Workout of the Day: 3 x 150m, 3 x 800m, 3 x 150m
3 x 150m, 3 x 800m, 3 x 150m
Intensity — 150s at full sprint, 800m reps at 3K pace effort
Recovery — Full rest between 150s, 200m jog in ~1 minute after 800s
Exertion — 7/10
Context & Details
This session comes from the logbook of Andrew Wheating during his college years at the University of Oregon. It was designed by his college coach, Vin Lananna.
In college, Wheating was a powerful runner who thrived on intensity and speed work but was often injured if he tried to run above 50 miles a week. It’s worth noting, Wheating’s training age for running was very young when he went to college. Therefore, Vin wisely trained him with less volume and more intensity. Clearly, the college version of Wheating responded well to this approach.
This session stresses two key areas of ability for an 800m runner: event-specific sprinting ability and stamina.
The 800m is a speed-endurance event. Meaning, the current best racing tactic is to start out fast, then sustain that pace while trying to decelerate as little as possible throughout the race. Therefore, effective 800m training seeks to improve a runner’s basic speed and ability to endure that speed.
I like this workout because it accomplishes these training aims in an efficient package.
The six 150s sprints on full recovery upgrades the runner’s basic foot speed. The 800s at 3K pace on short recoveries provides a compact, moderate VO2 Max stimulus which results in race-specific endurance enhancements.
As written, this workout is good to go for most high school or college-age 800m runners. You could make it a staple session that is performed once every 7 - 14 days throughout or during any part of the season. The reason being is it’s specific enough to ready a young 800m runner for race day demands, but also general enough to use in early season conditioning periods to prepare the half-miler for future periods of higher intensity and more specific workouts.