Can I drop 10 seconds off my 800 in 3 weeks?

(2 or 3)x3x300 in 48 seconds with 100 jog is a good way of training to not slow down or the split 800 either would be great workouts to do in practice.

But both are too much of the same things he will be doing in practice and at meets.

fisky wrote:

I suggest this workout twice. Once this week and once 7-8 days before your race.

Warm up as if you were going to race. Then...

2x200m at 33-35 seconds with about 2 minutes recovery.

7-8 minutes walking (If you don't feel rested, take a couple more minutes.)

500m at goal 800m pace (2:10, so you'd hit 400m in 1:05)

60 seconds standing recovery

300m all out faster than 800m pace (this will be hard to do... make that very hard)

Do NOT go out faster than 33 in the 2x200m. It's not the workout. It's part of the preparation for the real workout.

I like that.

This sounds pretty tough. How much rest between each set? each one in 48 seems like a pretty brisk pace and with only 100m jog too.

btw I was the guy who posted earlier who had very similar times, if you remember, you gave me a reply too

Also, what do you think of this workout? I did it earlier this week. Sometimes I don't why he makes us do these.

4x40 meters (yes, 40) in spikes, all out sprint. 90 second rest in between. 6 minute rest before next.

1x450m, hit 400m 1-2 seconds slower than 400m PR, 5 min rest.

2x200 all out, 3 min rest in between.

^We did this workout on Tuesday, I was in major pain in the 450...

that type of workout is the exact reason your 400 is better than your 800.

Past 400 or 500 meters, running becomes mainly aerobic, so any extra training should focus on that. Yes, 3x300, 100jog is a brutal workout. But if you run 59, the first 48 should be easy, the second one just challenging. The third one is the tough one. If you do the workout right you will want to quit but then remember it's only 300 more meters.

Recovery between sets is as much as needed to hit the target pace, no more, no less. 5 to 20 minutes.

You could do a bunch of 200's, but 300's are more specific because you spend less time accelerating. You don't accelerate with the aerobic system in an 800 unless you negative split.

His coach has the brutal workouts totally covered. He needs to train something else, slower.

You can't change your training to improve that much in three weeks, but you can change your race approach. Some here have had success racing the 800 on pure hate. Get angry, run hard, and qualify. ANGRY!!!!

asdfghjklqwerty wrote:

Also, what do you think of this workout? I did it earlier this week. Sometimes I don't why he makes us do these.

4x40 meters (yes, 40) in spikes, all out sprint. 90 second rest in between. 6 minute rest before next.

1x450m, hit 400m 1-2 seconds slower than 400m PR, 5 min rest.

2x200 all out, 3 min rest in between.

^We did this workout on Tuesday, I was in major pain in the 450...

That sounds like a misguided interpretation of Clyde Hart.

By the way, both of the suggested workouts (Wigins' and fisky's) look very good. Are you lifting at all?

Reading is good wrote:

Try to read. He said that top 3 for each event in his school makes districts. That doesn't necessarily mean a district qualifier. OP probably has top 2 guys under 2:10 and he wants to break 2:10 to be #3. At least that's what I understand from his post

No, that's not what his post says. I maintain that 2:10 should never make districts. That is absurd.

OP, what state are you in?

Really... wrote:

No, that's not what his post says. I maintain that 2:10 should never make districts. That is absurd.

Who gives a fvck? Let the kid chase his standard.

)*&tfcTFC wrote:

His coach has the brutal workouts totally covered. He needs to train something else, slower.

Yes, he shouldn't overtrain (or train the day after a race) but the coach has focused entirely on anaerobic work. Aerobic training is what's missing, and to be race-specific it should be around 2nd lap pace.

If you can run 59, 3x48 is really not all that hard to do, or to recover from.

Do you do any long runs? Long running isn't quite the foundation of 800-meter running, but if it's never been a part of your training program it can help a lot.

My freshman year hs coach never had me run longer than 40 minutes. The first year I started doubling that for my weekly long runs, I PRed in the 8 by nine seconds.

Long runs won't be a factor with just three weeks to go, but they could help you out senior year.

I can't understand why some of you suggests 200s or 300s at 800m speed. He's already doing that in practice. I think )*&tfcTFC is right. His proposed training will develop the aerobic system, the weakness of the OP. However in three weeks time aerobic development will not be huge.

Virginia. No, district qualifier (now called conference qualifier) is 2:05. I can still make districts within my team as I said in my first post if I'm one of the top 3 800 runners and I need to break 2;10 to be top 3.

Also to the other guy, yes I am lifting but I don't have a great routine. I pretty much go and do random stuff, give me some suggestions on what to do? I've been doing triceps/biceps/legs/back but not much weight/a lot of reps.

Coach is doing all anaerobic stuff because he's trying to help the 400m runners as he was a 400 runner in college. Also, he switched me from distance to mid distance because I would do very well in the interval workouts ranging from 400m-800m and any intervals over 1000m I would suck at. I did both cross country and distance on winter track so my coach always assumes that we are 'already in shape' and that we 'don't need endurance.' Though I guess that's not true.

For long term improvement, you need to be lifting and doing some long runs, but neither will help you improve in less than three weeks. Don't do any long runs between now and the race.

Are you lifting now? If not, don't start now. Lifting will hinder your performance over the short term of less than 3 weeks.

If you are lifting, cut it back by 75% or cut it out entirely until after the race. Your legs need to be as fresh as possible to the handle the 500m (60sec stand) 300m workouts.

In the last six days, do nothing hard. The focus should be on getting your legs as fresh as possible before the race. If your coach has you doing very hard workouts, sandbag them. Do NOT leave your race on the workout track. Do some easy workouts, like 10x100m strides followed by 3x200m. The 200's should be done at goal pace... no faster. Take as much rest as you need. Focus on how strong you feel and how you could pick up the pace if you needed to. Burn that into your brain.

In the race, visualize that same feeling with 300m to go. Your brain has these wonderful mechanisms to govern extreme effort. They will start to kick in with all sorts of negative messages. But your brain is wrong. Focus on whatever motivates you for the last 300m. Hate. Form. Breathing. Winning.

If you want to understand why you ran better short intervals than long intervals you will have to tell us more about your fall and winter training.

My guess is that you run all of your interval training as fast as you possibly can and still survive. That method can give you a short term bump in performance but that is not really training.

"Aerobic training is what's missing,"

This is where we agree.

"and to be race-specific it should be around 2nd lap pace."

If he can get his coach to have him do your workout, that would be great!

The problem is I doubt he can and the workouts his coach has him do are close to 2nd lap pace. Maybe not the first "all out" rep but all the partially recovered reps after that are very close.

Once he has done that type of work at practice, having him do more after just isn't going to help, he needs to do something different. 3 weeks isn't very long but 8 x 200s at 42 sec with 30 sec 100m rests has him practice 5:36 pace. He should be able to run 5:36 pace for 5000m but I doubt he can run an 11:12 3200.

The bonus is that