mon/Tue bang-bang. Your athletes will definitely be a bit tired. Can be like 20–40 minutes easy, drills, 6x100m.

3) 6x300 @ 800 pace w/ 3 min rest is a very tough session. I'd want an easier day before and a recovery day after something like that. These gut-busting 800-specific sessions likely aren't something you should do every single week. Just a handful of these types of sessions during the whole season is usually enough.

4) Find a way to work in VO2Max pace reps. Something a bit faster than tempo with a bit less volume and a bit more rest. Close to 5k pace.

Here's a revised 2 week cycle based off what you've given me. Obviously this all depends on what day your race is, which races are more important, the weather, the athletes, etc.

Week 1

Mon: Speed

Tue: Tempo reps

Wed: 20–40 easy, drills, strides

Thur: VO2, e.g. 6x2 min w/ 2 min rest

Fri: Pre meet

Sat: Race

Sun: off/shakeout and strides

Week 2

Mon: Speed

Tue: 20–40 easy, drills, strides

Wed: 800-specific work, like 6x300 or 3x400

Thur: 2 mile EASY tempo OR shortened VO2max session

Fri: Pre meet

Sat: Race

Sun: off/shakeout

The speed development on monday is definitely beneficial for all age groups, keep that, but 3 workouts in a row is a bit much. Id replace wednesday with easy mileage and strides, and swap tues. and thurs. For pre-meet, have them do 150s at 800m pace for their strides with FULL recovery. Early on in season you dont wanna dabble too much in 800 specific work, just threshold work and maybe mile/2 mile pace. 4 weeks in, start introducing stuff like 200s at 800 pace, 400s at mile pace, and continue with strides, drills, core, etc. Remember, these kids are developing so we dont wanna burn them out with too much anaerobic work, considering how tough it already is on the body even for professional 800m athletes.

I should mention, the above outline is for kids who are good and fit. I'm talking experienced runners OR a very fit soccer or football or basketball player with good natural speed and a bit of endurance could run training weeks like this after a few weeks of acclimation. This isn't the schedule for your kids who are in the first weeks of their first season. If you throw a total beginner into this, they'll break. Reduce intensity and reduce volume, making sure they're progressing and recovering adequately is your #1 priority.

Thank you all for your responses and input! It is greatly appreciated!

You forgot the aerobic part of the training.

800 is a very difficult event to coach, but I come at it from the distance side more than the speed side but both are important.

I mean you need to have periodization to your training but if we are really just talking the specific phase then I like to put the hardest workout on Monday. So generally I would do this.

Monday 800 workout

Tuesday easy run and strides

Wednesday your speed development workout

Thursday threshold workout. I feel 800 runners respond better to cruise intervals vs tempo runs. 4-6x200 after.

friday easy run and strides

Saturday race

Sunday off

A lot depends on what type of runner you are training. Is this a XC kid that's wanting to PR? Is this a 400 kid moving up? Different runners respond to different stimuli.