Tom Brumlik, Asst Coach – Distance, Under Armour Track & Field
Full video on Glazier Drive: 800m Event Group Coaching Principles
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OVERVIEW
This is a coaching clinic segment where an 800m coach breaks down his philosophy on “base work” — the aerobic conditioning phase of 800m training.
It’s a high-level talk on the why behind base work, with the promise of a follow-up session covering specific workout structures.
KEY PRINCIPLE: BASE WORK IS INDIVIDUALIZED
The coach stresses there’s no single formula for base work. Some athletes thrive on long tempo runs (up to 10 miles at 5:00 pace for former college cross-country runners), while others need a different approach entirely. The takeaway: base work has to meet athletes where they are, not follow a generic template.
THE CORE MISTAKE MOST COACHES MAKE
Many coaches lean on training literature written primarily for distance runners — but 800m athletes are frequently not distance-oriented runners. Applying distance-training norms to speed-based 800m athletes is flagged as one of the biggest errors coaches make with this event group.
EASY MEANS EASY
Drawing on ideas from double-threshold and Norwegian-method training (without fully adopting the system — no double-threshold days for his 800m group), the coach’s key lesson from that methodology is that aerobic/tempo work must be genuinely easy. He admits his own team has made the mistake of letting tempo paces creep up because faster tempo times felt encouraging — but those gains didn’t show up in race results, because the work had stopped being truly aerobic.
TOOLS FOR CONTROLLING INTENSITY
To keep base work honest and prevent athletes from unintentionally racing each other, he uses:
- A “lever” body-weight support device — a budget alternative (~$1,000) to an AlterG treadmill
- Treadmills generally, which fix the pace so athletes can’t push each other
- In settings without equipment (e.g., a clinic he gave in Jamaica, with no treadmills or AC), he substitutes low-lactate options like short 200m repeats with rest — anything that keeps lactate low and allows athletes to recover in 24–48 hours
THE CENTRAL COACHING QUESTION
The main takeaway he wants coaches to walk away with: can you develop the aerobic system without interfering with speed development? He backs this up with an athlete’s progression — a former 51-second 400m runner in college who ran 2:03, then 2:01, then 2:00 in the 800m over successive years, while also PRing indoors in the 400m and qualifying for the U.S. team’s 4×4 at World Indoor Championships. That combination is his proof point that aerobic and speed qualities can develop together when base work is dosed correctly.
ATHLETE BUY-IN AND CULTURE
He closes on the mental/cultural side: athletes need to understand the intent of a base-work day before they walk into practice, specifically that it’s not a day to push or compete, even though the volume can make it mentally taxing. Making sure athletes understand this distinction is framed as part of the coaching job, not just the physiology.