Disclaimer

This blog is about my running experience. I am not a physician, nutritionist or personal trainer. I am a runner. I do not know it all. I am only writing from my own experiences. I finished my first marathon on June 3, 2012. Who knows where my feet will take me next!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Marathon Time Predictor ~ Yasso 800s

Today my training plan was Yasso 800s.  The Yasso 800s (named for Runner's World's Bart Yasso) are part of a simple speed workout that involves running 800-meter repeats (two laps around the track) with 400 meters of recovery in between. You aim to run the repeats in a time that's "equal" to your marathon time. That is, if you're shooting for a 3:30 marathon, try to run each 800-meter repeat in three minutes and 30 seconds.  In my case, that would be two times around the track (or 1/2 mile) in 4 minutes.

I was suppose to do this workout a couple of weeks ago, but I got rained out.  I got up this morning ready to give it a try.  There is a park close to our house that has a track, so I headed there.  My warmup was 3 miles, then I hit the track.

The track ended up being a half mile hilly, muddy trail. I was dodging puddles and people.  Not the best place to get in a groove and crank out fast repeats.  I ran it once, then just headed out to the streets.  I know the neighborhood well, so I chose half mile stretches of road that were relatively flat, hit my "lap" button and ran all out for half a mile.  I was able to do this a total of six times.  Here are my times:

Yasso #1:  4:38
Yasso #2:  4:23
Yasso #3:  4:12
Yasso #4:  4:06
Yasso #5:  3:59
Yasso #6:  3:58

Those final two laps made me really happy!  Under 4 minutes.  Could it be I'll hit my 4 hour marathon goal?

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