danxorhs wrote:
...
What determines if you are good aerobically then? For the 800 do I even require much aerobic ability? And fast-twitch muscles? I've heard its 50/50.
...
It's not that I am racing, my coach wants me to hit those times/or beat certain people... How do I just slow down and say "i am going to slow down because the people on letsrun told me to"
Yeah, 800 is 50/50 aerobic/anaerobic. You're good at the anaerobic side (see your 400 performance which is a much more anaerobic event) and poor at the aerobic side (compare that to the mostly aerobic 5k). Check out tables like this:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/calculatorwith your 400 or 800 times to see what comparable mile and 5k times are for 'typical' people with balanced aerobic/anaerobic systems. Not that anyone is going to match those perfectly (or should expect to). But you've clearly got room for improvement on the aerobic side.
Over the long term (years) more mileage and more long fast stuff is what you need. But the challenge here is you don't have much time (if you want to be significantly faster in high school) and you don't have control of your training. Some of the stuff your coach is having you do (longer runs, mile intervals) are perfectly reasonable for where you're at. And if the whole team is doing a similar mix of training it's likely reasonable training for the typical runner on the team (in terms of short/long mix). But you're exceptionally weak aerobically so ideally you've have a program with a different balance.
I'd approach the coach asking for *help* with a few points:
1. You've gotten slower over the years.
2. Your longer races seem to be much slower than they should be according to these standard tables (the one above or any of the similar ones you can find by googling).
3. That training books (you should find some and read some like Daniel's running formula) seem to indicate that a runner like you would benefit from more tempo runs and such.
4. What does he think.
Frame it as asking for advice (from an informed point of view) rather than saying you're not going to do what he tells you. If you're lucky he'll adjust your training (or agree that you need more longer work and less focus on hitting 400's fast).
Otherwise you can wait until xc is over squeeze in extra miles and the right training on your own before track season gets heavy. And hope you don't burn yourself out.
Look up threads on Hadd (sorry spelled it wrong last time). And any standard book on training (that isn't focused on jogging a marathon). Coe, Daniels, etc... Or even just Mcmillian's basic article:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/articlePages/article/3