Whenever I am racing the 1600 or 3200 I can keep up with the top group pretty well, but on the last lap the all dust me. I have enough energy left I just feel I dont have the speed to keep up with them. Any suggestions on how to improve this? Thanks.
Work on the first 3 and 7 laps rather than the last lap. In other words, get stronger so the early laps don't take as much energy out of you.
1. It's possible you actually are in worse aerobic shape than they are and they just arrive at the last lap with more in the tank than you have.
2. You might be mentally weak. You need to figure out what motivates you and keep that in your mind. It can be that the other guy is a jerk, that there's a cute girl watching, or anything else. I stopped getting passed by people at the end of races when I started running races with prize money and my girlfriend started coming to races.
3. You might lack the top-end speed you need to accelerate into the finish. You have 2 ways to solve that problem.
A. You make a move earlier. Force people to run fast for the last 600-1000 meters instead of just the last 200-400. The downside is that they might just come along and blow by you.
B. Work on your top end speed. The best way to get started, in my opinion, is to do 6-8 x 200 meters @ 800-1600m race pace. Don't go faster than 800 meter pace. Take full recovery (400 meter jog) between. This isn't a hard workout. You should finish feeling springy and invigorated, not tired. Later, you can work on short sprints faster than 800m pace and possibly some plyometrics to continue building power.
The best advice I can give you is to run your last lap faster.
Good Luck and keep us posted.
Brock35 wrote:
Whenever I am racing the 1600 or 3200 I can keep up with the top group pretty well, but on the last lap the all dust me. I have enough energy left
... But you don't.
Focus on all the laps not the last one.
Do a whole lot of lunges, squats, and calf raises with weights. You have to improve your leg strength to get a faster sprint.
Get stronger so that the first couple of laps feel easier, if you are speed based (your 400 time is faster than your competitors). Up the mileage, tempo runs, long runs, long hard intervals should improve strength
If you are strength based (your legs can't keep up with your lungs, your 400 time is slower than your competitors) then do sprint drills, 30 meter hill sprints, and fast finish long runs (i.e. Do your last 200 of a 10 miler on the track at 800 pace) this will prepare you to harness top end speed and push really hard at the end