I would like to hear if anyone has some thoughts on how much mileage you think is worth its weight to aim for a decent 800m (sub 2min) for someone who doesn't have a huge amount of speed (55 sec 400m) but rather more speed endurance (1500m 4.10). Not looking to make the Olympics but I guess like a lot of things a bit more training you get more bang for your buck.

Bit like an extra $150K you get a decent 2 bedroom apartment instead of a 'one bedder'

It’s hard to say what mileage you need to do to break 2mins for the 800m, everyone is different and the type of training you do will influence your performance more than how many km’s you clock up each week. How many km’s per week were you doing when you ran your 4:06 1500? You might not need to do any more km’s but just more speed training each week.

When I was about 20 years old, off a 50 – 60km per week XC season I dropped down to about 50km per week over summer which included 2 track sessions and an 800m or 1500m race about every second weekend and got down to 1:56 and 3:56 by the end of the summer.

Some people do a lot more km’s each week and get the same results, but others do a lot less and get similar results, eg Alex Rowe, think his PB for 1500m is about 4min, (probably could run a bit quicker these days if he did one) and his 800m PB is 1:47 now! I’ve heard he does less than 30km per week, but he does have a lot of speed and has a lot of natural talent!

Going on from mate.

400 = 55
1500 = 4.06

breaking up those time into 400m splits

400 = 55
1500 = 65.6 (246/3.75)

That is a difference of 10 seconds. It seems that most MD guys run about the average of difference between 400 and 1500m splits.

In this case it is around 5.3 seconds, which over 800m comes out too 2.00.6 or so.

The one thing I have notice with one of my md runners I help in resistance and speed work with is that once he did some acceleration and in and outs his perception of speed changed and enabled him not to sit at a pace, and was a bit more aggressive in the first 200-400m of an 800m

Don't know if this will help but a few years back for some 800/1,500 runner we used an unweighted sled for 3 weeks with the 250m to 350m run throughs. They made considerable gains in times for both distances. I put it down not so much to speed perception as the times were around the same as normal, more the force he was generating to pull the slight which seemed to carry through when it was removed.

i've heard Rowe does very few km's which but dont think he has run close to 4 min for 1500m - borza may be able to confirm

what i'm getting at is i think there is a tipping point where say an 20% in training mileage per week goes a long way

after pulling up sore from tue sessions and unable to run a 2nd long run on wed eve i've discovered a morning run mon & wed of only 2-3km really helps with recovery

read previously 50% of recovery is within a couple of hours after training

if you run more oftern then your getting more recovery time

how old are you anyway?

guys like rowe can get away with that because they are naturally quick and obviously the training is going to be all quality.

How many km’s per week do you think you are doing now sac?
Also how many were you doing when you did your 1500m PB?

Ok. This is the dilemma. In my early 20's off a football winter I was running about 30km p/w (sometimes less). Now in my early 30's I'm running about 50-55km/per week.

sac, give an example of a typical week of training, i think that will help more than asking what type of mileage you need to be clocking up, because mileage is obviously such an individual thing. then any improvements can be suggested.

Give us a break!
That is a ridiculously low kms per week(except perhaps a race week) for an adult with any serious intentions at md.
Get real.