I am training for my first marathon (have done an ironman but not a marathon by itself). I have read that 800 intervals using your goal time can be a great workout (i.e. if you want to run 2:45 run you 800's in 2 minutes 45 seconds)
Any experience with this workout? Is it a good indicator? How long should the rest between intervals be?
Thanks for any input.
reasonable speed workout.
Bart Yasso notwithstanding, it is NOT an accurate predictor. the "Yasso" predictor workout calls for equal time rest as the 10 repeats take.
IMO for VOmax work, the rest should be shorter. i like a 400 jog or 2 min. rest. when only doing a few, say 4-6, i've even gone with 1 min. rest.
That is a pretty good workout, but just because you can do it doesn't mean you can do it in the marathon. If you can't handle the workout, you can rest assured you can't hold the pace for the marathon. Don't forget the longs (in particular) and base volume of milage etc. The highway is littered with guys who thought that since they could do the Yasso's they could run the marathon at that pace. If you can do them, you likely have enough speed, but you also need the stamina and strength. For most mortals, the marathon is more about the stamina and endurance than the speed.
rennur_wols wrote:
If you can do them, you likely have enough speed, but you also need the stamina and strength. For most mortals, the marathon is more about the stamina and endurance than the speed.
For all mortals, I think. I'm not saying that you can ignore your 5K and 10K times and focus solely on the marathon all the time, but an overemphasis on speed work in marathon training by runners who already have plenty of speed (like me) yields someone with plenty of speed, but crappy stamina and strength.
try taking your 5k time dividing it by 6.2
but 800s work just as well probably
but the best is running a half marathon