is a 2:10 800m fast for someone who never did track and has trained on his own for several years?

1. It is a decent time, but it mainly depends on what you were doing during those two years of training

2.You should be able to run close to a 1:34-1:36 for a 600 at almost all out effort to be able to run around a 2:10

3.It seems like you need more speed endurance, I would recommend doing 400's on the track something like, 4x400 a 800 goal pace with 3-4 minutes of recovery, 6x200 at a second per 200 faster than 800 pace with probably 30 seconds to 45 seconds of rest. Just a lot of max speed stuff and painful intervals should get you there.

Goodluck

Yes, 2:10 is quite fast for a self coached person but that depends who you are comparing yourself to, if you are comparing yourself to people on the street then it’s elite, if you are comparing yourself to people in the gym then it’s still probably going to be faster than pretty much everybody there, if you are comparing yourself to other males your age who run for a hobby then you are probably still in the top 5%. However, if you are comparing yourself to males your age exclusively training hard for the 800m as their main event then your time is actually mediocre and not really that competitive. Under 2:00 is when you would start to become relatively competitive. 27:xx does not indicate sub 2 speed, it actually indicates that you would find it quite taxing to get much under 60 seconds for a 400m but I do think you have a pretty great chance of breaking 2:10.

Sragontis- thanks for the detailed quality reply man. Most of those 20 months have been easy running, some threshold work, strides and I have done a few 50' sprints on flat and up a hill before. I'm definitely following the advice about the speed endurance and max speed in the coming weeks, thanks again =)

Jay T- many thanks for the similarly great response! Glad to know I won't be a scrub compared to most people if I nail my goal lol. Thanks for the vote of confidence, definitely agree with you about sub 2 not happening; I'll just have to see where my speed goes in the coming years I guess, fortunately I think I have some room for improvement still :D

1:37 for 600m, all-out, running by yourself is the TT test. Also, as mentioned above: 4x400 w/4:00 recovery @ 65.0

How many race opportunities do you have? To be assured of finding your ability, a series of races 400m-1500m would be ideal (around 4-8 total).

I ran at or under 2:10 many many times in my 40s and did so off of a variety of training schemes: low miles/high miles, heavy track sessions v. more emphasis on fartlek/hills/volume. If you can't break 27 for 200, you had better be in at least 4:45 mile/16:30s 5K shape.

Other PRs?

YMMV wrote:

1:37 for 600m, all-out, running by yourself is the TT test. Also, as mentioned above: 4x400 w/4:00 recovery @ 65.0

How many race opportunities do you have? To be assured of finding your ability, a series of races 400m-1500m would be ideal (around 4-8 total).

I ran at or under 2:10 many many times in my 40s and did so off of a variety of training schemes: low miles/high miles, heavy track sessions v. more emphasis on fartlek/hills/volume. If you can't break 27 for 200, you had better be in at least 4:45 mile/16:30s 5K shape.

Other PRs?

Hey YMMV, I’m also curious as to what I could run in an 800. I don’t have any 800 races lined up yet, but I’ll be running the 1000m in an outdoor meet next Friday. My training from the past 2 months has been for the 1500, varying between 30-40mpw with speed sessions, tempos, ans progression runs. Last Sunday I did 2x400 @ 61 with 1min rest. The first rep felt alright, but the last 100m of the second rep were very hard. Could I run the 800 in the 2:10 range, and the 1000 under 2:50?

I would say "yes". I never did that 400 session, but it sounds proper hard and the rest of your training sounds about right. PRs?

You might try a 700m time trial around Tues @ sub-2:50 pace (68/400). It should feel pretty hard, but shoot for even splits

YMMV wrote:

1:37 for 600m, all-out, running by yourself is the TT test. Also, as mentioned above: 4x400 w/4:00 recovery @ 65.0

How many race opportunities do you have? To be assured of finding your ability, a series of races 400m-1500m would be ideal (around 4-8 total).

I ran at or under 2:10 many many times in my 40s and did so off of a variety of training schemes: low miles/high miles, heavy track sessions v. more emphasis on fartlek/hills/volume. If you can't break 27 for 200, you had better be in at least 4:45 mile/16:30s 5K shape.

