Horrible night for a track workout, but once out of the house I was very up for the 10 x 800m repeats (or Yasso 800s) ahead of me.
From the McMillan Running web site:
The theory behind Yasso 800s is that your time in minutes and seconds for a workout of 10 times 800 meters (two laps of the track) with equal recovery time is the same as the hours and minutes of your marathon time. For example, if you can run 10 times 800 meters in three minutes and 20 seconds with three minutes and 20 seconds recovery, then this predicts that you can run three hours and 20 minutes for your marathon. Run 2:40 for the 800s and you can run 2:40 for the marathon.
My experience, though, is that Yasso 800s predicts about five minutes too fast for most marathoners. Using the example above, my experience has been that 10 times 800 meters in 3:20 with 3:20 recovery yields closer to a 3:25 marathon for most competitive runners. Because this workout is easy to do, I try to include it two or three times in a marathon training cycle. It not only provides a good predictor of marathon pace but allows you to chart your increasing fitness – a big confidence builder.
The strong winds and rain made conditions far from ideal, but I was determined to do my best and complete the 10 repeats. Pace judgment was also quite difficult in the dark so it was very much a run by feel type of workout.
Here’s how I did…..
Splits: 2:52, 2:53, 2:53, 2:51, 2:51, 2:49, 2:51, 2:53, 2:50, 2:50
Average: 2:51.3
All in all I’m happy with the consistency of the splits although I must admit I was hoping for an average of around 2:50. Interesting though that I was able to run the second batch of 5 x 800s seven seconds quicker than the first batch – most encouraging!
Still a little work to do before the Richmond Marathon on November 15th, but at least there are only a couple of “tough” workouts remaining. Looking good….