Posted In: Endurance
I am a decathlete, doing some of my distance runs now till November and I'm having trouble?!
My 800m time is 2:18 and 1,500m time is 5:56 but my 2.5km(about 1 1/2 miles) time is slow like 13min?
I am trying to run a fast 5km right now but my time isn't getting any better. Let me know what you guys think…
P.S. I was thinking about doing more workouts on a track to calculate my 200m, 400m, 800m split times more accurately.
What are your current times for 200m and 400m?? Are you more of a sprinting type
than distance?? Need to know more.
100m PR 12sec.-?
200m PR 24sec
400m PR 59.60sec.
I am a distance runner build, but I am better at sprinting.
(Still working on lowering these times.)
It's certainly tricky trying to improve such a wide spread of distances!
I'm certainly no real expert but here goes anyway. Looking at your age
and spread of times for each distance, the problem looks to be a fitness
one. The times really drop away after the 800m. Now trying to determine
the most productive way to train is only possible when one is more
familiar with the athletes best distance. With you i'm not quite sure but
probably around 200-400, maybe 400. I would be concentrating on
say 2 interval sessions each week. e.g. 8 x 400m @ 1500 goal pace with
90second walking recovery between each and on another day a session
of say 12 x 200m @ 800m goal pace with perhaps 60secs walk recovery.
Also i would recommend once or maybe twice a week a sustained run of
around 3-4mins at around 85% effort as this will assist with VO2 max.
One more session each week just devoted to pure top end speed is also
a good idea. For this i like 3 x 80-120m (for your type of distances) and i would
try and do these almost flat out with full recovery between each (10-15mins).
How you go about fitting in these workouts depends a lot on how your body
reacts to them. You could have a 10 day cycle for these a have a day of rest
or slow easy running for 20mins or so between each. You just have to try
it out and see how it goes. You may need to incorporate a solid 3km run into
the mix somewhere as well. As your fitness increases, it will become much
clearer which distance is your strongest.
These are just suggestions and are not meant to be taken as gospel !!
You could try the long slow distance approach (lydiard etc) to your training
to improve your 3-5km times etc but possibly at the expense of your 1/2/400m
times. Others may disagree!
MY RUN TRAINING INCLUDES: :bouncing:
Repetitions per workout
Short runs: between 9-12reps. Usually fast pace >95%+
Medium runs: between 4-8reps. Usually med pace 50-75%
Long runs: between 1-3reps. Usually slow pace 25-50%
25%=WALK 50%=JOG 75%=RUN 95%=SPRINT %=Max effort.
Choose either>rep. and intensity difficulty OR pace difficulty (NOT BOTH!)
Distance (lenght of run)
100m race lenght Rep. and Inensity Difficulty PACE Difficulty
Short 10m to 50m Hard day many reps, at >75-95% max. Easy 800m pace
Medium 75m to 100m Med day some reps, at >50-75% max. Med 400m pace
Long 150m-175m-200m East day few reps, at 25-50% max. Hard 100m pace
400m race lenght Rep. and Inensity Difficulty PACE Difficulty
Short 100m to 200m Hard day many reps, at >75-95% max. Easy mile pace
Medium 300m to 400m Med day some reps, at >50-75% max. Med 800m pace
Long 600m-700m-800m East day few reps, at 25-50% max. Hard 400m pace
1500-1600m race lenght Rep. and Inensity Difficulty PACE Difficulty
Short 400m to 800m Hard day many reps, at >75-95% max, Easy 5,000m pace
Medium 1200m to 1600m Med day some reps, at >50-75% max. Med 1500-1600m pace
Long 2000m to 3200m East day few reps, at 25-50% max. Hard 1500-1600m pace
5000m race lenght Rep. and Inensity Difficulty PACE Difficulty
Short 1250m to 2500m Hard day many reps, at >75-95% max. Easy 5,000m pace
Medium 3600m to 5000m Med day some reps, at >50-75% max. Med 5,000m pace
Long 6200m to 10000m East day few reps, at 25-50% max. Hard 5,000m pace
>With you i'm not quite sure but probably around 200-400m, maybe 400. I would be concentrating on say 2 interval sessions each week. e.g. 8 x 400m @ 1500 goal pace with 90second walking recovery between each and on another day a session
of say 12 x 200m @ 800m goal pace with perhaps 60secs walk recovery.>One more session each week just devoted to pure top end speed is also
a good idea. For this i like 3 x 80-120m (for your type of distances) and i would
try and do these almost flat out with full recovery between each (10-15mins).
Your running setup is like mine almost: My pace difficulty is full recovery while the other one (Rep. and Intensity Difficulty) is timed rest recovery.
