Looks like i’ve been summoned haha.
I think you could benefit from a more speed based training block.
I think as distance runners, especially one as competitive as you OP, we adopt this mentality that a workout needs to kick your butt a bit for it to be a good workout. The problem is that if you think speed is your limiting factor, which it might be seeing that you are putting in the work that you are and not running sub 1:50 and sub 3:50, you need to be doing workouts where you are running fast for relatively short amounts of time, 50-150m and occasionally up to 200-250m with lots of rest in between.
A huge game changer for me was having a dedicated speed development day, and also taking more rest on the days I was doing fast 200s and 300s. The 800m is a sprint, especially when you are getting in the kind of territory where you are going to be opening races in around 53 seconds. That’s 2-3 seconds off of your open 400m ability and that’s going to kick your butt even if you are running 80 miles a week and can run 60 second quarters for days. Proper endurance training for the 800m is to help you utilize and maintain your speed, and it doesn’t build it. Sprinting for 1-2 minutes requires different fitness than running hard for 4-15 minutes.
If you are running at a strong 200/400m college, you should see if your coach is willing to let you train with those guys once per week on a day where they are working speed development or speed endurance rather than the technical stuff.
If not, here are a few workouts that should be in your program once per week:
-6x150m, full rest, running start
-6-8x50m flys, full rest
-8-10x 10-15 second moderate to steep hill sprints off of full rest
- 2-3 sets of 200m, 30 seconds rest, 200m with full rest between sets
- 300m time trial, 4x150m afterwards
Some of these workouts may feel unproductive to you, I promise they help a lot though. If you feel unfulfilled, double with a distance run or take a long cooldown afterwards. You want to be running these on fresh legs though, a hard 150m rep in spikes on fresh legs is a different stimulus than a 150m rep in trainers after an 8-10 mile run or a tempo workout.
Everything else looks really solid though. When I walked onto my team, I was taking the Nick Symmonds approach and running 60-70 miles per week which kept me at about 52 and 1:54-1:55 400/800m ability. When I cut down to 40-45 miles per week with faster workouts that’s what got me down to 48 relay 49 open and 1:49 ability.
The TLDR key takeaways here are that aerobic strength is important, but fresh legs for quality anaerobic/pure speed workouts are more important in the 800m, and that you should value quality reps over low recovery time. You don’t need to spend 30-60 minutes gasping for air every workout when your race is less than 2 minutes long. Of course these workouts are needed but not every single time.