Yasso 800s

I have a rough plan of what my week of running will look like based on Hal Higdon Personal Best Marathon Training Schedule.  I don't decide my route until I leave my front door.  I have 2 choices when I get to the end of my road: I can go right and do flats or go left and do hills.  Usually I have already planned if it will be a long run, an easy run, or speedwork based on my schedule.

Today I went right and I decided to start my Yasso 800 training.  You can check out Runner's World's article describing Yasso 800, if you think that I just made it up.  Or check out Bart Yasso at bartyasso.com. 

The theory is that you can predict your marathon time based on how fast you can run ten 800 meter intervals (with a short 200-400 m jog between).  For instance, if you can run 800 m averaging 3:50 min, your marathon time should be 3 hours: 50 minutes.  

However, you don't want to just go out one day and attempt to run all 10 the first time.  I did this when I trained for the Utah Valley Marathon and it was BRUTAL!!! Bart recommends that you start with four and build up to ten, doing these intervals once every other week.

I'm just going to admit that my 800s were a JOKE this morning.  The first 2 were ok.  My goal is to run my next marathon in 4 hours, so I wanted to run each 800 in 4 min.  The first was 4:07, the second 3:53, the third was 4:23 and fourth 4:17.  On those last 2 I caught my mind wandering to things that I needed to do today.  When I looked down, my pace was just under 10 min/mile.  I came home and told my husband that from now on he was going to have to pace me so that I stay on pace.  I love to run, but I have to really concentrate to run fast.

Does this theory really work?  I found several proponents and opponents to Yasso 800s.  I personally think that there is actually some validity to it.  Regardless of it really working or not, it is a great form of speedwork.  If you have a marathon in the near future, try it out and see what you think.

I would love to hear your feed back about Yasso 800s or what you are doing to mix things up with running.