800 time - 2:04. Gender: male. Grade: 11th going into 12th (17-18 yo). Height: ~6ft. Weight: ~130.
For the past three years, I've had three different coaches for cross country and track. I feel like my coach from this past year has not been working with me, in terms of my goals, so I decided to quit XC and track and create my own training program.
In XC, I ran the 5k [9th grade: 19:17 --- 10th: 19:05 --- 11th: 18:29].
In track, I ran the 3200 [9th: 11:58 --- 10th: 11:11 --- 11th: 10:49] the 1600 [9th: 5:18 --- 10th: 4:51 --- 11th: 4:52] and the 800 [10th: 2:08.88 --- 11th: 2:03.99]
Unfortunately, I do not have a 400m time. If I were to guess, it would be around 56 in season.
As you can tell from my times, distance is not my strong point, and I am not a fast sprinter either.
I didn't track my milage during the past three years, but if I were to guesstimate, I would say around 20mi/week in 9th grade, 25mi/week in 10th, and 30mi/week in 11th.
This last year (11th), we did easy runs of 4-6 miles about 2-3 times per week. Our interval workouts were kind of scattered, and I didn't feel any significant progression in intensity or distance.
I plan on "peaking" twice this year: once in October, and again in April. From now (mid-May) till the end of July, I plan on doing base training, where I will slowly increase milage. Afterward, I plan on transitioning to more 800-specific workouts, with higher intensity and lower milage.
For my base training, I've set up an 8 day training cycle...
1. speed workout & leg day 1
2. upper body push workout & easy run & core workout
3. 400-1000m intervals & plyometric drills
4. upper body pull workout & easy run & strides
5. speed workout & leg day 2
6. upper body push workout & easy run & core workout
7. lactate threshold run & plyometric drills
8. upper body pull workout & easy run & strides
In the past, I have not lifted much. For upper and lower body, I am lifting high weight low reps in an attempt to not gain too much unnecessary muscle weight while gaining strength/power. I realize upper body training is not very helpful for the 800, but I would like to be less weak than I am. As of right now, my leg days are pretty brutal.
My speed workouts right now are short hill sprints (~10s) at near full effort with adequate rest. I might throw in some 80-150 intervals on the track, but I've heard hills sprints are better than track sprints. I did 6 reps last time, which was my first time doing them. I plan on increasing this to 10-12 reps by July.
My easy run is currently 3.5 miles at an 8:00/mile to 11:00/mile depending on how I'm feeling. I started out relatively low because I haven't run in a couple weeks and do not want to injure myself. I expect I will get up to about 6 miles by July at similar paces.
Strides are ~100m X 4-8.
I haven't done a tempo workout yet, but I plan on doing 15-25min at 10k pace, which is roughly 7:00. As my fitness increases, I will go a faster pace.
My plyometric drills and core workout are pretty generic (for core: crunches, twists, holds; for plyos: jumping, skipping, and bounding).
For nearly all my life, I have eaten high levels of sugars and simple carbohydrates and have neglected fruit/vegetables. I am trying to eat more complex carbs, more protein, and more fruits and vegetables while avoiding unhealthy foods.
After I am through with my base phase, I think I will replace the tempo run with intervals at 800m pace (200-400m intervals), but I'm still not sure.
Again, let me know if you have any tips for how I can improve my training and get a better time.
Also, what do you think a good time goal is? Is 1:58 reasonable?