What’s a good pacing strategy for a relatively new runner who’s running the 1600m? This is my son’s first year of running track - he’s a freshman and has run a 4:59 without much of a strategy other than not going out too hard the first lap and then trying to run the last lap hard. Or is that the best strategy at this point - keep it simple?
Sparks…the Roger Bannister strategy is his friend. Get him to go to the track and crank off 400’s at his target pace…jog 100m easy between the 400’s. If he did 4:59 without training, ask him to go do a bunch of 400’s at 70-72 seconds and see if he can do a set of 10x400m with 100m jog. See how the times hold on each 400 and then he’s going to get a good idea of what is likely sustainable. Whatever he does, tell him to not go out of the blocks and start the first 200m on race day in 30ish seconds. There is always some kid who thinks he is a hero and has no clue of pacing and his pace basically kills the rest of the mile for the other races…
Great to see young guys revving it up. I wish I could get my son to run track. He has potential if he wants as he has good top end 100m speed, but has no interest in track.
HS runners typically go out too fast (guys running 5:00 typically go through 400m in 68), slow down significantly in the middle, and then rev it up in the last lap (esp. the last 200). It’s tough not to do this, since if you go out in 75 (on pace, but 7 sec. behind the others) the coach is typically screaming at you to “get up there.”
Have him do this: Run the first 3 laps in 75 and give it all he has for the last lap. If the last lap is sub-75, then next race do 74s and see what happens.
Dev - His high school coach seems to “get it”. At first I thought he was nuts (the kids run a lot, with a lot of intensity thrown in), but so far the all the kids are making a lot of progress. My son’s going to talk to his coach about race day pacing, and he’s going to follow his advice, but I thought I’d solicit some other opinions.
It’s kind of funny - I’ve run thousands of miles in the last couple of years; yet my then 14 year old son gets off the couch last June and starts running. And now 10 months later, after a season of cross-country and half a track season, at 15 he can blow me away at the 1600. I think we’d need to run a 10k for me to have a chance! 
Titanflexr - He does a decent job of not completely blowing himself up on the first lap, but even when he ran 4:59, his first lap was 70 seconds. I don’t think his coach will ever advise him to run slower than a 72 on the first lap, but maybe he’ll improve enough so that a 72 will be conservative. By the way, I’ve definitely heard his coach yelling at him to “get up there”!
a few years ago i had the goal of running a sub-5 mile, and asked some similar questions. in short, peoples’ advice (and my experience) was as follows:
-1st lap is largely spent burning off nervous energy, jockeying, etc
-2nd lap settles into an actual pace, and you’ve got time to look around a bit
-3rd lap really hurts, and the best you can do is hold steady and fight to maintain pace and form
-4th lap is when the fun starts, and the kick happens (if there is one), and by this point, either you’ve got it or you don’t.
i’m sure that stronger, more experienced runners would have much more refined strategies. he might also start to learn what kind of runner he is - does he have a good 40-meter kick, or is he better off breaking for a long, steady 400-meter kick? but for me, the above was about how things played out for me.
good luck to him!
-mike
The key, in my opinion, is the 3rd quarter. If you can make yourself stay mentally tough through it, you have a good chance at a solid time.
On the 1st Lap it’s hard to not go a bit faster than your goal pace due to adrenaline, the other runners, etc.
Lap 2 is about finding a sustainable effort. It should be about as fast as you can go while feeling in control. No straining or flailing around.
Lap 3 is where it gets really hard and you have to diligently guard against letting the pace slip when it starts to hurt and you know you’ve still got a “long” way to go.
I feel that most anybody can bring it to the barn in Lap 4 if you didn’t really overcook the 1st half.
Follow the leaders, if he has a bunch of energy at the start of the 4th lap tell him to take off based on his kick, maybe even with 300 meters left. Front running, anything else is chicken shit as someone said in “Without Limits”.
In reality ignorance is bliss in the first couple races and I don’t see anything wrong with blowing up. One of two things happen, he surprises himself or he really learns what he can do. I was a 400 guy and the best race I had in hs was when I was tossed in the 800 and wanted to shut the distance guys up and show I was faster then them. I just buried myself the first 600 and kicked as hard as I could the last 200. Went 2:02, said why would I ever want to do that again since I saw everything on the first lap, and to this day I realize I should have been an 800-1600 guy.
That’s why I suggested the 10x400 set with 100m jog to dial in the pace. Hopefully 70-72 seconds becomes conservative. And I agree with you, I coach a bunch of kids at XC skiing and I make them run a lot of dryland. The kids are 14-16 years old and it did not take them much to surpass my “adult best times” (not my recent best, but my times from my mid 30’s). They also really pick up the coordination really quickly when it comes to XC skiing and for that matter, running fast. You just can’t get an adult onset runner to apply that much ground force that quickly no matter how strong aerobically fit they are…adult lower limbs just lack “elasticity” if you know what I mean.
