Pursuit of 1:50. Update #1

Solid workout assuming you are correct and your rest was actually that short.Looking forward to seeing how you progress through the season, especially as the workouts get tougher and the rests get longer.

Splits Guy wrote:

Workout yesterday: 4x200@28-29, 4x300 (43.2, 43.5, 41.8, 44.2)

We don't really time the rest for early season workouts but it was something like 1:30 between the 200s and 1:15 for the 300s.

Whole workout felt pretty comfortable, third rep was a little too quick but felt very smooth. Last rep didn't feel great but I wasn't straining.

"Easy" day (it's still base so I don't have "recovery" days yet) went well today. 6 miles a little under 7:00, 8x100 averaging around 13.2, then some pretty light lower body lifting.

Decent training weekend.

Ran 3 mile progressive tempo @ 5:30 (5:41, 5:31, 5:18) on Friday. Side note: My warmups are pretty typical 1.5-4 miles (depending on the workout and time of year) followed by dynamics and maybe some strides. Cooldowns are .5-3 miles followed by some stretching.

Today was 6 miles on some hiking trails, they were hard, averaged 8:30 pace lol

Tomorrow will be going 10-12 to round out the week (45-47), probably gonna take it easier than usual and get ready for a good workout Tuesday. Last Sunday I went 11@6:23, aerobically I am very close to the most fit I have ever been.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Solid tempo. Do you plan on staying around 45 for mileage? And when is your next race?

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Solid tempo. Do you plan on staying around 45 for mileage? And when is your next race?

Yes, in between 40 and 50 for mileage. My next race is Saturday, I'll be running the 800 and shooting for around 1:55-1:56

Once a faster runner wrote:

You ask about training for 800 metres. Physiologists David Martin, PhD and Owen Anderson, PhD. have independently come to the conclusion that the 400 metres is the greatest predictor of 800 metres success. [Olympic events. Obviously, in theory the 600 metres may have greater success of prediction. As we know, the 600 metres is not raced by everyone, so there is not enough data on 600 metres.] Running more than 30 miles a week of pure road mileage will not aid your 400 metres PB. You have a coach. It's not about just adding 400/800 training to your regime. Sit down with your coach. You most likely can help your team and help yourself the most by being a 400/800 specialist. Go back and race the 1500 metres/one mile your junior year in college.

Disagree here, I think (at world class level) there is quite a mix.

400/800 types:

Rudisha

Bossa

Kipketer

Kipkoech

Rotich

Brazier

McBride

Ksczot

800/1500 types:

Makhloufi

Kitlit

Murphy

Souleiman

Lewandowski

Dahmani

Although most of these athletes are neither 400 or 1500 specialists but true 800m specialists. Who exactly have Martin or Anderson coached, anyways?

Didn't have a great race this past Saturday. It got tactical and I didn't react well. Ran some strides afterwards and got over it. My workout this week was a duel meet with another local highschool. It was about 55 degrees and pretty windy on the backstretch but it went pretty well overall. Coach wanted 2:10 in the 4x800 (we were gonna win no matter what) so I hit 2:10. Then I ran a solo 51.7 in the 400 and another solo 52.3 in the 4x400. I know those 400s don't sound fast but the weather wasn't too great and I usually hack off about 2 seconds by May. And for those thinking I can here because I don't trust my coach, that's not what it is at all. I just want to hear some tips about 800m training, specifically about lifting and maybe some speed development stuff. My coach was a marathoner so lifting and speed aren't his strongest suits. Usually I have a huge engine for the 800 that my legs can't keep up with and I'm trying to change that.

Not bad 400s.

So did you run the open 800 as well as the 4x800 and two 400s all in one meet? If so, that's a fairly solid training day on its own, you're probably fairly tired from that, will need a recovery day or two.

If you can run 1:29 for 600m in the middle of a workout I'm a bit surprised that you can't run faster than 1:59 in a race. I would suggest that the potential is there for much faster times!

One question; how long is your season? Or more accurately, when does the season end, how long do you have to achieve your goal? At some point prior to the peak racing period you are going to have to put in the hard anaerobic, race pace sessions.

No I didn't run the open 800. Just the 4x800, 400 and 4x400. Yeah I will be taking it relatively easy the rest of the week, racing Saturday.

You're definitely right about my 800m potential. That 1:59 was solo and very controlled. We didn't want to take it out hard, we just wanted to try to run even splits and drop a decent time. My season ends in late May. We will be putting in some serious work inbetween now and then but I also have a pretty hefty racing schedule. Usually twice a week.

Your training is looking good. Your race times have been kind of on the slow side so far - are you one of those headcases who leaves it all in workouts? Hopefully not. Maybe you just haven't gotten in a quality race yet. And it is early, and it's been cold recently (at least where I am in the Northeast - not sure where you are).

I'm most encouraged by the tempo runs and that 12 miler averaging 6:28 pace. That's good stuff. Anyone can blast 200's, 300's, and 400's. Don't get me wrong, those are important, but they don't tell me anything. A 1:56 guy and a 1:53 guy could do those track workouts together.

But I'm liking your longer workouts. Combine that with sub-51 400 in 4-6 weeks once the weather warms up and you get sharper from racing, and I think 1:52 and 4:15 are definitely in reach. Keep it up!

Hey man thanks for the encouragement! As for my racing, I'm not always the best at pushing the pace without competition. If I really want a time or I'm anchoring a relay I can push it but if I'm in a race where no one is going to challenge me and I know I don't have to go all in to win I usually don't. One time I ran a solo 4:22 1600 on a 4x1600 relay when we wanted to break the school record and I've run a handful of 1:55-1:56 anchors in the 4x800 where I didn't have anyone in my sight until 100 to go. But yeah I'm really looking forward to getting in some competitive races and getting my times down!

Where is your speed development day?

Treasure in Clay wrote:

Where is your speed development day?

During the winter I ran hill sprints followed by plyos weekly, coupled with several days of lifting and plyos. Occasionally I did all out sprints of 60-70 meters on the track with long rest. My coaches have never emphasized speed development in the sense of improving my all-out sprinting ability. I'm going to be completely honest, I have definitely never lifted enough or done enough all out sprinting to improve my basic speed. Until this year I either worked aerobically or anaerobically. I have been running 50.xx since I was a freshman and it is quite frustrating as now it feels like I may have killed my chances of ever improving my basic speed all that much. I am very undertrained when it comes to lifting/plyos/speed development so maybe with proper training I could get faster. I lift and do drills with our sprint coach on occasion but not with any consistency. So right now my "speed development" work is very primitive. Fast strides at least 2 times a week and some general lifting and plyos.

Any chance you can race some 400s?

I don't think you killed your chances of improving your speed, you aren't very old yet. But you aren't going to improve your speed just by lifting and plyos. You need the one day a week (or maybe just one day every other week) of doing those 60-70 meter top end speed workouts with long rest. If you are afraid of not having enough mileage, do an easy medium length run in the morning and the speed at night (and then a proper cool down). Don't do the speed workout before the medium-length easy run.

I ran the 400 and 4x400 the other day at our windy duel meet: 51.7, 52.3 both solo

Btw, it is "dual" meet. It isn't a duel, it is a meet consisting of two teams. If there were three teams, it would be a trimeet.

grammar not sea wrote:

Btw, it is "dual" meet. It isn't a duel, it is a meet consisting of two teams. If there were three teams, it would be a trimeet.

Haha my bad, I must've been typing too fast. I promise I'm not THAT stupid.