Am I a Wuss?

move up to the marathon

Do you double? Is your mileage high?

Have you tried different tactics in the 800? Out fast? Out slow? Seems like you could go out in 60 and close in 55.

Maybe you should just stick with the 200 and 400.

should be faster, I don't think speed is something you're lacking. Most 800 runners would be stoked to have a 49 400m under there belt.

what you need to do is get out there and do some serious miles. do some base work in the off season and work your way up to 70-80miles per week or so over 2-3 months and include some longer tempo sessions (maybe enter some 5 or 10ks) and then return to your speed work.

with your speed, and some solid miles under your belt I dont think you'll have any problems going under 1:50.

I find the same thing true for me for the 5km. I can run well at shorter and longer races but am terrible at the 5km.

Hey man, don't complain. I have never run 200m faster than 28 and never faster than 60 for 400m. I would love to have that speed but just don't have enought fast twitch fibers.

Hmm. . .

By my two formulas for finding 800 times, you should be running the 800 in 1:56.2 or 1:55.7 So you have a little room to improve. But likely, the runners you're running against who have the slow 400 and 1500 prs are just running awful 1500s.

My mileage has always been really low, 20 mpw at the most during the season. In the fall I ran more (35-40 mpw), but it dropped once the season began.

Do you think over the summer I should just be doing aeorbic training, say 60 miles at a comfortable pace?

I am clearly not a 200/400 runner. I am tall and thin and look more like the 10k runners on our team.

with that kind of speed, you should be a sub-1:50 800 runners. Your natural speed is there, but you're likely low on miles. Kick it up to 50-60 and throw in 20 min. tempo once a week.

I was in a similar boat in college.

200m i could hit in 23.1ish in workouts

400m 48.6 <-- best relay split

Usually around 49. mid or high on relay splits (comparative to you)

1500m PR of 4:05

I ended college with a 1:53.8ish 800

split a 1:52.5 on a relay

-have it on vid not a granny split :)

Just work on speed endurance and being used to the pain brought by having the 400m speed prolonged. Try going out in 53-55, I think I went out 52 or so when I split my 1:52, but I had a Columbia kid to chase down :)

1:57 is faster than 4:09 so i don't see why that would matter.

You are slowing down too much the longer the race compared to the time in a shorter race. This means your base is weak. 20 to 35 miles a week is not sufficient to run at your peak ability in the 800 and 1500 unless the mileage is nearly all quality running.

with your speed, assuming you have good genetics to process oxygen (I dont seem to), you should be running the 800 closer to 1:52 and the 1500 closer to 3:55. But, this will only happen if you have a strong base. The wuss factor is determined only by your will to train to your potential. without sufficient training, I'd say your doing pretty damned good.

I think you actually are very good at the 800, especially for someone whose training is probably geared toward sprints. With more focused training and a big stage like a district/regional/state meet etc. you could probably run much faster. The 800 makes everyone feel like a sissy. If you are in horrible pain and want to just stop and cry like a baby for most of the race, that's pretty normal... especially at first.