hey everyone, this is my first post on this forum. i am a 17 year old male who concentrates on the 800m. i have pb’s of 56.4,2:02.1, and 4:29. In the past I have done lots of mileage (up to 105 mile per week) with an average of about 70-75 over a period of 18 months. i did not feel like i was getting the gains i wanted off of this high training mileage and have decided to switch over to a more speed based program. with that said here is how i am approaching my 800m training for the upcoming indoor season:
Thu: warmup “B” + 3k/3200m continuous tempo + cooldown
Fri: warmup “A” + 60m,100m,2x200m w/ full rec + cooldown or just warmup “A” if race saturday
Sat: warmup “B” + 3k/3200m continuous tempo + cooldown or race
Sun: active or passive rest
i have been using this setup for the past 2 weeks and already feel fresher and faster. my 2mile continuous tempo runs are right around 10 minutes and this usually feels comfortably hard.
after my indoor season is over i plan to extend the continuous tempo runs to 4k for 2 months before dropping them back down to 3k/3200m at the start of outdoor track. the volume of speedwork on moday will go up to 7-10 reps (same intensity/rest) and the saturday workout will become 4-6x150m hill reps run hard with 3-5min recovery ending before the start of outdoor season.
i’m hoping to bring my 400 time down to 53 (i believe this is possible as in the past my training seldom involved all-out speedwork and my training volume was VERY high) and hope to see a corresponding drop in my 800m. i feel the short continuous tempo runs are very beneficial to holding pace throughout the entire 800m and will keep their volume at 3-4k but continue to drop pace (same effort).
I think your pulling our leg, seriously nobody drops form 70-100 miles a week to less than 40.
But if your serious then I think there are a couple things you have to address. You have 3 two mile tempo runs a week, besides making training very repetitive and stale I doubt that what your doing would be considered tempo (lt) pace. Monday’s workout is impossible, you can’t do 6 all out 100’s with a minute recovery, your by the third one you would probably be at 75% and dropping fast. Wednesdays workout would be ok if you had build into it but you have no background in acceleration or maxV work, all thats going to happen is a popped hammy. Friday’s workout is alright if used correctly.
My advice would be, add the hills now instead of waiting. Another thing you could implement would be extensive tempo instead of all those (lt) runs. Try looking at the training of some noteable 800m runners, experiment with what you like and be sure to scale it down to your level.
i’m definately not trying to fool anyone here. i know my previous training was not optimal by any means but i was less experienced and based my training of the likes of ovett, el g, and mottram. i know, i know; “but you’re not at the level they are…”. well crying about past training isn’t going to help. my previous training looked something like this:
Mon: AM 4mi PM 6mi w/ 50-100m fast strides
Tue: AM 4mi PM 800-1600’s @ vo2max pace
Wed: AM 4mi PM 6mi w/ 50-100m fast strides
Thu: AM 4mi PM 50-70min progressive tempo
Fri: AM 4mi PM 6mi w/ 50-100m fast strides
Sat: AM 4mi PM 200-400’s @ 800-1600 pace
Sun: AM 12mi moderate
though my endurance improved of off this training (i ran a half marathon in 1:16), i felt like my stride was changing into a more “jogger” type and my basic speed was not improving. i think my future is in the longer events but if i want to excell at those events i have to get my speed down. right now, my focus is to completely max out my 800m time before ever moving up in distance again.
about your comment of my 2mile continuous runs not really being tempo runs: they may not be typical distance runner lt (lactate threshold or 1 hour race pace) pace, but tempo to me is more comfortably medium-hard. if i do these runs at 5:00-5:10 per mile my aerobic system is stimulated to a large degree and i produce very little lactic acid, so i am able to recover. if instead i did typical “sprinters” tempo 100-200m repeats with short rest my aerobic system is already so well developed that to get any stimulus out of them i would have to run them pretty hard and wouldn’t that interfere with recovery?
thanks for the suggestions and hopefully more will chime in