I
think runners, coaches and writers should be able to do the
same. And I'm going to take this opportunity to invoke the privilege.
Last
fall I discovered an amazing new marathon workout. Amazing,
because it's the simplest marathon workout you've ever heard.
(And simplicity in marathon training, as in physics and astronomy,
is much to be prized.) Amazing, because I'm convinced it actually
works.
In
truth, I didn't find this workout. It found me, through the
person of Bart Yasso, the race services manager at RUNNER'S
WORLD. But Bart's not much of a proselytizer, while I sometimes
am, so I'm going to seize this chance to name the workout. I'm
going to call it "Yasso 800s."
Bart
and I were at the Portland Marathon last September when he told
me about his workout. He was training for a marathon later in
the fall, so two days before Portland he went to a nearby track
and ran Yasso 800s. "I'm trying to build up to ten 800s
in the same time as my marathon goal time," he told me.
Huh?
Half-miles in 2 or 3 hours? I didn't get it.
Bart
saw that he'd have to do more explaining. "I've been doing
this particular workout for about 15 years," he continued,
"and it always seems to work for me. If I can get my 800s
down to 2 minutes 50 seconds, I'm in 2:50 marathon shape. If
I can get down to 2:40 (minuses), I can run a 2:40 marathon.
I'm shooting for a 2:37 marathon right now, so I'm running my
800s in 2:37."
Suddenly
things started to make sense. But would the same workout apply
to a 3 hour marathoner? A 4-hour marathoner? A 5-hour marathoner?
It didn't seem very likely.
In
the next couple of weeks, I decided to check it out I played
around with lots of mathematical equations and talked to about
100 runners of widely differing abilities (from a 2:09 marathoner
to several well over 4 hours), and darn if the Yasso 800s didn't
hold up all the way down the line.
Now,
this is a remarkable thing. Anyone who has been running for
a few years, and in particular trying to improve his or her
marathon time, knows that training theory can get quite complex.
You've got pace, you've got pulse, you've got max VO2, you've
got lactate threshold, you've got cruise intervals, you've got
tempo training, you've got enough gibberish to launch a new
line of dictionaries.
And
now you've got an easier way: you've got Yasso 800s. Want to
run a 3:30 marathon? Then train to run a bunch of 800s in 3:30
each. Between the 800s, jog for the same number of minutes it
took you to run your repeats. Training doesn't get any simpler
than this, not on this planet or anywhere else in the solar
system.
Bart
begins running his Yasso 800s a couple of months before his
goal marathon. The first week he does four. On each subsequent
week, he adds one more until he reaches 10. The last workout
of Yasso 800s should be completed at least 10 days before your
marathon, and 14 to 17 days would probably be better.
The
rest of the time, just do your normal marathon training, paying
special attention to weekend long runs. Give yourself plenty
of easy runs and maybe a day or two off during the week.
But
don't skip the Yasso 800s. This is the workout that's going
to get you to the finish on time. For more workouts for a marathon
or any other distance go to Runner’s World magazine online at
www.runnersworld.com
Subscribe
to RUNNER'S WORLD today ... and download your FREE screensaver
with your order!
Just go to http://www.runnersworld.com/service/home.html
