Thought I'd start a thread for my middle/long distance running ambitions. Right now the aim is to break 2 minutes for 800m. For some reason I'm completly obsessed by this aim. Unfourtunatly it will be not done any time soon since the track season is over, work/real life has taken over and I can't afford the money/time to drag myself over to Watford for one of the few remaining Open meets where I could race. I've been running two years and as I build up the miles over the next few weeks into the winter I hope to improve my PB's on everything up to 10K. I will also be running the county and hopefully some national cross country's if possible. But this is more of a bonus, everything is geared towards next year and breaking 2 minutes for 800m. Here are some of my PB's atm and hopefully I can make this more impressive. http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=106508 21st August Light jog 10 minutes followed by 4x4 minutes off road with 3 minutes walking in between reps. This wasn't done at any great pace, probably covering a little over a kilometre every rep but it's a change from track work and gives my body a rest from the really fast speed work. Obviously warm down with a 10 minute light jog. 22nd-26th August Now what follows is a recipe for how to run yourself into the grave. All a learning experience though but I won't be reapeating this in a long time. Sunday 200m, 400m, 200m x3 with 2 minutes between the reps and 5 minutes between the sets. The 200m reps are done in relatively slow 31-32, I don't dare commit more for fear of falling apart on the 400's. The first 400m is done in 65, to slow. The second 400m I really go for, 62. Now I'm suffering and the 200m reps are requiring more and more effort to run the same time. The last 400m is a 63, the last 200m is 33. I drop to the floor, try getting up 5 minutes later only to find myself back on the floor after a few metres walking. 10 minutes later I'm throwing up infront of teenage girls. Nice. Monday 4x60 second sprints with 6 minutes recovery. This is done on grass just to switch things up. I'm probably covering somewhere between 360-390m each rep, there's a slight hill (only in comparision to a track) and I do this with a 40 plus vet sprinter. He still run's high 24 seconds in 200m and this is more or less his endurance session. For me it's pure speed. I give him 4/5 second head start and chase him down. Tuesday 6x500m with 2 minutes recovery in between reps. Told to keep every rep under 90 seconds. First one is 86 seconds, second 87, third 87 again. Now I'm suffering and the bunch of kids (no pedo) I'm running with are only 4/5 seconds behind. The fourth rep drops to 90 seconds. The fifth I get back to 89. The last rep is hell on earth. I should add I probably get more than the 2 minutes recovery that's written out in the training plan since it isn't my usual training group and I'm coming in 10-15 seconds ahead of the last kids who start the reps at the same time. Anyway two girls who were only just behind me throughout every rep decide not to do the fifth rep and save themselves for the 6th:twisted:. **** it I'm not getting beat by them. 87 seconds. Wednesday Two 300m reps with 8 minute rest between the pair. Obviously fairly intense warm up with lot's of strides/stretching. At the beginning of the day I would of liked to be hitting 41 seconds for these. Weather was horrible and the local track I was doing it on had no protection from the wind. 43.2 and 43.6. Thursday I'm struggling now. I walk down to the shops and suddenly feel dizzy as ****. I hadn't planned the previous 4 days to be so intense. I had a relaxed few weeks not working and little other responsibility though and when someone phones up or you got the time to train hard you think I'll regret it if I don't. I promise myself rest days friday/sunday if I just through the evening session. Thought we were doing fairly relaxed 200m/300m reps. Turns out we are doing a 600m time trial followed by a 400m time trial then a 300m time trial. 10 minutes between each. 600m is 95 seconds. But I am practically dead at the end. On the 400m rep I probably go through the first 200m in 28 seconds judging by the way about 5 people overtake me (who never overtake me) in the last 100m. Still I'll take 62 seconds. Now I'm ****ed. The 300m rep is a joke and I doubt I break 50 seconds. I wake up the following morning and my heart is pounding like a mother****er. I basically tried to train with the intensity of a full time athlete peaking for the olympics with years of running in him and access to pills and genetics mere mortals haven't got. Several times throughout the next two days I almost faint when quickly standing up. This was all done for a 800m race on the 30th August. I take 3 days off hoping atleast I can begin to recover. 30 August 800m race. 2 minutes 11 seconds. Felt ok at the end and the relatively slow time wasn't helped by the fact it was a very slow race (64/65 at the bell). Still had very little in my legs last hundred metres. Not the usual drowning in latic acid, just no spring in my legs so to speak. 31st August Very easy 20 minutes. 1st September 500m, 300m, 100m x 3 sets. Start with 500m then 300m then a 100m. There's a 100m walk in between the reps and then you go again. Have about 5 minutes between the sets. 500m in 86, 86 and then 81. The 300m are 46-47. The 100m are more a stride than a sprint. I doubt we are running faster than the pace on the 300m reps. I did this in trainers rather than spikes so to resist going of to fast. Judging by the relative ease the last 500m rep was done in 81 seconds the actual 800m race came two days to soon. 2nd September Easy 25 minutes. 3rd September 900m, 500m x 3. A minute between the 900 and 500 and then 3 minutes between the sets. I do this with the cross country/marathon guys. They are sharpening up for the road relays/cross country and I'm trying to get some endurance for them. 900m in 3 minutes to 3 minutes 8 seconds. 500m in 90-95 seconds. My legs and breathing are suffering by the last set. This is just over 4K in total and while I've come to 800m from an endurance background this is about 3 times to total distance that I usually do in track sessions. Feels easy at first since it's relatively slow but soon my lack of endurance shows and it becomes a far greater effort. The aim just becomes getting through the session. Last set is horrible but unlike all the middle distance/sprint work I'm more or less recovered within a few minutes and feel great. Note that the one's you'll see bent over throwing up and unable to get up are sprinters during the winter and middle distance guys in the summer. To much latic acid :barf 4th September. Fairly fast 20 minutes. Feel good despite long day at work and certainly at a reasonable pace compared to my usual efforts at running of road. I doubt I'll race on the track again this year, it's not really practical. I really need to up the miles to be coming where I should be in the cross country's. Track work will take a back seat for the time being hopefully while the miles increase. Nothing stupid this year and if I can average 30 odd miles a week for a few months by November through till the new year then I'll be happy. ATM I could get away with it on a 5K race but anything more and I'd really be struggling to run at any pace. But I should see results pretty soon given my current mileage is pretty much zero. Cheers.
