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thanks for the reply! but, I feel like I've got some explaining to do


(cliffs on the bottom of this novel but to any reader, I'd appreciate if you read the whole thing).....


my school is pretty heavy on the speed side. we've got 2 guys who can go 22.5 consistently in meets. one of em, who happens to have a pr of 21.9 FAT, also split 48.6 in the 4x400 relay..... so yeah, he's our best 200/400 guy. the other one, despite being completely new to track and having a suckish start, can go 11.1 in the 100. we've got another guy who's gone 11.3 in the 100 but his 200 and 400 times really drop off, as in 24+ and 55+


on the distance side.... well, there's me. I am the school record holder in the 800 and 1600, which is really sad because my times are NOTHING like school record times should look like. a proper 800 and 1600 would be 1:51 and 4:15 or so, but yeah no dice, 1:59 and 4:31. every meet I race the 800 and 1600 and leave the sprints to the other dudes. the 22.9 was in practice once. I was pacing the sprinters and they told me to go 25 for each 200. I'd never gone that fast before so I just assumed I'd have to go all out... ended up going too fast in 22.9. but, that's in practice and therefore stopwatch timed. I'd say it could be anywhere between 22.5-23.5, more likely on the 23.5 end of it, but I heard 22.9 so that's what I like to tell people the 400 PR was in the leading leg of a 4x400 relay so also hand timed (coach's split times) and could therefore also be a little bit off, anywhere from 50-51.

fwiw, I've also done 4x300m in 36-37 seconds each with 2 minutes rest in practice once, suggesting I probably have sub-50 second 400 speed or so, but never really got to run the event (only raced it once in the relay where I went 50.6)

tl;dr the sprint times are all hand-timed and therefore cannot be 100% trusted


but... they do give a rough estimate of my speed, which is all I really need as information as a 800m runner. I definitely agree with you that I'm more of a 400/800 guy than a 800/1600 guy, but then again I've been trained by sprint coaches for 4 years now and never been trained by a distance coach!



anyways, I've got a PATHETIC vertical (tested today, before a run so pretty fresh), and my 100 reeks pretty bad too (only ran it in one workout in practice, handtimed again, 11.5 so slower on average than my 200). these 2 things suggest that I have a LOT of work to do in the way of max. strength, for power production. I've read some vertical jump literature, and in a Q&A Kelly Maggett said that if you're a decent sprinter but a shitty jumper you probably have good max speed but bad acceleration and also bad explosiveness, and that strength training is the way to go. so you're DEFINITELY right that weightlifting can only help.


problem is.... I'm lost. I will share with you my 2 experiences with weightlifting. during spring break, the week before my breakout 800, there were some dumbbells up to 50 lbs. so grabbing a 40 pound dumbbell in each hand (it was all my hands could hold), I did bulgarian split squats 1x3 on each leg, stopping only because my grip gave way (I probably could have done maybe 1 or 2 more reps, not really sure, my legs were feeling a deep burn but not too bad). this was at the end of a 12 mile moderate-paced run, so my legs were kinda tired. a little bit of soreness the next day but I still went skiing for 7 hours and was able to run 8 miles at normal speed with no problems.

2nd experience. my friend who plays basketball invited me to the weight room with him. while he did his business, I squatted 3x5 of 135 lbs. then we went outside, "jogged" a 5:50 mile, ran some laps around the track backwards (3 of them), and then I ran 8 miles. legs were trashed the next day, so I took a day off. tried squatting again the day after, managed 1x3 of 120 pounds and my legs gave out. no running that day. my legs felt so trashed that I was going less than 5 miles a day, super slow, for the next 7 days. I decided that weightlifting was good, but it would take too much away from the running, which is more important to me. looking back, it was probably the backward laps because I do like 100 lunges a day and I'm never sore, and also I was able to 1leg squat +80 pounds and not be sore the next day.


thus, I put it in the back of my mind and concentrated on endurance. however, talking to a guy who went 1:46 in the 800, I feel like I should give it another shot. plus, colleges these days are recruiting 800 runners based on their 400 times, so it's greatly to my advantage to put down some fast ass 400 times... to improve that, the best way given my lack of power is weights. everyone always says jumping carries over perfectly to sprinting, so here I am, at (perceivably) the most hardcore jumping community on the internet!




so now that that super long background is out of the way, what would you recommend I do to get started with lifting, something hard enough to increase my strength (can be super slow, I'm patient) while still allowing me to put emphasis on the running?



cliffs:
I'm weak as fuhhh
I wanna be able to increase strength by weightlifting, but still put an emphasis on the running, like still running twice a day everyday
....help?