I think your question is along the lines of:
How does a 4:59 runner race against a bunch of 4:30 runners?
Clearly, it does not matter how he paces his run. The guys are much faster than he is. (I wish I could have run a 4:59 when I was young.)
I think he has to know how fast the other other runners are. From that he can set reasonable goals and make plans.
But lacking knowledge of the other runners, I would suggest: Stay with the leaders for 1/2 lap and see how it goes. If that pace is too fast, slow a bit. But don’t pick up the pace. Every half lap look at your pace, where the other runners are, how you feel, and adjust your pace.
First races. Races against strangers. Tough situations.
I was a 400 guy and the best race I had in hs was when I was tossed in the 800 and wanted to shut the distance guys up and show I was faster then them. I just buried myself the first 600 and kicked as hard as I could the last 200. Went 2:02, said why would I ever want to do that again since I saw everything on the first lap, and to this day I realize I should have been an 800-1600 guy.
I had a guy on my HS team who had just run 48 flat and thought he was hot shit, too. Jumped into the 800 the next meet thinking it would be a breeze to snag a meet record. I sat on his shoulder for 600 until he died and beat him by 4 sec, running 1:55. You still gotta train a bit for the distance even if you have speed. I think he hit 47.4 that year, and a coupld years later won indoor junior college nats around 46 flat. He should have been an 800 guy and trained for the trials but decided laziness and fatness were more interesting.
To the OP: the first 30-50 meters don’t do anything to sap your energy, so have him jump into open space. If he’s at the front, he can always try to dictate the pace and slow it down if he wants. I’d say shoot for a goal time of 4:50, going something like 70, 74, 74 and whatever he has left. Kick begins at 400m to go with a slight increase in tempo and then ups each 100 thereafter. Good luck getting him to try and negative split; at that age, it’s just not going to happen very often, and when it does, probably won’t lead to the best times. Even at the highest levels, record efforts are seldom run that way.
I sat on his shoulder for 600 until he died and beat him by 4 sec, running 1:55.
Yeah you totally have to train for it to be successful and get your absolute best of out it, but a 1:59 is pretty awesome for the first time! Some people just don’t have the desire to train at such a high level, which is a shame because I would love to have that level of talent.
Titanflexr - He does a decent job of not completely blowing himself up on the first lap, but even when he ran 4:59, his first lap was 70 seconds. I don’t think his coach will ever advise him to run slower than a 72 on the first lap, but maybe he’ll improve enough so that a 72 will be conservative. By the way, I’ve definitely heard his coach yelling at him to “get up there”!
To run his fastest time, he needs to even out the pace (mostly by slowing down the first lap…it’s always easy to push the middle laps when others slow down). There will always be a lot of pressure to “race” (i.e. stay up with the leaders as long as possible), even though that rarely yields the best times.
HS is so tough to pace. When you have a meet with some state Hotshot running low 4:00- 4:20s mixed in with a kid just under 5:00 on the track together. The 5:00 kid looks terrible running a 70 second 1st 1/4, and still went out too fast. Then barely finishes in the same area code as the hotshot with his 4:18. Time and experience comes with time and experience. I really like the idea of trying a 72 sec first lap and even split it for 3 laps then if your kick lap is a 65. Go out at 70 seconds next time. Always listen to the coach, but pacing sense needs to be learned at an individual level. Practice is where you run those 65 sec laps pacing for a mile. I would rather see a kid have a 6 second faster last lap than a 15 second slower one. That way he thinks he can go faster each time out, not that he failed to hang the distance. If a kid is running a mile in HS and not the 800 or 400 he will probably be a cross country 5k 10k guy laters.
Got to love the HS boys. A little T kicks in, the whiskers get a little thicker, voice crack a few times and they are 20 seconds faster in the mile over a few weeks time. I was the kid who went from 6 foot tall and 115 lbs first day of school to 6 foot tall 156 lbs by Christmas freshman year. Poor mom had to buy new pants every month for me. Titan, enjoy the moment. HS goes by so fast.
Titanflexr - He does a decent job of not completely blowing himself up on the first lap, but even when he ran 4:59, his first lap was 70 seconds. I don’t think his coach will ever advise him to run slower than a 72 on the first lap, but maybe he’ll improve enough so that a 72 will be conservative. By the way, I’ve definitely heard his coach yelling at him to “get up there”!
To run his fastest time, he needs to even out the pace (mostly by slowing down the first lap…it’s always easy to push the middle laps when others slow down). There will always be a lot of pressure to “race” (i.e. stay up with the leaders as long as possible), even though that rarely yields the best times.
