800 Training

Playing soccer is defintely going to benefit an 800m runner. By the sounds of your 800m pr and 400m pr I’d say you’re weak on specific endurance. To rule out bad pacing though, do you know what your 400m split was on your 800m PR?

With your 400m speed (assuming it’s not a weird relay time or something) you should be capable of 1:56 or so.

how do you predict an 800 time from a 400 time?

A 53s 400m is roughly equivalent to a 2:00 for a HS runner. A 53s for someone who has trained for a while has a chance for a 1:56 or 1:57. Typically its a good idea to go with the 4s rule which is 53 + 4 = 57 for first lap and 57 + 4 = 61s for second lap. Which is a 1:59.x under the best circumstances.

A 53s 400m is roughly equivalent to a 2:00 for a HS runner. A 53s for someone who has trained for a while has a chance for a 1:56 or 1:57. Typically its a good idea to go with the 4s rule which is 53 + 4 = 57 for first lap and 57 + 4 = 61s for second lap. Which is a 1:59.x under the best circumstances.

Don’t your already conservative numbers add to 1:58?

FWSC-
At your level I double and add 10. (53 x 2) + 10 or 11 = 1:56 /1:58. It’s definitely not done without training but I’m sticking to that prediction.

Are you playing soccer and running track at the same time? If that’s the case it probably isn’t more beneficial. I was thinking you were just talking about doing soccer in the fall and / or winter and then running track in the spring.

In that case, the soccer will detract from your 800m development. At the high school level, I’d guess that you need to be devoting at least 3-4 months of focused training and 4-6 months of general preparation to get close to your capabilities. This doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t keep improving though and I think you can still get much faster over 800m. What does your typical track training week look like? Also, what kind of stuff are you doing in soccer practice that might enhance fitness.

[quote author="dbandre" date="1233660790"]A 53s 400m is roughly equivalent to a 2:00 for a HS runner. A 53s for someone who has trained for a while has a chance for a 1:56 or 1:57. Typically its a good idea to go with the 4s rule which is 53 + 4 = 57 for first lap and 57 + 4 = 61s for second lap. Which is a 1:59.x under the best circumstances.

Don’t your already conservative numbers add to 1:58?

FWSC-
At your level I double and add 10. (53 x 2) + 10 or 11 = 1:56 /1:58. It’s definitely not done without training but I’m sticking to that prediction.

Are you playing soccer and running track at the same time? If that’s the case it probably isn’t more beneficial. I was thinking you were just talking about doing soccer in the fall and / or winter and then running track in the spring.[/quote]

Split math is already fuzzy, but usually it means I don’t think someone is going to go 53.00 + 4.00s.

Well I have been running mostly distance over the winter on a tredmill doing about 1-2 miles at about six minute mile pace and I have been lifting. I am pretty sure that I am training wrong and I have been looking for training tips and workout schedules. Do you have any workouts I can do? I plan on working out in the morning and afternoon before and after school. Well in the winter I have just been playing. I figured soccer would help me with my endurance in the fall and spring but you know more than I do.

From the little we know, you need to put in a much longer run than a 1-2 miler. I’d get used to doing at least one 6+ mile run every week from this point on and then use the combination of soccer and tempo days to handle the rest. One true speed day every 10 days or so would probably be beneficial also if you intend to keep running the 400m.

When you say starting to put on miles what kind of volumes are we talking about?

Also, what does a typical soccer practice look like (how much running in game or for fitness)? And are you only doing soccer 2x a week now? I was under the impression that it was much more.

Basically you want to try to get whatever out of track practice that you’re not getting from your soccer practices. I suspect that’s going to be faster stuff (100-200m repeats) and longer endurance work (20-60 minute runs.

I’d suggest adding some intermediate pace work…like some faster 200s, 300s, and maybe 400s.

fwsc: how about just doing one sport at a time?

I was thinking the same thing as hscoach. I have two athletes, an athlete that plays field hockey just on the weekends and another who is in the same boat as you, playing soccer a couple times a week I found that I have to give them a day off during the week because I don’t want them to overtrain. It wouldn’t hurt you to take a couple months off from soccer anyway so you don’t get burnt out (But that is just my opinion). Do you take any days off from training? do you have any days where you practice for track and soccer both?

You can run the 4×1 in mid-distance spikes just fine. There are a few long sprinters and even short hurdlers who ever do that for injury reasons.