I'm an 800/miler with a lean towards the 800. I'll be increasing my mileage this winter to hit 70 mpw from my max of 55 previously. I know this will definitely pay off if done correctly, but I don't want to come into indoor and outdoor track without the speed to hang in the 800. Are there things that can be done to improve speed, stride length and turnover, while pounding out mileage, long runs, and tempos?
Experiences in this would be great.
What were you doing to improve 400 speed when you were doing 55mpw? you could probably just repeat that except for this time adding 5-10 minutes to each run
I've read about all of the following, and tried several:
-Strides
-Steep Hill Sprints (8 x 8-10 seconds)
-Short, 30m-50m sprints
-Strides down a gradual decline (increases stide length)
-Drills (skipping, bounding, uphill bounding, etc.)
-High weight/low rep weights (deadlift, squat) - this is often a first step, which later transitions into the hillwork.
Personally, a key while I was increasing mileage was to keep the speedwork reps very short. This can improve your speed, but limits the anaerobic/lactate production which can interfere with your aerobic development.
Later, you can work on turning that newfound speed into speed endurance.
run 400 and 300 repeats twice a week
I agree with madprops the best way improve max velocity is to do drills on recovery days. These are not workouts. Do them before, after or in the middle of the run. Get creative. I prefer shorter exercises (sprint drills and explosives plyometrics) done all out and very short in duration 3 to 5 seconds max.
Your regular workouts days do not change.
From one of the old oregon threads, twice a week do
2x3x200 cutting down
Someone trying to run 1:52 may go
32, 30, 28
32, 30, 28
believe it or not the 400 requires oxygen to run!!!!
God of Letsrun wrote:
run 400 and 300 repeats twice a week
Wow, that's a huge number of repeats. How long is each one?