Yasso 800s

"I often hear someone say I'm not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner." -Bart Yasso

This week I started my first set of Yasso 800s.  I will be readjusting my goal to 4:10 for the marathon in April. I had hoped to pull a Boston Qualifying time, but that is not realistic at this time. After the workout my girlfriend said I looked like I had my “butt kicked”.

Yasso 800s are named in honor of Bart Yasso, the chief running officer at “Runner’s World” magazine, who popularized this work out.  Here is how to do Yasso 800s:

1)      Take your marathon goal in hours/minutes and convert this to minutes/ seconds. My goal is to run a marathon in 4 hours and 10 minutes so I convert this to 4 minutes and 10 seconds.

2)      Try to run 800 meters (approximately 1/2mile) in your converted time, 4:10 in my case.

3)      Recover after each 800 by jogging or walking for the same amount of time. This would be 4:10 in my case.

4)      Start with 3 or 4 repetitions in the first week, I did 4 repetitions.

5)      Continue with Yasso 800 workouts once a week and try to add one more repetition each week until you reach 10 repetitions.

In addition to your Yasso 800s you will still need to do all your regular marathon training including your long runs. Being able to complete 10 Yasso repetitions does not guarantee that you will finish the marathon in your goal time. But if you cannot complete 10 repetitions, you probably will not hit your goal time.

 

What form of interval or speed training do you do?