Running under 2:00 (boys) or 2:20 (girls) in the 800 meter event is a significant challenge, but it's also a major milestone for any high school athlete. Helping your runners reach that goal takes a solid 800 meter training plan with specific speed work, though.

The goal of this article is to give you a clear understanding of how to run the 800m, with the splits needed to run 1:59 and 2:19, and to give you an 800m workout that can be...

For this runner to run a PR at a post-season national meet – be it the New Balance Outdoor Nationals or the Nike Outdoor Nationals – they must be mentally and physically recovered from the state meet.

A common problem – and one we can easily fix – is to make sure the athletes take a few easy days following the state track meet. Physically, they can handle decent training loads the week after state. But there is an...

This article is for high school runners who run the 800m or 1600m or 3200m and are “stuck” at a certain time/performance. I know this is extremely frustrating for you. Here are 12 tips from my 20+ years of coaching that will help you break through to a new PR. 

Before we dive into the tips, I need you to embrace two ideas. 

The first is that you and your coach must agree on what the “next logical step” is...

The 1600m is a fantastic event for high school runners because it teaches them how to “cover moves” and to accelerate when they’re fatigued, skills that also translate to faster cross country races in the fall. 

But a problem for many athletes is that the third lap is significantly slower than the other four laps. Kelly Christiansen, the coach at Niwot High School in Niwot, Colorado, calls this “the third lap...

This is an article for high school track coaches, but athletes and parents may enjoy it as well. 

The long run is a key workout in my training most months of the year. Both cross country runners and 1600m/3200m runners gain significant fitness from weekly long runs (or a long run every 10 days). 

And... 

When an athlete only has three or four weeks left in their track season, however, the long run should not be a key workout....

I sent the following newsletter to high school coaches the first week of April. Ensure you get on my email list here so you don't miss the next email.

The 30-90 fartlek is a workout that I first used at the end of summer training to transition into cross country race pace work. 

It’s also a fantastic workout to utilize in April and May. Here's why. 

• Your kids get an aerobic stimulus
• They run much faster than they would...

This article is for coaches of high school 800m runners, yet I’d use the same 800m workout for advanced middle school runners, as well as adult runners. 

We want to do three things in an 800m pre-race day workout. 

1. Get neuromuscularly ready to race 800m the next day. 

2. Get mentally ready to race 800m the next day. 

3. Avoid having any carry-over fatigue from this day to the race. 

You won’t have to...

Transcript - 5 min read time

This excerpt is from the Mental Skills for High School Runners course.

Jay: Your girls just finished second at the 2022 Nike Cross Nationals. What are some of the things you're doing all year long? 

Kelly: All year long to make sure that those same girls now...when we go into the track season, can run a really good 1600m. I think so much of the mile is rhythm and cadence and learning how to run a...

Transcript - 6 min read time

This excerpt is from the Mental Skills for High School Runners course.

John O'Malley - MS - 800m Mentality for High School Runners 

Jay: I want to start this off with a very simple question: How does the mentality change from somebody who's successful in 5k cross country who's also going to be on a state qualifying or even a state champion 4x800m relay?  

John: Well, I think there's two significant...