MIDDLE DISTANCE — 800m / 1500m

800m and 1500m plans built around your event rhythm.

Middle-distance running demands aerobic capacity, lactate tolerance, and pure speed in the same week. TrainPlan holds all three with a session calendar that actually fits.

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Free for 30 days. Then €9.99/month or €69.99/year. Cancel anytime.

Built around your schedule, not the other way around.

Tell TrainPlan which days you can run. It builds the week from what you actually have, not what a generic plan assumes.

Adapts when your training data says it should.

Missed a session? HRV tanked? Heart rate spiked on what was meant to be an easy run? The plan rebuilds the next week accordingly, and tells you exactly what changed.

The session mix your event actually needs.

800m runners get more speed endurance and shorter rep work. 1500m runners get more aerobic threshold and longer reps. The plan asks which event you're targeting and structures the whole block around it.

SAMPLE WEEK — 1500m

A week from the threshold-plus-speed phase.

Four running days, one strength session, two honest rest days. Most TrainPlan users train on exactly this pattern. Have more time? The plan adds. Only three days? It adapts to that too.

  1. Monday

    Rest

    Rest

    —

  2. Tuesday

    Threshold

    3 × 2 km at threshold, 2 min jog recovery

    Zone 4

  3. Wednesday

    Easy

    6 km easy with strides

    Zone 2

  4. Thursday

    Rest

    Rest or 30 min easy

    —

  5. Friday

    VO₂

    5 × 1 km at 1500m pace, 3 min recovery

    Zone 5

  6. Saturday

    Strength

    Strength + drills (45 min)

    —

  7. Sunday

    Long

    10 km long with 4 strides at the end

    Zone 2

800m athletes swap the Friday 1km reps for 6 × 400m at goal pace and a shorter Sunday long run.

IN THE APP

800m and 1500m, planned like track events.

Pick your event, get reps and rest that match it, and see the block that leads there.

  • TrainPlan training targets screen listing 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon, 100m, 200m, 400m, middle distance and multi-event
    Training targets Pick the distances you're training for, from 100m to marathon.
  • TrainPlan session detail screen showing warm-up, main set and cool-down with target paces and heart-rate zones
    Session detail Warm-up, main set and cool-down, each with its target pace and zone.
  • TrainPlan plan screen showing an 18-week marathon block with base, build, peak and taper phases on a timeline
    Your plan The full block to race day — base, build, peak and taper on one timeline.

TWELVE-WEEK BLOCK

Three phases and race sharpening.

  1. Aerobic base (weeks 1–4)

    Mileage, threshold, and strides. The aerobic platform the faster work will sit on.

  2. Specific build (weeks 5–8)

    VO₂ reps and race-pace intervals arrive. Threshold stays but drops to one session a week. Strides become a near-daily habit.

  3. Competition prep (weeks 9–11)

    Speed endurance dominates. Sessions shorten, recovery lengthens, race-pace work is rehearsed until it feels routine.

  4. Peak (week 12)

    Race week. One sharpener early, total rest the day before, fresh on the line.

See how adaptation works

Targeting the 800.

Speed endurance bias. The plan doesn't waste your Tuesday on a 3km tempo when the race is two laps.

Targeting the 1500.

Aerobic bias with a VO₂ anchor. The plan protects your mileage so the race feels shorter than it is.

Racing both over the year.

Block planning across the season — the 800 build sits inside the 1500 base. TrainPlan sequences the peaks so neither gets shortchanged.

New to the track.

The plan eases you onto an oval with drills and submax reps before the first race-pace session. No assumption of track fitness.

What the plan reads

Current fitness from a test event or recent activity. HRV trends where your watch reports them. Sleep patterns across weeks, not just last night. Your rating after each session — 'how did that feel?'

What you've got to work with

Gym tier (none, home, commercial). Running shoes and treadmill availability if you share them. Cross-training sessions pick themselves from what you can reach — not what we wish you had.

What we work around

Days you can't run. Preferred session times. Injury or movement exclusions. Other races in the same block. The plan respects all of them without needing a nag.

WATCHES & PLATFORMS

Works with what you already run in.

Sync your runs automatically. TrainPlan reads heart rate, HRV, sleep, and pace to keep every session honest.

Garmin

Runs, heart rate, HRV and sleep, through your phone's health store.

Polar

Runs, heart rate and sleep, through your phone's health store.

Strava

Time, distance and calories from the runs you record in it.
See all integrations

FAQ

Middle-distance questions.

The plan rehearses negative-split 800s in training — second 400 faster than the first. It’s the racing pattern that rewards the 800m rep work you’ve been doing.

One weekly threshold session, yes — it raises the aerobic ceiling that speed-endurance reps draw on. Cut it entirely and your last-lap fade gets worse, not better.

Yes. The plan treats cross-country as aerobic base work. Track-specific sessions get reduced during XC season and ramp up again once your target races are ahead.

Once a week for most of the block; twice a week in the final three. The plan won’t exceed this without your data showing recovery keeping up.

Most of it, yes. Threshold and tempo work translate to the road. For race-pace reps, the plan flags sessions that genuinely need an oval and suggests near-equivalents if you can’t reach one.

READY?

800 or 1500. Twelve weeks. Earn the last lap.

Thirty days free. Pick your event — the plan handles the rest.

Free for 30 days. Then €9.99/month or €69.99/year. Cancel anytime.