Same Mistakes, but Faster

Just a short note so this blog looks active.

When I took up ultrarunning, it was a mental exercise, as all my rules for training broke down and there wasn't much written about how to train for long races (boy, has that changed). Recently, I looked at 800m training, because going the opposite direction in race length, my rules also break down. More than any other distance, 800m runners are divided between those moving up in race distance and those moving down and it's frequently suggested that there are completely different ways of training, depending on the group to which you belong. I wondered why there wasn't a specific plan and came up with one that looked perfect, then wondered why no one had ever trained that way.

Well, of course, looking deeper into it, there's a simple explanation. Most runners actually start from a position of combining short sprints and long distance and then, over a season, bringing those extremes closer to specific 800m training - which, when stated by itself, looks like nothing else and seems unreasonable. The problem is: these plans are aimed at 1:45 runners and not 2:30-3:00, for those who have a racing season rather than sporadic races and for those who have a team, a coach and a track where they're welcome. A guy in his 50's, running in winter, in Minnesota - there's no plan for him.

Except mine looks pretty good.