New to running the 800m. Variety of Questions. Any help?

Question

my high school track season is done, and i was on the 4X100m relay team. my team came 3rd in provincials so i was happy, but i wanted to do something in provincials as an individual, and people were telling me the 800m would probably be the best race for me. Throughout junior high, i ran the 1500m, but as time went by, i did worse and worse, until this year (gr 10), i decided to be on the 4X100m team, because i also enjoy sprinting. I realize after provincials i wanted to race in provincials individually. Because i am new to the 800m, i need some training tips/workout plans, and racing tips like pacing. please help. i have 11 months til next years track season starts, which is plenty of time to train, but because i live in canada with the winters, and am still a full-time student with a part-time job, i dont know how i'm going to train all year. i do have a treadmill, but thats all i have for the winter months. Please help. THANKS!

Answer 1

This is what you need to do.

You need to get up to par with the rest of your team. So running long distance is key. You will be running longer than your event (800m) so when you actually run it, you are really good at it.

You also want to work on your sprints (200m/400m) this will help you near the end of the 800m.

On the 800m you do not want to sprint the whole way (unless you are an olympic god.) Running the 800 means that you run it pretty fast (faster than the mile) but you will not be sprinting unitl the end. When you do run long distance, you want to run your last (200m/400m) as fast as you can. This will come key when you are at the end of the 800. Hopefully when you get to your track season, you will be able to sprint most of the race, but you will not want to sprint at the beginning, you will want to nearing the end.

Answer 2

I went from our top varsity sprinter in highschool to a 800m runner the last couple meets of my highschool career and even made it to the state championships for the 4x800m. 800m workouts are nothing like sprint workouts. You basically run distance.

Here's some workouts:

-Short Distance run (run 1-2 miles a day)

-Long Distance run (3-6 miles a day)

-10 400m repeats at 75secs or less

-6 800m repeats at around 2min 30sec or less

-Tempo run (run 10mins slow, 15mins fast, 20mins slow)

Goodluck!