Mile and 800 Strategy? (Read 791 times)

marethon- I'm sure you'll have more meets this spring, so here's my two cents coming from several hundred track races in high school and college, some of which agrees with several replies. 1. Do not blast the first 1/4 of the race (the first lap of the mile, first 200 of an 800). Younger runners have a tendency to do that - I did it all the time. If you are running 6:28 for the mile and you go out faster than 90 seconds in the first quarter, you are probably going to feel it in the 2nd half of the race and not be able to kick a finish. In the best 800 I ever ran I actually ran the first lap 2 seconds slower than the second, and outkicked 4 people in the last 200 meters...I got away with that only because I had enough speed to do so. If you do not have as much natural speed you are going to have to maintain contact with the pack. 2. If you break the race down into 4 sections, its the 3rd section that usually requires the most mental concentration to stick with it (that would be the 3rd lap of a mile and between 400 and 600 meters of the 800). That is where you really have guts to hold your pace, if you can you will make up the most ground here. I'll bet that out of 100 mile races I ever ran, 99 of them had the 3rd lap as my slowest. Anyone can fly the first half of a race and summon up a kick at the end, but you'll be able to make the greatest impact to your performance in the third quarter. 3. The nerves NEVER go away. I HATED being the leadoff leg of the 4x800 relay, especially at the bigger meets. That usually caused me to make the mistake in #1 above. You just have to gain control over your nerves, and realize everyone you're standing next to at the starting line feels the same way. If you can turn your nerves into positive energy, you're one up on most of the other runners in the race. 4. Don't be too hard on yourself, mistakes can still be made. A long distance guy on our high school team whose mile PR was 4:50 ran the first lap of the 2-mile in the state meet in 62 seconds. His last 3 or 4 laps was a death march. Just learn from it and put it out of your mind as soon as possible - don't dwell on it. 5. Don't tie your performance to how other teammates/competitors do. You don't know what's going into their races, so the fact you finished 50 meters behind instead of 100 like last time should not determine how you think about how you did. There were 2 guys on my team I could NEVER beat, I had to catch myself from falling into that trap all the time. And yes you will still relive the races 15 and 20 years later, and they'll seem much more fun than when you actually ran them. Keep us posted to how your season is going!