Five 800m Lactic Tolerance Workouts by Elites
Lactic acid tolerance training will make your body more efficient at reprocessing the waste products of exercise; transporting oxygen to your blood; and allowing you to run nearer to maximal speed for a longer period of time.
400m and 800m runners in particular have a specific need to do this type of training. Typical sessions that produce a great deal of lactate/lactic acid include anything from 200m to 600m repetitions, where the speed of the intervals are between 10-15% faster than goal race pace and goal race pace.
Recoveries will vary considerably but a good guide is about two minutes per 100m run (so 8min after a 400m rep). After this type of time period the athlete should have recovered sufficiently – for example, breathing will have slowed from the previous effort and pulse rate will have also dropped considerably. However, the athlete will still be fatigued from the previous rep/reps and if blood lactate levels were measured we would find them elevated significantly.
Below are 5 example lactic tolerance sessions elite athletes have used in the past:
#1: David Rudisha (800m Olympic Champion and current World Record holder)
Training Session: 400m, 200m, 400m, 200m with 200m slow walk recovery (around 5-6mins).
Rudisha would complete this training session around once per month from February through until the major championship event (usually August). Despite usually running this session on a dirt track at high altitude, Rudisha would run the 400m’s in 50-51 seconds and the 200m’s in 24-25 seconds. Rudisha once managed this session in Germany prior to the Rio Olympics in 49.2, 23.7, 50.2, 24.2, which is a little quicker than his 800m pace across the board.
#2: Wilson Kipketer (past 800m World Record holder and currently 2nd fastest 800m runner of all time)
Training Session: 600m, 300m, 600m, 300m with 5mins recovery after 600m’s and 10mins recovery after 300m’s.
Kipketer would complete this training session around once per month in the competition period. Kipketer would aim to run the 600m intervals in 1:16-1:17 (slightly slower than goal 800m pace) and 300m intervals in 35 seconds (slightly faster than goal 800m pace).
#3: Taoufik Makhloufi (1:42 800m runner, 1500m Olympic Champion)
Training session: 800m, (10mins rest) 500m, (4mins rest) 400m, (2mins rest) 300m. Makhloufi once ran this in 1:44, 64.7, 52.7, 39.2.
This is a very tough workout! To begin the session with an 800m at 2% slower than your personal best time is impressive, but to back that up and run a super quick 500m, 400m and 300m is jaw dropping.
#4: Nijel Amos (World Junior 800m Record Holder and 4th fastest all time)
Training session: 2 sets of (200m, 300m, 200m) with 4mins recovery between the intervals and 8mins recovery between the sets.
Amos would aim to run the 200m intervals in 23 seconds and the 300m intervals in 35 seconds – both slightly faster than his goal 800m pace.
#5: Nick Symmonds (American 800m champion and 1:42 personal best)
600m time trial + (5x200m). 10min recovery after the 600m and 2min between 200m’s.
Symmonds would run the 600m interval at “98% effort”, saving a little bit extra for the 5x200m following a 10min walking recovery. At Symmonds’s fittest, he ran 1:13.9 for the 600m and 24.5 average for the 200m’s.
If you found this article useful we suggest reading 800m – 5 Race Indication Workouts and 5 Lactic Tolerance Workouts for 800m/1500m Runners
