Yasso 800s

Last night I got an email of what our track workout was going to be today. The workout called for 10x800s, which is a lot of 800s. If you don't know 800's are a half mile. My first thought was surely someone will change the workout to 8x800s once we got going.

We did our normal 1.5 mile warm-up and then headed to the track. The plan was still 10x800s, with a lap (400 meters) in between each 800. The plan was to do each 800 at a 3:00 minute split. The first five were: 3:03, 3:00, 2:59, 2:59, and 3:00. Butter sat and watched as we just went round and round. After five, we stopped and got water and I of course mention...are we still doing 10 of this...and the answer was yes! Number 6 was about 2:58 and then number 7 came and included tunes of "Roll On" by Alabama and "Come on Eileen" by the Dexy's Midnight Runners (one hit wonder). Then came number 8, the tunes quickly decreased and was filled with very heavy breathing. The last ones were 2:58, 3:00, and 2:57.

The workout hurt, but I/we were glad that it was finished and that we had completed all 10 of them. I went back and read this article from Runner's World that was back in 2001( http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html ) about Yasso 800s. Is is really true... would we really be able to do a 2:58-3:00 hour marathon. No way! I don't think that is completely true, but it was a great workout and maybe one day it will be true!