800's and Bart Yasso

Back down to the track tonight for a set of 8x 800's. Was looking forward to this session but have been struggling with the beginning of a cold in my chest again (aargh!). Hopefully I can ward off the evil sickness-spirits without much impact.

It was a windy evening tonight, thankfully minus the rain we have seen a bit of here recently. I seem to be doing a reasonable job of dodging the worst of the weather at the moment. Thank god for training only three days per week!

Covered the reps in a 3.09min average with a 3-second spread so a fairly even paced effort:

8 x 800m (1.30 min. RI) in 3.08/3.07/3.09/3.09/3.09/3.09/3.10/3.10

Yasso 800's
There is a fairly well-known (read: marathon geeks have heard about it) article that appeared in Runner's World way back in 2001 about something they called "Yasso 800's" after the fellow who coined the theory, oddly enough called Bart Yasso.

The basic premise is that a runner who has put in requisite training for a marathon should be able to complete a set of 10x 800's in about the same time min:sec as they can do the marathon hrs:min. So running 800's in - like me - a 3:09 average suggests I can run a marathon in around 3:09 (others suggest up to 5-min slower than this time).

Of course, some people are better suited to running short intervals than long races, but on the whole, he found this applied from elite marathoners all the way down to (ahem) plodders.

It certainly is one more thing that gives me confidence that I can run to my 3:16 target.