800s for marathon training?

You betcha I do 800s as part of my marathon training. In fact, I did some this morning. If you don't know what an 800 is, then you should just stop reading my blog. An 800 is 1/2 a mile or 2 laps on a track, but really....if you didn't know that....just wow.

There's a marathon specific 800 workout called "Yasso 800s" that was created by Bart Yasso...if you don't know who he is, you can google him. Anywho...With Yasoo 800s, you try to build up to doing ten 800s in the same time as your marathon goal time. These are not done at marathon pace, they're faster than that. If you're goal marathon time is 3:40 (which is 8:23 per mile pace), then you try to hit each 800 at 3:40 (which is a 7:20 mile pace). If you're goal time is 2:50, you try to hit the 800s at 2:50. If you're goal time is 3:15, then you try to hit the 800s at 3:15.. Do you get it? It's pretty simple really.... Then between each 800, your recovery is a jog that is the same number of minutes that it took you to do the 800.

Now, you would want to start these a couple of months in advance, starting with just four 800s and then adding 1 each week until you reach 10. This workout really works. If you can do 10x800s at your goal marathon time, then you're definitely in shape to be able to hit it.

Don't forget about your normal marathon training though, you've got to get that in.