Critique My 800M Training Plan

That’s an excellent training program for 800m (and above).

I would suggest more races, over a longer period of time.

I agree

I would consider doing a 2k or 1k TT before thanksgiving break and before you return to school for the spring semester otherwise you’re just going through the motions

I like spacing all out efforts apart by at least a week

There’s no good plan independent of the specific context of the individual using it.

What are times across 400m, 800m, 1500m+? What type of training have you done previously? Do you have a good sense of what type of 800m runner you are? How long have you been seriously training?

Thanks for the feedback. I hope to do more races but it's hard to plan from this far out lol.

Just added a 1600m time trial over break. I appreciate the suggestions!

My prs are 400: 56.8, 800: 2:05, 1600: 4:43, 5k xc: 18:26. Take my 400 pr with a grain of salt because I ran a pretty conservative effort for my only 4x4 of the year. I could probably have split 55 high (still not great lol).

Your base is when you should be running the most mileage. It's not that important to do speed work during your base, but I think that occasionally doing a more structured and longer hill workout would be better than doing what are essentially strides outs.

Lots of people hate lifting on your workout days, but I personally have always lifted after workouts.

I think that it makes more sense to run your strides on the days you're running less mileage.

I don't know your experience and mileage levels, but you don't need down weeks if you're not doing workouts and running 30-40 miles a week (unless you're fatigued).

You should just do 4x30 flys, (if you're doing them correct you need to take A LOT of rest time). If you can I'd suggest doing them with sprinters because they actually know what they're doing.

Just critiquing your general mileage plan, I would say you need to run more overall or run less when you do more intense stuff. Your "threshold" area seems like nonsense. 800 runners should be doing actually speedwork during this period, not 'threshold" work.

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If you aren't sure what to do for workouts in Jan-March, look and see what Symmonds does.

8x1000 is ridiculous, this looks like the training log of a miler that can't run over 35 miles without getting injured.

A 2 week taper after 40 weeks would be to short for me, but I get lazy towards the end of the season.

You should be lifting and doing plyos (start them later) for the entire season, it doesn't seem like you have any intense workouts in your plan at all.

You're pretty far off the mark when it comes to an 800m training plan. You should start by looking up 800m training plan. Their are plenty of people who have posted their own plans on this website.

Ok, but what’s your training history and what are your goals? are you wanting to walk on to a team? Set PRs for personal satisfaction? Win a bet with a friend? this stuff is important to consider.

My initial take on your base phase is that you need some more aerobic challenges. Looks like easy runs and strides. If that’s your route, you need a lot more mileage, unless your all time max is only like 20mpw. So at first glance, I’d say either up the volume or throw in some sort of tempo effort or progression runs.

Would you suggest doing workouts over the winter like:

6-8x100m @95% with 5 minute recovery.

6x300m @800m pace with full recovery.

6x800m @3k-5k pace.

I'm doing it mostly for personal satisfaction, although walking on to the track team is a possibility. I have been running for the last 4 years. 2.5 of those years I've been injured. The highest milage I've run with some consistency is 35 mpw. because of this I'm trying to opt for a lower milage approach and maybe do some cross training. most of all I just want to be extremely consistent because that's my main limitation.

Not during base period. Those type of workouts are best suited 2-3 weeks out from your goal race when trying to peak.

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Looks great overall but for an 800 speed dev is essential. On one of your easy days add short steep hill sprints of 6-10 seconds with full 3 minute recovery. Start with 3-4 and add one a week until you get up to 8.

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So if I understand correctly, I should make the following changes:

1. add flying 30s to all weeks of the base phase

2. add more tempo work during the base phase

3. decrease the volume of intervals but increase the intensity.

4. increase mileage if possible

How many weeks before competition should I start running vo2 max type intervals?

I actually prefer short hill sprints but flying 30’s can be mixed in too. Only do 1 day if this and make sure you are taking at least 3 minutes of recovery

During base I would focus on doing 2 tempo/threshold workouts at week, with the option of adding in a Saturday hill workout consisting of 6-12x200 meter at stride effort.

I would not increase the intensity until racing begins. Anywhere between 2-3 week a V02 type workout can be introduced. Once racing starts. Replace a thresh day with V02 intervals. 2-3 weeks before your peak race, focus on short intervals with full recovery. Think 6x300 with 5 minutes rest. So a sample non racing week could look like this

M-easy plus short hill sprints

T-threshold reps or tempo run

W-easy plus optimal strides

T- same as Tuesday

F-Easy plus optinal strides

Sat- if feeling good, 10x200 hill reps with jog down recovery. If feeling bad, rest or cross train

Sun-Long run-for an 800 focus no need to go over 75 kins

Racing Week

M-easy plus speed dev

T-VO2 intervals

W-easy

Thursday (if meet on Sat) shorter threshold reps

thursday-if meet on Friday then easy

Sat-raxe

sun-long run.

let me know if you have other questions or if I missed something!

transfer to a varsity program that will take you. it is an utter contradiction to ask for plans and contemplate spending this much focus and time and energy expenditure, and then be not on a varsity team and get all the experiences and benefits associated.

people on here dork out about plans. fine. but part of what helps you improve is teammates to push you in practice, and a coach who can motivate, monitor, adjust technique, and pick up on things you miss. if's "great man history" to think you're so good you will do it all yourself.

my general experience people who try what you want to do, are lucky to even near what they did in HS because they are ignoring what it meant to have training partners and a coaching set of eyes.

setting aside if i am going to all this effort i want the varsity situation usually married to that effort. which is not just the ego thing of being on the team, but is free gear and unis, free entry fees, free transport and hotels, getting to see the country, not having to beg into meets as unattached, guaranteed access to the facilities for training, the experiences of doing a full schedule.

I don't think any varsity programs want a 2:05 guy. Also, there are a lot of successful runners who train outside of "varsity teams", so I'm not sure what the purpose of your post is.