Best six sessions to sharpen up for a 1500

I can't think of 6, but some good sessions that would probably work well are:

4x400 at race pace with around 4 minutes rest.

2x800 at race pace with around 8 minutes rest.

An 800 or 1200m race/time trial

A 3 mile tempo plus one 400 all out afterwards

MagicMiler wrote:

4x400 at race pace with around 4 minutes rest.

Does this mean 100% effort "race pace?" Or are you suggesting the OP run the mile race distance at mile race pace with 4 freakin' minutes of recovery between each quarter?! He should be able to run 10-15x400 at mile race pace with 90 seconds rest. I understand this is the end of his season, but your workout seems so pointless it's laughable.

Here are a couple I use with good results;

1200 plus 300 at race pace; 7-10 min rest, 400-600-400 at race pace;

2k at 3kpace; 5 min rest, 5x400@ race pace.

I like doing fast 200s with lots of rest. For example 2x(4x200 w/ 4min rest) w/ 8+ min rest.

Start at 90% of max sprint effort and finish at 100%. Then in the race kick the f*ck out of your competition.

auburned wrote:

MagicMiler wrote:

4x400 at race pace with around 4 minutes rest.

Does this mean 100% effort "race pace?" Or are you suggesting the OP run the mile race distance at mile race pace with 4 freakin' minutes of recovery between each quarter?! He should be able to run 10-15x400 at mile race pace with 90 seconds rest. I understand this is the end of his season, but your workout seems so pointless it's laughable.

Yah i would prefer to do 4x400 w/1-2min rest at a fastest possible average pace for that workout as opposed to at 1500/mile race pace. Unless of coutse this is your very last workout just a few days out from the race and you want to focus more on maintainance and tuneup as opposed to trying to make substantial fitness gains.

4 x 400 all-out with 5min was a classic 800-pace session back when I was young. Obviously you can run it far faster than you can run a 1500.

I was thinking at least two sessions should be 800-pace or lactate-tolerance sessions, so that 1500 pace feels easier in comparison. Everything I did so far has been at slower than target race pace. So the couple of times I did try a 1500, I thought "hey, what's all this strange lactate stuff?" and kind of panicked and backed off.

Acceleration workout

This workout needs cones to mark off every 10 meters, best to start at the first relay exchange zone on the backstretch

You start off the first 100m interval at mile pace, and end the last 200 all out.

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

190

200

Each one should get progressively faster, can be done with more complicated math, but it works on feel well.

The rest is a very slow jog back to the starting line

6x400

cool kid wrote:

Acceleration workout

...

Hmm, nice thought. I read about that in Peter Coe's book but have never tried it.

How would this be better than just doing, say, 10x150 getting faster?

I'm told a staple at Oregon is 8x300 at mile pace, not sure of the rest but I believe it's pretty short. This is usually done 3-4 days before a race as the last session to sharpen.

We had some pretty fast mid-d guys where I went to undergrad (two sub 4 guys, some high 1:40 to low 1:50 800 guys, a fast DMR) and I know a session they did a lot of during track was 4k tempo, 4x400 at mile pace, 4x200 all out, with 5:00 between the three blocks and 200 walk between the reps.

There's a video floating around out there somewhere of Willis and Leer doing something similar to the above but with more volume.

Old Miler wrote:

cool kid wrote:

Acceleration workout

...

Hmm, nice thought. I read about that in Peter Coe's book but have never tried it.

How would this be better than just doing, say, 10x150 getting faster?

I couldn't tell you, but after trying it out with my athletes they've really gotten faster, especially in races from 600-mile.

Here's one to do 3 days out. Adjust times accordingly:

I ran a 4:11 1500 after doing this (which was a big PR and several seconds faster than I expected..)

500: 90

400 jog

400: 70

300 jog

300: 50

200 jog

200: 30

100 jog

100: all out, but I timed myself in 14-ish

I coached my son before states last spring and after doing this workout adjusted accordingly, he PRd at 3200 by 25 seconds (there were some other factors, but I believe this is kind of a magic sharpening workout.

Do you have a time goal?

These are separate sessions

16 fast 200 with full rest.

12x300 accelerating each 100 segment with the last 100 all out. Full rest.

8x600 accelerating each 200 segment with last 200 all out. Full rest.

3x600-400-200

600 @ mile pace

400 faster than mile pace

200 all out

100 meter jog between each element with full rest between each set.

1 set 1200x800x400x200 with 100 meter rest between each element.

1200 5k pace

800 mile pace

400 fast you determine the split time.

200 all out

This is a barn burner set. 200 will burn.

Good Luck

My favourite race prep w/o is:

4 x 400m with 30 sec rest in between at race pace.

So for example if you are peaking for a 3:45 pace then run 60 sec quarters with the short rest of 30 sec in between each.

Good Luck

These sessions always worked well for me during the racing season.

1) 5*400m flat out with four minutes recovery.

2) 6 or 8*300m with three minutes recovery. Flat out.

3) This is a painful one, but good if you're in shape and need to sharpen. Split 800s (600m flat out, 20seconds recovery then flat out 200m). Twenty minute rest then repeat.

If you're able to, finish each work out with 150m strides starting quick then moving through the gears.

5 x 500m. You get 3 mins to do 1 rep and your recovery. So if you can run 80 secs for each rep you get 100 secs recovery. That'll be 4 min 1500 pace. If you do each rep in 75 secs you will get 105 secs recovery. That'll be 3.45 pace.

6 sets of russians: 200m sprint hard, 100m jog, 300m fast but not too hard like a stride focus on hip extension, 100m jog, 100m all out, 90 seconds rest

4x400m at 4 seconds slower per 400m than mile race pace. I.E. If you run a 4:20, each 400 split is 65, so run these at 69. 60-90 seconds recovery joh between

8-10x 400m at 10-20 seconds faster per mile than 5K race pace. 400m jog recovery

1600m tempo pace, 400m jog recovery, 1200m tempo pace, 400m jog recovery, 800m first half 4 seconds slower than 1500 race pace second half at race pace, 200-300m jog recovery, 400m at race pace, 200m jog recovery, 200m all out

auburned wrote:

MagicMiler wrote:

4x400 at race pace with around 4 minutes rest.

Does this mean 100% effort "race pace?" Or are you suggesting the OP run the mile race distance at mile race pace with 4 freakin' minutes of recovery between each quarter?! He should be able to run 10-15x400 at mile race pace with 90 seconds rest. I understand this is the end of his season, but your workout seems so pointless it's laughable.

Yeah he's right. This is more an 800m workout I know because I used to do it. A good miler session would be 3x3x400. 60 seconds between each and 2:30 between sets. This workout u end up going slightly faster than mile pace towards the end so that helps sharpen U up a bit more

Ok, Joe Vigil I see you fam. Except this is a comp phase workout not a peak workout so do it now or never.