Does anyone have any racing strategies? I have a few but it's my first track season.
800m- either pick up the pace every 200. Or I can go out comfortably hard and by the second lap pick it up every 100.
1600- pick up the pace every lap or after the 800m split.
3200- pick up the pace every 800 or really start to move with 800 left
My go to racing strategy for 1600 was to stay as comfortable as possible for 700 meters, make a hard surge on the last 100 meters of lap 2 to setup a strong lap 3, then hang on thru the 7th 200m, and bring whatever was left in the last 200. Wasn't a winning strategy, but made for some satisfactory places and times. The 3rd quarter surge blew up the pack and made people quit that would have had me in a sit and kick.
It usually setup for a slight (1 - 2 sec) positive split. Would have preferred a 1-2 second negative split.
It's easy to get sucked into going too hard in those first two laps. You have to know and be confident of what kind of shape you are in and then have the discipline to not cross the line.
Don't try that 800 strategy. The best 800 performances are nearly always run as a positive split (second lap slower than the first). You won't be able to pick it up every 100 on the last lap unless you ran the first lap very comfortably.
I've seen different formulas out there for the 800, one is the 10% rule:
Take 10% of your fastest 400. If your 400 PR is 60 seconds, add 10% (6 seconds) and you have a 66 second first lap. Then, add 10% of the first lap 6.6 seconds) to get a second lap of 72.6. Add them together and you get 2:18.
Another "rule" is that each lap can be looked at as a percentage of your best 400. I don't remember the percentages completely, but it's something like 92% 1st lap and 89% 2nd lap.
It's not a perfect formula and everyone is different, but the top 800 runners I coached ran times very close to each of these formulas.