Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ives Mid Distance Training
Ives Mid Distance Training
Training
A Model for Developing 800/1600m Runners in our High
School Programs
My History at DCHS
My History at DCHS
Cross country runners the easiest place to start Buy-in and trusting of your coaching
Tall, lean and fast with good stamina PE mile runs or pacer tests
Competitive and willing to hurt Prior sports experience (soccer, track & field,
basketball, football)
Desirous to work on their craft year-round
Create feeder programs for XC and track & utilize them if they
already exist!
Are you actively recruiting Cross country is going to be the best place to start recruiting your
capable runners to join middle distance runners
your event group? Middle school track -- middle distance runners in MS are the most
likely candidates to continue at HS level
How else can we identify
mid-distance runners and High school track team. Advocate for tall, lean and fast 400 runners
to try the 800. Work with other coaches to find the best events for
get them to run for us?
your better athletes.
Build a culture where athletes want to join your group. Make the
appeal one of hard work so you attract the athletes you want.
Work at recruiting strong athletes from other sports to run for you.
Pick up the phone!
Training 800/1600m Runners
Develop aerobic system year-round, including cross country season, and maintain in the
spring (ex. daily runs, tempo runs, 3k-5k pace reps)
Develop anaerobic system pre-season, in-season and summer (ex. race pace reps)
Develop sprint mechanics, top-end speed and speed endurance (ex. build-ups/flys,
200-400m pace reps)
Develop training volumes based on what your runners are capable of handling, not an arbitrary ideal
100-110-120-130-140-150-160-170-180-200m. Eleven reps progressing in 10m steps between 100m and 200m.
Start at 1600m race pace and end at 400m race pace. Add approximately 1 second to each rep. Total volume at
speed is 1650m.
A 5:00 miler/:60 400 runner will start at 19 seconds and end at 30 seconds
Racing Strategies for the 800
Racing Strategies for the 800
Even paced race (not even effort!) from 200-800 meters, but 2 second difference
from first to last 400
Pace for third 200 normally slows -- Kickers may wait, others will find their way back
into the race, while non-kickers want to maintain their pace and create a gap
Final 100 utilize sprint mechanics; training and competitiveness will win in the end
Racing Strategies for the 800
Racing Strategies for the 1600
Racing Strategies for the 1600
For a 4:30 mile the ideal is even 1:07.5 400m splits -- 1:07.5, 2:15.0, 3:22.5, 4:30.0
Teach your runners to understand that a 1:07.5 (33.75 per 200) opening 400 may not
mean they’re on 4:30 pace. (It may just mean their start was faster than race pace.)
It’s likely their first 200 was 32.75 and their second 200 was 34.75 (4:38 pace). In
this scenario if your athlete feels good about their 400 split they’re going to be
disappointed at 800 when they learn too late that their pace slowed by 2 seconds (1
second per 200 slower than goal pace from 400-800).
Clean up pacing by teaching runners to start conservatively and increase pace with
each lap.
A Champion’s
Mindset
The highest performing athletes
look inside themselves to
correct mistakes instead of
pointing to external factors to
excuse poor performances
“Success occurs when preparation
meets opportunity”
timives@bodyprojectiowa.com