Other PRs?

Hey man thanks for the help and your own experience! I think I have a chance of hitting the 1:37, but there's no way I could run a 4:45 or 16:30 right now, not even in the same galaxy of those times haha! I think I could break 27 for 200m though, I'll be time trialing the 200m in 3 weeks before I start specific 800m training, so I'll have a much better idea then. For now I'll be doing a top speed session each week (short flat sprints with full recovery) and one session of 4-8 100m strides starting around 1000m effort and going down to 600m effort.

YMMV wrote:

rhinetalrunner wrote:

Hey YMMV, I’m also curious as to what I could run in an 800. I don’t have any 800 races lined up yet, but I’ll be running the 1000m in an outdoor meet next Friday. My training from the past 2 months has been for the 1500, varying between 30-40mpw with speed sessions, tempos, ans progression runs. Last Sunday I did 2x400 @ 61 with 1min rest. The first rep felt alright, but the last 100m of the second rep were very hard. Could I run the 800 in the 2:10 range, and the 1000 under 2:50?

I would say "yes". I never did that 400 session, but it sounds proper hard and the rest of your training sounds about right. PRs?

You might try a 700m time trial around Tues @ sub-2:50 pace (68/400). It should feel pretty hard, but shoot for even splits

I missed my first 1500 of the season last Saturday because I was asked to work last minute, so I ran 2x400 out of frustration. And yes it was hard! Unfortunately I don’t have recent PRs, with the exception of a 17:55 road 5K from march, and a 4:57 solo 1600 two weeks ago (hard but not race effort, finished and jogged back home).

I’ll try the 700m TT Next week, thank you for the advice!

OP, what's up with you stating you're five or six weeks away from a 2:10 800m? OP, you have made no statements regarding your training. You have made no statements indicating you are anywhere close to 2:10 800m. Today, can you time trial at least sub-11 3000m? Today, can you sprint sub-32 200m?

Very good!

rhinetalrunner wrote:

YMMV wrote:

I would say "yes". I never did that 400 session, but it sounds proper hard and the rest of your training sounds about right. PRs?

You might try a 700m time trial around Tues @ sub-2:50 pace (68/400). It should feel pretty hard, but shoot for even splits

I missed my first 1500 of the season last Saturday because I was asked to work last minute, so I ran 2x400 out of frustration. And yes it was hard! Unfortunately I don’t have recent PRs, with the exception of a 17:55 road 5K from march, and a 4:57 solo 1600 two weeks ago (hard but not race effort, finished and jogged back home).

I’ll try the 700m TT Next week, thank you for the advice!

That 1600 time is far, far better than your 17:55. In fact, over all my years of trying, I was never able to break 5:00 by myself in practice, but ran 4:39 for the full mile, and sub-2:11 at least 20 times (best of 2:05). It looks like your abilities lie in the shorter distances. With good pacing ( go out in 31-32 first 200) you should easily beat 2:10. If you can get into multiple races, do so. You would appear to have some real potential @400-1500.

why 2:10? wrote:

OP, what's up with you stating you're five or six weeks away from a 2:10 800m? OP, you have made no statements regarding your training. You have made no statements indicating you are anywhere close to 2:10 800m. Today, can you time trial at least sub-11 3000m? Today, can you sprint sub-32 200m?

Hey thanks for taking the time to comment/help; you're right I should have posted my training. It won't be the end of the world if I don't run 2:10, but I thought while very ambitious it's something I have a chance of hitting given how my training is going.

Some indicators:

I've ran several 400m in 65/66 half a year ago during training as part of a workout and they felt like a sub-maximal effort to me; half a year later I believe my speed is in fairly better shape than that; it's just my speed endurance I have to develop over the next 6-8 weeks with a continued focus on speed as well. I've ran a few 200's in training lately with the goal of running them at an effort/stride that felt like something I could hold for 600m-800m and they all turned out to be31.5-32.4. I think I could sprint a 200m in 26.high right now as well.

If I had to estimate my 1600m ability it would probably be around 5:30-40 right now, which isn't that promising but I think that'll improve over the coming weeks since I'm no neglecting the endurance side of things either.

That was a long reply sorry lol