Good Article on Why the 800 Meter Hurts Like Hell

Except I disagree with this:

Even a moderate effort over the first lap (400 meters) will cause enough fatigue to ensure a slower second lap. Slowing down happens to current world record holder David Rudisha as surely as it does to the junior varsity athletes, but Rudisha knows it's coming.

Guess he's never heard of negative splitting..

I found it only hurt in the 150m. Cross country hurt much more.

markschultz25 wrote:

If you do a proper 800, it will hurt.

http://deadspin.com/an-exercise-physiologist-explains-why-800-meters-hurts-1694552448

Yes in deed.

I found it best to come to terms with the hurt.

If you run the 800 with enough PURE HATE, the pain is easily controlled in the moment. If you lack even an ounce of PURE HATE the pain will overcome you.

klubkip1 wrote:

I found it only hurt in the 150m. Cross country hurt much more.

Same, and in my 3 best 800m races ever I didn't hurt pretty much at all. The 1500 and up was always a nightmare compared to 800. But also the 800 was a tough one when was out of (aerobic) shape.

markschultz25 wrote:

Except I disagree with this:

Even a moderate effort over the first lap (400 meters) will cause enough fatigue to ensure a slower second lap. Slowing down happens to current world record holder David Rudisha as surely as it does to the junior varsity athletes, but Rudisha knows it's coming.

Guess he's never heard of negative splitting..

Wow, you're dumb. Negative splits are never ideal for the 800.

You'd think the 800 would be easy for this writer, considering how long-winded she is.

markschultz25 wrote:

Except I disagree with this:

Even a moderate effort over the first lap (400 meters) will cause enough fatigue to ensure a slower second lap. Slowing down happens to current world record holder David Rudisha as surely as it does to the junior varsity athletes, but Rudisha knows it's coming.

Guess he's never heard of negative splitting..

Maybe you should read the article. He talks about negative splitting at length and how negative splitting is optimum for every event beyond the 800. He links to this graph of world record splits:

Maybe the OP read the article, and maybe he didn't. It doesn't matter. Either way, with or without the article, he contradicted himself completely.

First he said, "If you run a proper 800 it will hurt."

Then he said, "Guess he's never heard of negative splitting."

Hello? Anyone home?

If you run a proper 800, you're not negative splitting.

If you're negative splitting, you're not running a proper 800.

Pretty simple.

why do 800m runners post regularly threads about the pain of just this distance, as if there is nothing comparable?

of course it hurts, but after a few minutes it goes again. every properly trained runner knows it.

imagine a championship race, marathon, humid heat, lots of short bursts to break the field and with a brutal long all out finish to get the crown. that hurts.

or the 5000m race in zurich last week in 13:06 with a last lap of sub 53. oh man, that hurts like hell.

Been thar wrote:

markschultz25 wrote:

Except I disagree with this:

Guess he's never heard of negative splitting..

Wow, you're dumb. Negative splits are never ideal for the 800.

Negative Splits are ideal for an 800m time trial (due to physiology), but not an 800m race (due to tactics/logistics of passing a huge mass of people in a single lap). We have been over this.

thejeff wrote:

Been thar wrote:

Wow, you're dumb. Negative splits are never ideal for the 800.

Negative Splits are ideal for an 800m time trial (due to physiology), but not an 800m race (due to tactics/logistics of passing a huge mass of people in a single lap). We have been over this.

FWIW, Caster Semenya negative splits her 800s, which is THE ONLY reason she is such a dominant female competitor.

thejeff wrote:

Negative Splits are ideal for an 800m time trial (due to physiology), but not an 800m race (due to tactics/logistics of passing a huge mass of people in a single lap). We have been over this.

Really, why is just about every sub 1:43 in history a positive split?

markschultz25 wrote:

Except I disagree with this:

Even a moderate effort over the first lap (400 meters) will cause enough fatigue to ensure a slower second lap. Slowing down happens to current world record holder David Rudisha as surely as it does to the junior varsity athletes, but Rudisha knows it's coming.

Guess he's never heard of negative splitting..

There's probably a little subjectivity in the term 'moderate effort' here...perhaps from the author's standpoint, in the context of an 800m race, a 'moderate effort' in the first lap still constitutes a relatively fast split.

Doesn't add up wrote:

thejeff wrote:

Negative Splits are ideal for an 800m time trial (due to physiology), but not an 800m race (due to tactics/logistics of passing a huge mass of people in a single lap). We have been over this.

Really, why is just about every sub 1:43 in history a positive split?

Simple: because of the very real fear of getting boxed in. Physiologically, runners are better off positive splitting. If there were a way to do that without having to run the second lap in lanes 3&4, elites would try much harder to do it.

Related: this is why the 800 is so exciting; it is the only race in which people will still go out too fast.

If you want to know what it feels like after a fast 800, "Light yourself on fire and then roll in broken glass to put out the fire!" -Isaiah Harris, (800U).

New flash: all endurance events hurt when done properly. This the root word "endure."

VERB

1with object Suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently.

The lads' muscles were firing at great intensity right from the get-go, using up oxygen like there was no tomorrow, or no second lap. Aerobic respiration was doing the trick for about 300 meters but greedy muscles demanded more energy than the available oxygen could process, so they turned to anaerobic respiration to burn fuel

She's wrong about this, though it's true that ph changes more as the race goes on. Actually, the anaerobic contribution is greatest in the first lap.

If you could develop a theoretical drug that automatically kept the pH levels in your tissue from building up above some low level of tolerance, should you be able to hold an infinite sprint until glycogen stores are completely depleted?

That article was an eye-opener for me. Didn't realize that the fatigue was a result of water and calcium leaving your cells to balance the acidity level in the surrounding areas. So the only thing we need is something that will trick the body into thinking there is no acidity present.