I’m an 800 runner with a pb of 1.51 but have not been able to come close to that over the last few yrs (best 1.55). I have had some injury problems but nothing serious enough to warrant that big a drop off in performance. One major change that happened was that my coach retired and I changed to another training group. My old coach always included a sprint component to each hard training session. So 2 days a week before our hard track session we would do something like 4x60 sprints+1x150 sprint and then have a rest before doing the main part of the session.
Off this I was able to run 48 high for 400.
However since changing groups the focus has been a lot more on endurance training and for the last few yrs I have not done much sprint training at all. My best 400 was 51 something off this work. I decided I obviuosly needed to change things and swapped coaches again to a group that includes a lot more speed work. I do a lot more work at race pace and we include some short sprints 1 day a week before our track session similar to what I have done in the past. I am back in the gym lifting again and my strength is just as good as it was back then but I am still struggling with my sprint times. I have heard of fast twitch fibres being converted to slow twitch fibres but I am unsure if this is actually the case and if it is can it be reveresed?
I guess I am looking for advice on 1) Whether it is possible to regain the 400 speed I had and 2) what elements do I have to include in my training to get it back.
A typical training week for me looks like:
Monday - medium length run 50-60mins
Tues - Track session - Something like 6x60m sprints+Tempo session - 12x200m (90sec) at 26-27sec
Wed -Recovery run - 45mins
Thurs - Fartlek - 3min+2min surges (40min total with approx 15min total surge time)
Fri- Rest
Sat- Fartlek or hills
Sun-Long run 90mins
I’m also in the gym 2 days a week.
Is there a way I can structure my week around better to help improve my sprinting speed again and what should it consist of? I’m not sure if I can afford to take out much of the other stuff I’m doing as I still think the endurance stuff is important but I just want to be able to continue doing that while improving my speed. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.