Art was in town this week so we were trying to find some time to go on a run and last night was going to be the night but he had meetings so he couldn’t go. So I decided to go to the “Green Oval” to do some Yasso 800’s.
If you have never done Yasso 800s, here is how they work. They were made up by Bart Yasso who is a Runner’s World writer. The idea is if you can do 10 Yasso 800s in a certain time, that predicts your marathon time. The 800 indicates 800 meters on a track (about 4.5 meters shy of a ½ mile). If you want to run a marathon in 4 hours 10 Minutes, you should run your 800s in 4 minutes and 10 seconds with 4:10 rest. And then over 10 weeks, work yourself up to doing this for 10 reps. In theory it sounds good and it actually is a good workout, it just doesn’t predict my time well because I am better and long sprints than long distance. Since this is the case, I try to do my reps faster with less rest for a harder workout. Since my initial goal this fall is to run a 3:45 marathon, I should be doing my Yasso’s in 3:45 but instead, I do them in the 3:15 range.
So I get to the track in the town where I work and I see the infield is all torn up and it looks like they are putting in an irrigation system. No worries, I can still use the track, right? Well, one problem and here is the twist. They have heavy equipment on the infield and to not break the track, the put some foam down and then about 1.5 to 2 feet of crushed gravel to drive over. It is about 10 to 15 feet wide as well. Does this stop me? Naw! I decide to run anyways and run over the mound of gravel every lap. It is a challenge, right? It ends up being a good workout for me and I did 5 Yasso’s all in 3:16 to 3:20 even with the gravel hurdle. I was happy with this though the next time I do Yasso’s, I may try to find a different track.
If you have never done Yasso 800s, here is how they work. They were made up by Bart Yasso who is a Runner’s World writer. The idea is if you can do 10 Yasso 800s in a certain time, that predicts your marathon time. The 800 indicates 800 meters on a track (about 4.5 meters shy of a ½ mile). If you want to run a marathon in 4 hours 10 Minutes, you should run your 800s in 4 minutes and 10 seconds with 4:10 rest. And then over 10 weeks, work yourself up to doing this for 10 reps. In theory it sounds good and it actually is a good workout, it just doesn’t predict my time well because I am better and long sprints than long distance. Since this is the case, I try to do my reps faster with less rest for a harder workout. Since my initial goal this fall is to run a 3:45 marathon, I should be doing my Yasso’s in 3:45 but instead, I do them in the 3:15 range.
So I get to the track in the town where I work and I see the infield is all torn up and it looks like they are putting in an irrigation system. No worries, I can still use the track, right? Well, one problem and here is the twist. They have heavy equipment on the infield and to not break the track, the put some foam down and then about 1.5 to 2 feet of crushed gravel to drive over. It is about 10 to 15 feet wide as well. Does this stop me? Naw! I decide to run anyways and run over the mound of gravel every lap. It is a challenge, right? It ends up being a good workout for me and I did 5 Yasso’s all in 3:16 to 3:20 even with the gravel hurdle. I was happy with this though the next time I do Yasso’s, I may try to find a different track.
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