800m Freshman Year Regression

frustrated800m wrote:

Background: I am currently a freshman at a P4 D1 school, I ran 1:49 in highschool last year. My PR this indoor season is 1:52, which just about matches my indoor PR from my senior year of HS, however this college time was ran later and by this time last year I was into the low 1:51s. I am 400/800 type with a 48.3 open and 46.0 split for the 4.

For some reason, I am not seemingly improving this year, and technically I am in a slight regression from where I was at this point last year in HS. My training has changed, but not to a drastic degree like a lot of people deal with. I have gone from about 25-30mph in HS with 2-3 workouts a week to about 15-20 with 3-4 workouts a week, so just less easy running for the most part. I am generally listening to my coach on my paces and not racing my workouts, I am getting 7+ hrs of sleep every night, I am eating right, I am not partying or consuming alcohol, I'm not overly nervous or a timid racer, I tend to just lock up really bad the last 200m, with my last race being close a 33s last 200m. Additionally, I am keeping up and/or beating teammates of mine in workouts without "racing" them and these teammates are performing better than me at meets, but to be fair they are all Jr and sr.

I'm just not sure what is going wrong and I could really use some help/advice. My coaches keep telling me the times will come but they just aren't.

if you have any questions I can answer them below. Thank you!

newaccountsinceyourwebsitesucks wrote:

frustrated800m wrote:

Background: I am currently a freshman at a P4 D1 school, I ran 1:49 in highschool last year. My PR this indoor season is 1:52, which just about matches my indoor PR from my senior year of HS, however this college time was ran later and by this time last year I was into the low 1:51s. I am 400/800 type with a 48.3 open and 46.0 split for the 4.

For some reason, I am not seemingly improving this year, and technically I am in a slight regression from where I was at this point last year in HS. My training has changed, but not to a drastic degree like a lot of people deal with. I have gone from about 25-30mph in HS with 2-3 workouts a week to about 15-20 with 3-4 workouts a week, so just less easy running for the most part. I am generally listening to my coach on my paces and not racing my workouts, I am getting 7+ hrs of sleep every night, I am eating right, I am not partying or consuming alcohol, I'm not overly nervous or a timid racer, I tend to just lock up really bad the last 200m, with my last race being close a 33s last 200m. Additionally, I am keeping up and/or beating teammates of mine in workouts without "racing" them and these teammates are performing better than me at meets, but to be fair they are all Jr and sr.

I'm just not sure what is going wrong and I could really use some help/advice. My coaches keep telling me the times will come but they just aren't.

if you have any questions I can answer them below. Thank you!

As another poster said, patience. Collegiate training might just seem like a progression of what you were doing in HS, but it's a whole different beast, and stuff like competition and getting used to all of that in your first year living by yourself in college is alot.

It typically takes at least a year for most people to get used to a new college-level program they are training under. It's part of the reason why you don't see too many true Freshman doing anything crazy in college.

Trust the process. I think you'll be fine.

frustrated800m wrote:

Former D1 wrote:

Don’t forget that sub 1:44 is considered ridiculously impressive for world class athletes who run 1:42 or faster outdoors. And that’s on the very high tech “cheater” tracks. 200m tracks will slow you down in the 800m no doubt. 1:43-1:44 to 1:41-1:42 is a bigger jump than 1:52 to 1:48 IMO.

Also recognize that your college coach probably does better with periodization and that he’s making sure you’re peaking during outdoors, with both seasons being longer on top of that. From what I’ve seen, lots of coaches grind their freshmen/sophomores through indoors and only really have them taper for outdoors. You’re probably still on track to PR this year.

My coach is very heavy on periodization, but even he states that I should be running faster than I am right now and my workouts dictate that, I can give some examples if needed.

I've had a short indoor season, in early January I got Covid and then pulled my hamstring right after which left me out for a total of 2 weeks, so I've only run 3 races at this point, so I am not overran luckily.

I'm aware it's unhealthy, but I can't help myself from seeing my freshman peers who were of similar times to me in HS running faster and more consistent than me.Comparison is the thief of joy but as you all know it's quite hard not to.