How To.....Yasso 800

Day 55 of run streak. 55 days! How?! I have no idea how I have got here but with no races in the near future I figured it was time to have a go at a couple of technical runs to see if it would help me to improve my overall pace.

The Theory

The Yasso 800 theory was created by Bart Yasso, Chief Running Officer at Runner's World. Bart's theory is that the pace you train at for the distance of 800 metres is in a direct correlation with the speed at which you could run a marathon. For example, Bart says that if you can run 800 metres in 3 minutes 20 seconds, you will be capable of a marathon time of 3 hours 20 mins, a 800 metre time of 2 minutes 50 seconds would get you a 2 hour 50 marathon, and so on and so forth.

In training, you should aim for between 3- 5 Yasso 800s and work up to eventually achieve 10 in one training session. The rest time between each Yasso should be a recovery for the same length of time it took to do the effort. Obviously this alone to try and achieve a target marathon time would be ridiculous so this training is recommended once a week as part of a full marathon training plan.

....Really?! How accurate can this really be? I've already written off another marathon post London for a long time but with time on my hands, I thought I'd give the theory a go and see how I got on.

In Practice

Before setting out, I needed to work out what would be an ideal pace. As I won't be doing a marathon I decided to bend the rules slightly to work on a target pace for a 5k distance. The pace obviously needed to be quicker than what I currently work at (otherwise what would be the point?) so I decided on 7:20m/m pace as being able to maintain this for a 5k would get me a PB.

Maths arrghh! 800 metres is pretty much half a mile so my target time for 1 Yasso would be 3:40. I set the intervals on my Garmin to an effort of 0.5 mile and a rest period of 3:40.

Scores on the doors!

When doing intervals, a flat route is always ideal to  achieve maximum results on efforts so the local park was the ideal location where one lap is just under half a mile. It also meant my fan club could join me and cheer me on, aka Lee and mini-me.

A half mile warm up and I went into my first effort.  Only half a mile at 7:20 pace, only!! Maybe I should have allowed longer to warm up or maybe I underestimated how hard it would be to try and hit a  pace that has always been 'just' out of reach when trying  to maintain for longer than a mile. As I came into the  last 0.10 of the interval, I hit a corner and lost about 4 seconds from my time ending the first Yasso on 7:23. The recovery time soon came and went and my Garmin  beeped down to the second Yasso. I was so done. So done with this stupid idea, whose idea was it to try this anyway?! I dug deep to get down to my target pace, this  time falling short by 7 seconds- not too bad considering  how hard it felt. After a second rest period, I finished my last Yasso hitting 7:30 pace. That was hard! 800 metres never sounds a lot but oh it really is!

Speculation

Wherever there is a theory, especially one as detailed as this, speculation will always follow. A simple Google search of Yasso 800 will bring up optimistic reviews and those incredibly doubtful that such a specific theory could actually work in practice. The main argument again the success of Yasso 800s is that a marathon is predominantly an aerobic event, running at a pace that allows your body to efficiently use the oxygen you inhale allowing for long distance whereas the theory of Yasso 800s works based on speed training (anaerobic). It is relatively common to find runners training for long distance not fully appreciating the importance of aerobic training, not ensuring distance over speed is favoured which can lead to burnnig out in a race due to insufficient experience of pacing.

That is not to say that speed training is not important and can be a great way to train the body to a quicker overall maintainable pace. 

Although I remain highly skeptical as to whether the Yasso 800s method would work for anyone except Bart himself and perhaps a handful of others, the main underlying theory of high intensity interval training is proven to be highly effective and one championed by serious athletes. I'm happy to take this particular theory with a pinch of salt and keep working on intervals to reach my next PB.