8 X 400m @ mile pace / Similar to my medium lenght 400m workout.
12 X 200m @ 800m pace / Similar to my short lenght 400m workout.
3 X 80-120 @ max speed / Similar to my medium-long lenght 100m workout.
JUST TRYING TO MAKE A CAMPARISON.
Do you think your fitness is the problem?? If your are indeed more
of a sprinting type, are you perhaps expecting too much at the distance
end?? What range of distances would you prefer to be your best??
For example the range i'm working on for myself is 200m-1000m.
Perhaps you could list what you would actually do in say a fortnight.
List the total miles/km's and how much of it is each type of workout.
What particular session do you feel is giving you the most benefit??
Do you think your fitness is the problem?? If your are indeed more
of a sprinting type, are you perhaps expecting too much at the distance
end?? What range of distances would you prefer to be your best??
For example the range i'm working on for myself is 200m-1000m.
Perhaps you could list what you would actually do in say a fortnight.
List the total miles/km's and how much of it is each type of workout.
What particular session do you feel is giving you the most benefit??
I would say my fitness level is not my problem, It's just that I'm not a born distance runner. I would say 200m-1200m I can achieve my best running results in.
You said keep a list of miles/km's I do that but I DON'T keep track of how much of it is each type of workout.
Sounds like you're very similar to me in terms of ideal distance.
I had some success in improving my 3-5km and even 10km times
but that involved lots of extra km's (around 70-80+ per week)
and having a lot of double days. During that period i felt really
great and very strong but it took the edge off my sprinting.
I could'nt get anywhere near my PR's even at 800m. Within
2 weeks of reverting to mainly sprint training i was back on PR
time again. Obviously sprint must be the type of training for ME.
Interestingly since that period of distance training which lasted
for around 10 weeks, my 200m has gone from my worst distance
and consequently one i didn't like, to my favourite. I haven't set
a new PR yet but i feel more able to run out a strong 200 now!
I guess it all depends on where you want your strengths to be.
I ran on 10/19:
A 2X 1.25km (with no rest) I got a 11 min. and 30 some seconds!!! :bouncy:
I think my old PR was 13min.?
My drill instructor timed me but I don't remember the exact time in seconds. but it was around 11:30, in the 2.5km run. I hope to improve my time to 10min flat by the end of the year. :tumble:
good work – well done! (remember to be No 1 you have to train like your No 2)
I know this isn't what you want to hear but if you're training correctly for the decathlon your 2.5km time could / should actually get worse as you get closer to the season. Perhaps instead of looking at it as a problem you should look at it as confirmation that you're doing something right.
ELITETRACK Founder
OK thx Mike!
So when I start doing my short runs my 5k time will increase as my short runs will hopefully decrease.
OK thx Mike!
So when I start doing my short runs my 5k time will increase as my short runs will hopefully decrease.
Yup…..and most good decathlete won't every be very good at the 5k as the training required is completely contradictory to 9/10ths of decathlon training.
ELITETRACK Founder
To Mike: I know it's not the BEST training type for decathlon but I just wanted to try it and see if it would improve my 1500m endurance and time. I'll cooldown on it; by no later than December and do runs under 1 mile, and later under 800m-400m, etc.
F.Y.I.
10/20 I did one run of 10km in a slow time of 1:12:30. My 5k splits were 39min/33min.
10/21 I ran a 5k at my RACE pace and beat my old PR of 28min. to get a 25:15!
10/22 I rode my bike 5km in about 14:12min. @ 85% max also 21.4 max speed
10/23 I jogged 7km at 10km pace and walked around 5km.
10/24 Race Day on Thanksgiving
I ran in the St.Petersburg Times Turkey Trot 5k in Florida in a time of 23:16. I believe I placed around 200-300th out of 7,457 runners.
4 months earlier I ran my 1st 5k in 28:12 now my time is down by 4min and 56sec! I guess it's fair to say I'm improving now.
Yup…..and most good decathlete's won't every be very good at the 5k as the training required is completely contradictory to 9/10ths of decathlon training.
Just out of curiosity how well do you think an elite decathlete could run a 5km race in? I would guess in 17-18min.
I ran in the St.Petersburg Times Turkey Trot 5k in Florida in a time of 23:16. I believe I placed around 200-300th out of 7,457 runners.
4 months earlier I ran my 1st 5k in 28:12 now my time is down by 4min and 56sec! I guess it's fair to say I'm improving now.
It's fair to say you're improving in the 5k which isn't an event in the decathlon.
Just out of curiosity how well do you think an elite decathlete could run a 5km race in? I would guess in 17-18min.
I think it would vary widely. I'd bet some could run sub 17 but most would run around 20 minutes. Guys like Huffins and O'Brien would have probably run around 22-24 minutes.
ELITETRACK Founder