10 Essentials Tips for 800m Training

1. Determine whether you are a ‘sprinter’, ‘jack of all trades’ or ‘distance’ type of 800m runner and train to your strengths. For a Sprinter - short intense reps (e.g. 5 x 400m with 5 mins rest at 800m race pace), distance runner - higher volume, lower intensity with shorter recoveries.
   
2. Be specific in your training – the 800m is 67% anaerobic and 33% aerobic. Your training should reflect this fact (e.g over a week I train 2 days anaerobic training, 1 day aerobic training and have 4 days recovery!)
   
3. In the off season emphasize volume over intensity to create strength and a proper ‘base’ to build on.
   
4. Never totally neglect speed work even in the depths of winter (i.e. speed drills, speed endurance sessions). Your emphasis on the speed component will vary as you adjust volume and intensity.
   
5. Avoid a sudden change from one kind of training to another. Overlap your training 6 or 8 week blocks so that the sectors do not cause too abrupt a change and increase the chance of injury. Remember that the volume of training should drop as the season progresses as the intensity of your sessions increase.
   
6. Do not increase volume as you are increasing intensity. The intensity of the session is what will give the greatest benefits to you so long as your base strength is in place. Remember, however, that more intense the session, the greater he need for proper recovery.
   
7. 800m racing is most efficiently developed by repetitions of high speed running of from forty to ninety seconds duration (e.g. 1 x 600m, 1 x 400m with 20 mins rest).
   
8. You should race the second 400m no slower than 5 seconds less than the 1st 400m. It is wiser to run the first 400m (particularly the first 200m) a little faster than the 2nd 400m.
   
9. 800m time predictor. Your best 800m time = (400m + 6seconds) x 2
   
10. Develop of kick over the last 150m. You will never win a Championship race without one !
    

Mike Toal is a Masters 800m runner and came 4th at the World Masters Championships in 2007. He can be contacted via his website www.mastersathletics.co.uk