Friday, February 17, 2006

Blame it on the scarab beetles...

Today's session - Yasso 800's x 6

Time / weather - 6am / clear, no wind, 15*c
Total distance - 14km
Time taken - 1hr 17.03min
Av pace - 5.29min/km
AHR - 144

Times for 800's:
3.49/3.43/3.39/3.44/3.33/3.37min

I ran to the oval in Melba to do my Yasso 800s and was confronted with signs saying the oval had been treated for scarab infestation and due to the watering in of chemicals, STAY OFF THE OVAL. What to do? I decided to run my 6 x 800ms on the cycle path instead. This was actually harder than I thought because I had no idea how fast I was going for each 800m, and when I looked at my times afterwards, I was way off target. No wonder I felt fine after the workout! The plan had been to run the 800m in 3.30min or thereabouts - I was all over the shop. Admittedly there are more undulations on a cycle path than there is on an oval but I was still disappointed that I didn't actually meet my target on any of them. So I'm blaming it on those scarab beetles!

For the uninitiated ie rundave and gronk, here is a description of Yasso 800s from the mcmillanrunning 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."

9 comments:

2P said...

Humming it to the tune of Blame it on the Boogie - I just can't, I just can't, I just can't control my Yasso's......

Hehe still a good workout though CJ.

Gronk said...

Yasso's ? They sound like something off a Lebanese menu ! Must look that up CJ...

Toasty said...

Yasso's suck!!! .... I have great respect for you ability to put 6 together .... sorry, I was lamenting my missing the ones I was supposed to do this week.

R2B said...

Good luck in the marathon CJ!

Hilda said...

That page is excellent CJ!!
Of course YOU can do those 800 they are tough.
There is so much to learn about Running, who said you put one foot in front of the other and go??

Katie said...

Damm those Beatles!!! I should give those Yasso's ago. So if I want to do a 3:50 marathon I should aim at 10 800's at 3:45 with 3:45 rest in between? Another good workout !

RunDave said...

Thanks for the explanation CJ. I might give it a try sometime.

Ewen said...

I was wondering if you did your 800s over the same 800m section of the bike path?

The great thing about the track is you can check your watch every 200m if neccessary until you have the 'feel' for the pace.

Hope your long run went well. It was so bloody hot this morning!

Rae said...

Scarab beetles! I don't know what that is, but it sounds gross!