![]() Likewise, VO2 max intervals don’t specifically develop or improve your aerobic threshold. Research demonstrates that an increase in VO2max does not increase fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, Yasso 800’s are a VO2 max workout – you run at max speed for 2-4 minutes and then take an equal amount of rest between intervals. but the focus of the workouts should be to teach your body to run for a long time at your goal pace and to teach your body to run at your goal pace when you are very tired and have very little glycogen left in your system. You may do other work within the workout to tire yourself out or soften your body up for the marathon pace work. As Coach Nate describes it, a marathon specific workout is a run where the main body of work is run at 95 to 105% of marathon pace. Specifically, how a particular workout addresses the physiological challenges of a race and trains you to conquer that challenge.Īs Coach Nate Jenkins demonstrated with his 2007 Olympic Trials training, the key to marathon training is focusing on marathon specific workouts, especially in the latter stages of your training. Yasso 800’s – Not a Marathon Specific WorkoutĪ successful marathon training plan should almost always focus the majority of the workouts on physiological progression and adaptation. Yasso 800’s do not factor in the important issue of fuel utilization in the marathon because it never tests your ability to store and conserve carbohydrates when running. Accurately predicting a marathon finishing time needs to take this variable into account. With an equal rest, this becomes much more a test of speed than marathon potential.įinally, one of the reasons the marathon is such a difficult race is theissue of fuel – the total amount of carbohydrates you can store and the efficiency at which your body uses your available provisions. Many runners simply lack the endurance to maintain that pace for a whole mile.Īn 800 meter interval is short enough that you can gut through the session, which relies more on basic speed than an endurance based background. For example, most 4 hour marathoners could run one lap around a 400 meter track in 90 seconds, but very few could run a 6 minute mile (4 x 90 seconds). My theory is that because most runners do not have a strong aerobic background accumulated from years of running higher mileage, their aerobic endurance lags behind their maximum speed. ![]() ![]() In my own experience, both from my own training and the hundreds of runners who I’ve coached, this workout usually predicts a marathon finishing time about 5 minutes too fast. Yasso 800’s predict a time that is about 5 minutes too fast You certainly wouldn’t bet money that lowering the total number of lemon imports would reduce highway fatalities, just like you shouldn’t bet all the hard work you’re putting into your training on a correlation between one workout and your supposed marathon fitness. The outrageous lemon story is good example of why you shouldn’t base your training off correlations. Does this mean that the number of lemons imported from Mexico is causing highway fatalities? I doubt it, but there is certainly an unbelievable correlation. For example, one study demonstrated that that the total US highway fatality rate perfectly correlates to the number of fresh lemons imported from Mexico ( full study here). This is the basis behind all quantitative research methods. It is important to remember that correlation and causation are two different things and that one does not cause the other. Instead, Bart simply noticed that there was a correlation between marathon finishing time and the average 800 meter splits when performing a workout of 10 x 800 meters. Specifically, there was no scientific data that showed, physiologically, why the Yasso 800’s would be a predictor of your marathon time. What I found interesting was the reasoning behind his prediction model of Yasso 800’s and marathon finishing time. I’ve met Bart Yasso and had the pleasure of speaking to him in-depth about the “Yasso 800’s”. Let’s examine those two thoughts in more depth. Second, the specific demands of this workout do not accurately target marathon fitness – you can run workouts that will provide a greater benefit to your marathon training. we have no actual evidence to support there is an actual connection between the fitness this workout demonstrates and marathon finishing time – it’s merely a coincidence. ![]() However, as a running coach and marathoner myself, I have to take issue with this workout for two reasons. Most runners are somewhat familiar with the term Yasso 800’s, a workout that supposedly predicts marathon finishing time from a session of 10 x 800 meters with equal time rest between each 800.
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