Many people say that a 10x400 with 1' rest is a good indicator of your mile fitness. Is there an 800m workout staple? Would repeat 200's at race pace be it?
Many people say that a 10x400 with 1' rest is a good indicator of your mile fitness. Is there an 800m workout staple? Would repeat 200's at race pace be it?
The best 800m predictor workout for me was 4 x 400m w/ 5 min rests. The pace I could do this workout at was the same pace I was capable of in an 800. Ex: Doing the 400s at a 58 second average indicates 1:56 ability. Only do this workout once, maybe twice per season. Tough workout.
Others can speak to this better than I can, but while I've heard of good 800 predictor workouts, there isn't really one as standard as 400s for the mile. 4x400m with 5 min rest is a good one. 200s are definitely good, but can vary as a prediction tool because they're short and some people can handle those better than others even though their 800m times are similar. If you're looking for something a little different you could try the Kosmin Test. It's been posted about here many times before.
Rookie 800 man wrote:
Many people say that a 10x400 with 1\' rest is a good indicator of your mile fitness. Is there an 800m workout staple? Would repeat 200\'s at race pace be it?
Simple...best predictor of 800m fitness is friggin running a damn 800m race. 10 x 400 w/1\' rest means that you can run 10 x 400m w/1\' rest well...instead run a mile and see where you are at. Same goes with 800m. Race or time trial an 800m run and see where you are at and see what you can work on in training...
Run a single 600m time trial and there's about a 30% chance you can run that split in an 800 race and finish well, simply because you'll have pacers and your hate will be stronger. Multiply that by 1.36. So 90s would be worth a 2:02.4
Or if you don't want to risk blowing up, add 1 second to it and multiply by 1.35 for a slightly faster finish. So for a 90s TT use 91 x 1.35 = 2:02.8
i find that two sets of:( 500, 5 mins rest, 300) with 8-10min shag jog between sets is a very good predictor of race pace when you average out the two sets
Clean? NOPe. wrote:
The best 800m predictor workout for me was 4 x 400m w/ 5 min rests. The pace I could do this workout at was the same pace I was capable of in an 800. Ex: Doing the 400s at a 58 second average indicates 1:56 ability. Only do this workout once, maybe twice per season. Tough workout.
I think that's about right. I would have said 4 x 400 with 3 minutes rest. Very tough workout. Your 800 speed would be 1-2 seconds per lap faster than your average time with 3 mins rest.
I guess that means if you have 5 mins' rest, it's about the same speed as your 800.
Either way, it's a tough workout that will tell you if you're ready to run a good 800.
I've always found that 4x400m with 5min rec ended up being quicker than 800m pace and doing them with 3min worked out to be right at 800m pace (you just have to make sure you run the reps evenly and not like a real 800m where you might go out 2sec quicker in the first lap).
Another good one is 500 (30sec rec) 300m, both with standing starts. The total time normally hits your 800m predicted time and that session is a lot easier than doing a 800m time trial on your own. The reason you use a standing starts, is that a flying start normally drops 0.5-.7 off each of your reps, so you'd end up with a time 1.0-1.4sec quicker. Standing there getting ready to do the last 300m is not fun!
You can also use the Kosmin test 2x1min with 3min recovery, measure total distance covered