5x300 at 800 pace...how much rest?

2 mins or 300 meter jog.

the recovery isn't as important as the speed of the run in sprint intervals.

30 or 40 seconds

Sprint Interval Runner wrote:

2 mins or 300 meter jog.

the recovery isn't as important as the speed of the run in sprint intervals.

I would agree with the 300 meter jog, If you want to maintain quality(pace) I would add to the recover as you progress through the work out. Don't be scared to move down to shorter distances, you might find a better quality work out at 100 - 200m distances with shorter recovery.

2(15 x 100m) with 15-20 sec recovery

2(8 x 200m) with 30-40 sec revcovery

These are two example that will allow you to do more volume at a consistent race pace. This trains a different energy system but if you are looking for a true sprint work out these are more realistic.

Stick to the question. This is a very good session. The best answer is to take the rest necessary to hit the times,i.e 1:52 pace =42, so can you run 5x300@42 with 60 sec rest? If not, take 75-90. You can always run the last one faster if you're handling it well, but my experience is that this is a very solid wo and takes all you got.

I take 3-4 minutes. You may be more talented though. Also, people tend to underestimate 800/miler workouts. Just because it's "only" 300m doesn't mean it is easy.

You're doing almost twice the race distance worth of race pace at intervals that are over a 1/3 of the race distance. As a workout it should be full recovery. You can do it with less recovery, but it would be too much of a race effort.

We normally run 5x300 with 4min rec, but it's always a lot quicker than race pace (36/37 when in 1:47 shape), we'd also do 6x300 with 3min rec in 39sec.

So to answer your question, I think 5x300m with 2min rec should get you at race pace.

I think you are better off doing 4x400m with 3min rec at race pace instead (similar volume, but a lot harder).

I liked the way Peter Coe structured things; first you get the speed right and then you work on reducing the recovery while holding the pace. So you might start with 5x300 with 4min rec and then reduce to 2min as the season progresses.