Yasso 800s

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to do some Yasso 800s as part of my speed work. Today was the day I ran my first Yasso's.

As part of today's workout I wanted to do some speed work and run a total of 7 or 8 miles. I managed to do three Yasso 800s and a total of 8 miles.

So, if you're wondering, a Yasso 800 is two laps around a standard quarter mile track in a predetermined amount of time with the same amount of time spent doing a recovery jog before the next 800 starts again. The amount of time is based on the marathon goal. So, if you are planning on a 4 hour marathon, you run the 800s in 4 minutes and do a 4 minute recovery jog. If you are planning on a 3 hour 15 minute marathon, you run the 800s in 3 minutes 15 seconds and do a 4 minute recovery jog. Make sense. Just turn your hours and minutes into minutes and seconds and you're all set. Ultimately, the idea is to work up to doing 10 Yasso 800s at your goal and that is supposed to predict your ability to make your marathon time.

Whew, that was a long explanation. Google Yasso if you want to learn more. Anyway, I did three in 3 minutes 15 seconds each with that same time spent in a recovery jog. If you do the math, that is a 6 minute 30 second mile pace. It felt like a good speed workout. What I liked best about it was that it was a faster pace than I ever run except when I run 5k races. It has never made any sense to me that I expect to run better 5k's while never running close to that pace. And if I don't run better 5k's, then my marathon prediction time never gets better......

I guess we will just have to see if these workouts are helpful. To be honest, the research I've done suggests that Yasso 800s are mostly used to predict marathon times and they don't do it all that accurately. Hmmmm. Well, they do allow me to run faster sometimes and that's a good thing. I do sometimes feel the need for speed and these should at least satisfy that urge.

Check out Bart Yasso's website. He is a beast. Also, you can check out a link to Yasso 800s. This is also part of his website.

Comments

[Jordans 3]

This post really had me thinking about this particular issue in way I havent before. Its something I do believe we need to talk about more. Thankyou.