They are worthless as a predictive tool.
They are worthless as a predictive tool.
Worked for me wrote:
I ran 2:34 marathon after running 2:33 high for the Yasso's. I have tried it before, and this was the first time it "worked" for me. Previously, I had NOT done sufficient MP runs and my Yasso 800s were "faster" that my race by 3 minutes.
3 minutes is not an enormous difference. You were in the neighborhood. A marathon is not like a 400 in lanes, no wind, no jostling etc.
Like all training benchmarks, its rough, and fairly accurate if you are ~3hrs.
There are a lot more runners who can do 10x800 @ 2:05 w/ 2:00 rest than can run 2:05. So its efficacy starts to tail off as you get faster.
I do 8x1k @ Yasso pace, and it seems to work in conjunction w/ other benchmarks. Its one of many signals to gauge your fitness.
No magic pill though...
I ran the 800s in 3:05 and ran 3:33:xx for the marathon. I trained at a high level, but just didn't have the guts to tough it out once race day came around.
Where did the idea of Yasso 800s come from anyway?
How far out from marathon race day are you suposed to do a Yasso 800 workout in order for it to be efecteive? Does it matter?
Where did the idea of Yasso 800s come from anyway?
Bart Yasso is the guy's name and he there was an article in Runner's World about 15 years ago on it.
Just from looking at the Self Coached Runner, which is 25 years old now, I can see there was a correlation way back then. However, it took Bart Yasso to recognize the correlation. He pronounced that it was a predictor from his own experience, but experience obviously varies greatly as reported by others.
Training for a spring marathon wrote:
How far out from marathon race day are you suposed to do a Yasso 800 workout in order for it to be efecteive? Does it matter?
I don't think that's the point of Yasso 800s. I think they're more like a guage of what kind of time you can run in a marathon. It goes like:
10x800 - avg. pace: 2:24 per 800.
1xmarathon - time: 2:24.
So, the minutes and seconds on your 800s is supposed to roughly equal the hours and minutes time of your marathon.
I think it was Abmy B that came up with the name.
tried Yasso 800 leading up to NYC. it was 15 minutes off.
I'm the Dave in the book and found this link today. You were right about how I used to run about 100 to 120 a week on average when not injured or recovering from a long race. The book referenced only shows the last 10 weeks before my 2:17 and it is also what was on my schedule (not the actual times I ran - which often were faster but I did try to run my workouts close to the posted times). I never heard of predicting a marathon performance on 800's before and it might work for some people but generally I would say that you need to look at the athlete as a whole - are they repeat mile animals, do they run 10's and 15's at solid pace, what other times are they racing. Al had me run 100's as a break because he knew I would overtrain if he didn't make me do something different occasionally. plus it was a different set of muscles.
I do a variation of yasso's worked out by doing 1500's.
It is fairly accurate at my pace (3:20--3:30)on a flat course.
I find them accurate . . . I think! My local marathon courses are very challenging and so I think on a more friendly course I'd be right about on.
haah wrote:
Training for a spring marathon wrote:How far out from marathon race day are you suposed to do a Yasso 800 workout in order for it to be efecteive? Does it matter?
I don't think that's the point of Yasso 800s. I think they're more like a guage of what kind of time you can run in a marathon. It goes like:
10x800 - avg. pace: 2:24 per 800.
1xmarathon - time: 2:24.
So, the minutes and seconds on your 800s is supposed to roughly equal the hours and minutes time of your marathon.
yes, it's more like if you CANT do 10x800 in 3 min then there is no way you can think about running a marathon in 3 hrs.
pablo wrote:
I've only done one marathon, and only done the Yasso 800's once. I averaged 2:28 for the Yassos and ran 2:34 for the marathon. I was putting in significant mileage and workouts, but the Yassos still felt VERY easy. I could've done another 6-8 at that pace. That being said, I'm fresh out of college and still have some kick in my legs, but definitely consider myself a distance guy, not a sprint or mid-distance guy.
I don't know how the Yassos are supposed to feel, but they were a cakewalk for me. I probably could've averaged around 2:23-4 had I pushed the entire workout. I may have slightly underperformed in the marathon (I was aiming for 2:30-2:32) but I definitely knew I couldn't run what the Yasso's told me.
Similar to this, I remember seeing Hall do an 800 workout at altitude on the roads faster than his Yasso marathon time. I'm too lazy to look up the video right now, though.
Dave,
Are you the Dave Odom who ran for U of H in about 1974? I ran for u of h in 72 - 74
Are the Yasso 800s supposed to be done with 60 seconds rest or with equal rest? I'm seeing both used in this thread. I would think the workout would be much more difficult with only 60 seconds rest.
I think the predictor actually worked the other way. It was to help people gauge how fast to run intervals from a marathon goal not to estimate a marathon from a set of intervals which is a poor, poor predictor of a marathon.
It seems to be pretty good at getting a pace which is roughly what you would expect a runner to be able to do for a 12-15 minute race effort so VO2 type training. 2:20 guy should be running about 14:30/30:00 so 4:40 per mile for 5k thus 2:20. 3:00 guy should be running 18:30/38:00 so 6:00 per mile for 5k thus 3:00.
Not perfect, but pretty good.