Yasso 800’s Are a Waste of Time
With all due respect to Bart Yasso, the Chief Running Officer of Runner’s World magazine, I think that Yasso 800’s are a waste of time.
Bart has suggested that if you can run 10 x 800 m in the same about of time (in minutes and seconds) as your goal for the marathon in (in hours and minutes) and you have trained appropriately, you should be able to achieve your goal.
Some people have also taken this idea and have incorporated it into their marathon training programs, starting with four 800’s and working up to ten over several weeks of training.
I have a few problems with Yasso 800’s:
Yasso 800’s aren’t a good predictor of marathon finish times.
Most experts agree that they yield a result that is at least 5-10 minutes too fast. I ran a set of Yasso 800’s the other day. I ran 10 x 800 m in an average of 3:09.5 with a 3:00 rest interval. I would say that this wasn’t a very hard interval workout. The intervals were shorter than the 1000 m intervals I normally run and the pace was slower and I got more rest time. I actually zoned out during the 9th 800 and momentarily forgot whether I was supposed to be going fast or jogging. I was cruising along at a 6:30 pace. That doesn’t usually happen during hard interval workouts.
My marathon PR is a 3:29:08. While I would love to run a sub-3:10 marathon, as predicted by my Yasso 800’s, I don’t think that this is likely. I think that anyone who has decent speed on the track and regularly does interval workouts would end up with a similar result.
Yasso 800’s aren’t a good interval workout
When you boil it down, Yasso 800’s are long set of slow-paced 800 m intervals. The purpose of interval workouts is to increase your VO2max. The best way to increase your VO2max is to run intervals that have a duration of 3-5 minutes at a pace that is between your 3K and your 5K race pace.
For someone with a goal of running a 3:30 marathon, experts like Coach Jack Daniels suggest that that you should run 800 m intervals in 3:20-3:25. I would suggest that instead of running 800 m internals, to improve your VO2max, you would you better off running longer 1000 m intervals in 4:15-4:20.
Slowly increasing the number of Yasso 800’s you do is a waste of time
Typically, non-elite marathon runners run a maximum of one interval workout each week. If you are only going to do one interval workout, you want to make sure you are getting the maximum benefit out of it.
Unless you have never done interval workouts before or are deadly slow on the track, I would suggest that if you can’t do 10 x 800 m in your marathon goal time, you should change your goal time, rather than try to work up to this by starting with 4 x 800 m and adding an additional 800 m each week.
Let’s say your goal is to run a marathon in 3:30 and you can only run 10 x 800 m in 3:40. Since the Yasso 800’s are usually predict a finish 5-10 minutes faster than you can actually acheive, you should probably reset your goal to 3:40.
Rather than try to run 4 x 800 in 3:30 and add one 800 per week, I would suggest starting with 6 x 800 in 3:40 or 5 x 1000 in 4:35 and gradually reduce your time as your fitness improves. If you can get your 800’s down to 3:20-3:25 or your 1000’s down to 4:15-4:20, a 3:30 marathon may be possible after all.
What is your experience with Yasso 800’s? Love them or hate them? Tell me in the comments.
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