Archives for 800 meter

Trainability of the Middle Distance Athlete

Why do some athletes develop into accomplished middle distance runners, capable of running fast and winning races, while others get just a little better despite doing similar workouts throughout their careers?  Also, most young seventh and eighth graders are about equal in distance running ability after their first season and usually only a few seconds…

Racing Tactics for the 800 Meters

The 800 meter run is defined as an endurance event in track and field because the aerobic energy demand is slightly higher than the anaerobic energy demand at race pace. It is an event that draws participants both from the long sprint group as well as distance runners that possess good speed. It is not…

Aerobic Power Training

Documented training schemes designed to improve aerobic power velocitym (vVO2 max) in distance runners were first described by the Soviet Sports Institute in the 1970’s. Besides the Eastern Bloc countries, one of the athletics organizations to quickly pick up on the training concept was the British Milers Club in the early 1980’s. Frank Horwill and…

Aerobic Power Primer

All of the standard distance races including cross country are combined zone races. Combined zone means that energy needed for muscular contractions at race pace is derived from both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems in combination. Improvement in both the capacity and efficiency of these independent energy systems, and how they work in tandem,…