Has anyone found a good rule of thumb for using an 800 time to figure out someone's vdot? The times put out tend to be faster than the athlete could produce. I.e. Runner's time - 2:04 should be able to do threshold at I know that VDOT is designed for longer distances but it would be helpful when trying to gauge an 800m runner's threshold pace.
If anyone has a better way than VDOT I'd really like to hear it.
Thanks!
Well Crap I hit submit too early
"I.e. Runner's time - 2:04 should be able to do threshold at 5:18 per mile, but the athlete would struggle to run 5:00"
Use a VDOT for their 5k PR to determine tempo/interval paces. Use mile for R pace and 800 for F pace. That's what I did in high school under a coach that used Daniels anyway.
Thanks for the response. I'm struggling to get what you're saying. Maybe my original post was unclear.
The most recent 5k time any of the kids would have is from xc. But for some kids I have a recent 800m time. I'd like to try and use this to gauge where to place them for an upcoming threshold workout.
The guy said NOT to use 800m times as a predictor for threshold paces, and suggested to instead use 5k times as a more accurate predictor. Use your athletes' 5k times from last XC and take off maybe 10-20 seconds, whatever you feel comfortable with, since they've probably gotten fitter since xc season.
Ahh I see. I guess I was hoping for something a little more concrete. I'm in a tough spot because the xc times are never a true 5k. I guess I could take their 800 time and guess off of that too. But I feel like that'd be the same as taking a xc time from 5 months ago.
In high school I was a 2:04 800 runner just like the kid in question. Based on my 800's VDOT my tempo was something like 5:20 pace, but that was about my 3200 pace in reality.
Using the VDOT on my 5k PR (minus some because it was XC not track) my tempo pace was about 6:15ish. I ran I pace stuff at 3:20-3:30ish per km. R pace would vary based on the context of the workout, but it could vary from 34 to 36 per 200. F pace was anywhere from 30 to 32.
If I used my 800 VDOT paces for F/R/I/T would be something like 31/34/37/40 and on my 5k it would be something like 38/41/44/47. On the synthesized version it becomes 31/35/40/47.
multiply your 800 time (in total seconds0 times 2.2 and that resulting time would be a mile estimate, which can be looked up for a VDOT value