6 x 800 meters cutting down every two repeats.
Splits: 2:38, 2:37, 2:32, 2:27, 2:21, 2:18
Recovery: 2:20 rest between each repeat
Hannah Steffan, March 2009
When you’ve coached as long as I have at one school you save up a lot of stories…there are student-athletes who pass through your time that become legend. Some for how fast they ran, some for how hard they worked, and some for how weird they were…Hannah Steffan is legend for all three reasons. 🙂
I remember her freshman year before our first track session of the season…I said, “Hannah, make sure to bring your spikes tomorrow. We’re going to run fast…”
The next morning she pulls her car into the parking lot of the track and steps out with her spikes on. She had driven to practice in her spikes.
“Hannah, where are your training shoes?”
“Coach, you said to wear spikes.”
That was Hannah. But as goofy as she might have been…she worked hard and she ran fast. Her 16:55.53 in the 5000 meters, set in 2010, is still our school record…but the workout that I am referencing came from her 2009 track season, when she went on a tear and ran a PR in every race that season.
For us, 6 x 800 meters is pretty straight forward. I typically ask the runners to get faster every two repeats and we take a small 2:20 rest between each rep. Her official (meet) personal best in the 800 meters is 2:19. As you can tell from this session…she was in the shape of her life.
The following weekend she ran 2:19 (6th place) and 10:01 (1st place) at the Baylor University / Dr. Pepper Invite – both PRs. The weekend after that she ran a PR of 17:05.50 (4th place) at the Texas Relays. The weekend after that she ran 4:36 (1st place) at the Texas Twilight for a PR in the 1500 meters; and then concluded that amazing run with a 16:56 for another PR in the 5000 meters at the Penn Relays.
When you catch lightning in a bottle…RUN WITH IT.
Phillips Running 