Breaking an 800m plateau..

That's a lot of miles for HS soph 800.

Scaling back and getting some pop in your legs could get a drop in your 800.

What is your event?

800 runners rarely run the 2 mile and certainly not every week.

You are all over the place.

I focus on the 800, the 3200 is just tempo training for me. I haven't tried to race it hard. I stopped running hills about a month ago to give my achilles a break, and I'm starting to think that's why I haven't been improving. My legs feel fine racing and recover normally even though my mileage is high. I just don't have the power i did to hold a strong pace in the 800.

45 mpw? high mileage? out in them jungles there are 10 kips for every one of you that don't bat an eye at 80 mpw and they can torch you in anything from the 400-marathon

Yeah they also live off of one bread crust a week and a teaspoon of water so it just shows how much better they are at life in general

300m repeats is usually best to sharpen for 800m (5 or 6 X). Start a little slower and run each one faster, going hard on the last one.

But I assume you have a coach, so do the workouts you are given or work with him on an individual plan.

Sounds like you are flat or tired.

How is your sleep?

Do you eat regularly or does your diet change much?

Training can be tapered at this point of the season as well.

don't worry about the times, just work on developing race strategies and keep training. times will come. I don't even remember what my high school sophomore times were, but they weren't sub 2. finished HS with 1:55. 45 mpw is not too much for a high school sophomore. save 50+ for next fall though

toro wrote:

300m repeats is usually best to sharpen for 800m (5 or 6 X). Start a little slower and run each one faster, going hard on the last one.

But I assume you have a coach, so do the workouts you are given or work with him on an individual plan.

Sounds like you are flat or tired.

How is your sleep?

Do you eat regularly or does your diet change much?

Training can be tapered at this point of the season as well.

Haha, our coach here has us never go over 3 miles a day, and we have practice 3-4 times a week at most. I need to start doing more 300's though, that's what I had planned for today. I'm doing my own workouts, his are stupid and pointless for someone in my shape. It feels like a crossfit outing when i do his workouts.

-My sleep is well, probably should get a little more though but homework takes up a lot of time.

-My diet stays pretty much the same, even distribution of carbs and protein in my meals.

-And yeah I'm going to start tapering soon, but I'm also doing AAU track so I'll be over with track at the end of july, not may. So I can't taper too much.

boboboblawawawlobobob wrote:

don't worry about the times, just work on developing race strategies and keep training. times will come. I don't even remember what my high school sophomore times were, but they weren't sub 2. finished HS with 1:55. 45 mpw is not too much for a high school sophomore. save 50+ for next fall though

Oh yeah, I have big goals for XC. I want to be sub 16 and not worn out by the beginning of the season. With AAU track going into July, though, I won't have much time. I plan on starting XC work at the beginning or middle July. Ive already split the summer into 2 4-week training periods, then the regular season into 3 4-week training periods, and i plan on dividing down to 2 and 1 week training periods as we get closer to states.

OK , if you are racing in July that does change things.

When do you want to peak, for HS season or AAU?

With race experience and tapering, your 800 time may just drop from that.

I was a quarter miler in HS and didn't run track until 11th grade, so you have a jump on me there.

I didn't count miles but my longest run was 30 minutes. Never did a tempo run.

I ran the 800 twice my senior year - 2:09 and 2:02, winning both dual meet races.

It was just speed based.

In college I was at about 45 mpw senior year hitting 1:49.

So that's why I say your mileage for HS soph 800 runner seems high.

But not for a distance runner,

If your focus is 800m and you are 15/16 I'd say work on getting that 400 speed from here to the summer and still race the 800 off of that. Stop tripling in races. Maybe do an 800/200 double.

Do some distance and hills in the fall to prep for next year.

That's why I joined the AAU team that I did, there's only one other distance kid there, the rest are sprinters. And a lot of 400 runners. I've known for a while i needed to get my 400 time down, my p.r is 56 something on an indoor track. Never ran it on an outdoor track for time though. And yeah..tripling..i hate it. But I'm the fastest middle distance/distance runner on the team so im kind of getting run into the ground as it is.

You'll be fine.

You have decent basic speed and a desire to run.

Almost anything you do will work for improvement to an extent.

Then you will figure how to tweek things as you go.

A good coach and consistant approach would help.

Listen to your body and adapt.

But but...we don't have a coach on the high school team, that's the thing (he exists but not to make us better, he basically does nothing other than record splits at meets). But the desire to run allows me to push myself on my own which is a good thing.

toro wrote:

You'll be fine.

You have decent basic speed and a desire to run.

Almost anything you do will work for improvement to an extent.

Then you will figure how to tweek things as you go.

A good coach and consistant approach would help.

Listen to your body and adapt.