Luckily, nobody’s taking this too seriously, so he can go out there and learn what works best for him through trial and error. But from what I’ve seen, you’re right - he’d be better off trying to smooth out the time difference between the first lap and the middle laps.
HS is so tough to pace. When you have a meet with some state Hotshot running low 4:00- 4:20s mixed in with a kid just under 5:00 on the track together. The 5:00 kid looks terrible running a 70 second 1st 1/4, and still went out too fast. Then barely finishes in the same area code as the hotshot with his 4:18. Time and experience comes with time and experience. I really like the idea of trying a 72 sec first lap and even split it for 3 laps then if your kick lap is a 65. Go out at 70 seconds next time. Always listen to the coach, but pacing sense needs to be learned at an individual level. Practice is where you run those 65 sec laps pacing for a mile. I would rather see a kid have a 6 second faster last lap than a 15 second slower one. That way he thinks he can go faster each time out, not that he failed to hang the distance. If a kid is running a mile in HS and not the 800 or 400 he will probably be a cross country 5k 10k guy laters.
Got to love the HS boys. A little T kicks in, the whiskers get a little thicker, voice crack a few times and they are 20 seconds faster in the mile over a few weeks time. I was the kid who went from 6 foot tall and 115 lbs first day of school to 6 foot tall 156 lbs by Christmas freshman year. Poor mom had to buy new pants every month for me. Titan, enjoy the moment. HS goes by so fast.
Luckily he’s got a pretty good understanding of what’s going on, and he knows that he can’t blow himself up by trying to keep up with the front runners on the first lap. As I mentioned before, he has little experience runner or racing, so he’s improving and learning at light speed. And it doesn’t hurt to be 15 years old, 120 pounds, and have massive amounts of testosterone and HGH (both naturally occurring, of course) flowing through his system!
I know what you mean about time flying by. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking him to his first day of kindergarten. So I am definitely soaking in the high school experience.
I did a 1600m (1609m actually) race last night and have done 5-6 of them in the past. There is a local running club that does the Mile as part of their yearly grand prix series. Last night, which was my best one yet, was very evenly paced. The first three laps were within a second of each other, and whatever energy I had left I managed to burn off on lap four, giving it a 2sec negative split, or 2sec faster than each of the first three.
Even at an adult level, a LOT of people went out way too hard. Everyone thinks “Oh, it’s only a mile… I can run as hard as possible!”. A lot of people slowed significantly over the second and third laps. The one thing I make sure to do is get up to speed quickly. If you’re on the edge of 5:00-4:59, a wasted second by getting up to speed too slowly would be really unfortunate.
Even pace through the first two, the evaluate at 800meters and 1200meters as to what you have left, and how long you think you need to burn it off.
Me thinks you need to set some goals for year end, at least at school… Maybe a 4;45. so you need to go out in a 70s X three miles and burn it home. You will be close and can buid on that running 50 miles a week all sumer. Comeback in the fall and kick ass, in the fall in cross country.
My friend is a HS track coach and says that the irst 10 seconds are free. Meaning- go out hard because your heart rate isn’t up yet, so it doesn’t matter. You don’t want to spike your heart rate, but you can sprint until it gets up to your mile pace.
What are the other kids around him able to do? I would suggest that instilling some race-savvy in your son NOW is the best gift you could give him. Teach him how to win while using the least amount of effort possible. At my high school, we were taught this very early and it served us very well. Sit and kick is a tough strategy to beat.
I would agree with Dev for his endurance speed days. 10x400 was a staple workout for us, but it wasn’t everything. I was an 800-1500 guy all the way through and past college and the workouts that I personally felt got me ready to run fast were 10x400 ( 200 jog, I guess that’s why I never broke 4) and 12x300 (broken into sets of 4 just at and below 800m race pace). Those were usually done as stand alone workouts and when you left the track, you were “speed drunk”.
Typically with young runners, the learning curve is very steep, and you just need to throw quality miles at them. strength = speed. Have him start off with things as basic as 6-8 mile run, followed immediately with 4-5x 100 strides. It gets the fastwitch firing after relying on slowtwitch for so long and you can drill down form while he’s tired. Then as he gets older and stronger, you can start layering in fartlek stuff at the end of longer runs so his body knows what certain paces feel like. I wouldn’t get caught up in PACING strategy, but I would instill overall race awareness and savvy now. One thing my HS coach told me at nationals my junior year was “race to win and the times will come”. And he was very right. That of course assumes you are not going out balls to the wall and trying to just run away from everyone, but racing intelligently in the front 1/3 of the pack and licking your chops when the last 300m comes around.