Why am I improving in the 1500 but not the 800?

You will improve your 1500 time just by increasing your mileage (which you did).

If you want to improve your 800m, you need to train like a 400m runner. Lots of intervals and speed workouts. High mileage will kill your 800m time.

Is there an example of this type of workout you could give me or a thread I could read?

Is it too late in the season to begin hard anaerobic training and still continue 1500/3000 training?

Check out the 'sub 1.50 800m training' thread. Its amazing. And yes, you can combine 800m training with 1500/3000 training. Have a look at the horwill/coe multi pace system.

'I ran a positive split of 5 seconds in this race, but I kicked hard the last 150 meters. I won my race but didn't feel like I ran as hard as I could'

You could have run faster in a faster paced race

Times don't matter if you win

ukathleticscoach wrote:

'I ran a positive split of 5 seconds in this race, but I kicked hard the last 150 meters. I won my race but didn't feel like I ran as hard as I could'

You could have run faster in a faster paced race

Times don't matter if you win

I agree that a faster paced race would have improved her time but I disagree that times don't matter if you win. Obviously, time matters to this young runner even though she won her race. In many areas, a talented runner can win races but run no where near their potential. To me, running to potential is what's really important.

" I won't post any times here but I am just not talented."

This has nothing to do with PRing after running for 3 years. Further, there are lots of types of talent. One talent is being able to run plain fast for say 100m. Another is to be able to run pretty fast for say the mile with little training. Another talent is durability so that you can run lots of miles. Other talents include trainability so you have lots of room to improve, the ability to get out the door so you actually train, toughness both during races and toughness that helps you fight to figure out what type of training will help you the most.

Describe, "There was very little speedwork."

Did you run winter track races?

How many races have you run so far this spring at distance between 200 and 3200m? Include relay legs of those distances.

My guess is that once you have enough races this spring that your 800 will fall in line with your new 1500 time. The trick with the 800 is to run the first 400 about 2 seconds faster than you hope to average, 5 second positive split is good. If you go out slower than that and it sounds like you did, there is almost nothing you can do to make up the difference especially if your 1500 time is even slightly better than your 800 and/or 400 times. Every so often you should take an 800 out 4 seconds faster than you hope to average just to make sure you are not underestimating yourself.

With your good base, I expect you'll see your 800 times drop as you race more. So race more, fret less.

+1

Your 800 will come down as you race more. Keep training and be patient.