Working Yasso 800's into Your Marathon Speed Work

I was at the Chicago Marathon last weekend.  While the weather was warm, I would have been happy with my 3:16 in perfect weather.  While I was there, I met Bart Yasso (Chief Running Officer of Runner’s World).  On the spot I bought his book, “My life on the run,” and had been reading it on my return to Fort Worth.  I had heard of Yasso 800, but have never made them part of my training plans.  Here’s the basic concept:

 

You run 10 - 800 meter intervals with 400 meter breaks in between.  The Yasso pace you can maintain predicts your marathon finish for all levels of runners with some adjustments for heat and terrain.  So, if you can do 10 – 800 meter intervals at 3:15 each, your projected your projected marathon finishing time is 3 hours, 15 minutes.  If you can run 10 at a 3:30 pace, you should finish your marathon in 3 hours, thirty minutes. No one has ever been able to create a mathematical formula for this, but it seems to work with a wide range of runners.

 

So, tomorrow I will be in Austin in my second week of recovery from Chicago. I will do 6 – 800’s at 3:15 and see if three weeks from now if I am doing 10 at 3:15.  That would be my goal for Houston.  If I can get to 3:10, this my be the litmus test for my current level of conditioning.  

 

If you have tried Yasso 800’s, let me know what you think.

Marathon Recovery Tips - The Keys

This is a topic on which much has been written and most of it I would agree with.  You have to find what works best for you.  I just want to highlight those things that seem to work best for me and perhaps for you as well.  First, do listen to your body as you test it.  You will likely not want to do much of anything, but you must move, stretch, hydrate, and eat.  Here are my recommendations:

1. Keep moving after the marathon.  In larger races you have no choice since you have a lot of walking afterward.  If I stop after a race even with electrolyte supplements, I am likely to cramp.  I try to net out at least a mile of walking after a long race.
2. If you can get a quick massage and some gentle stretching in, now is a good time for it.  If you have to wait in a line for it, spend the time stretching and lightly pacing to keep from stiffening up.
3. Get plenty of water, electrolytes, and carbs back in quickly.  Your body is thirsty for nutrition.  You may not feel like eating, but you can probably handle OJ and yogurt.  Reverse carbohydrate load over the next day or two.
4. Remember that recovering from a marathon is a lot like recovering from an injury.  Remember RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation).  You need to guard against inflammation which is going to slow your healing and trap all that lactic acid in your muscles causing pain tomorrow.  So, find some ice and a way to put you feet up after your walking.  Some Motrin will help with the inflammation as well. If you can find an ice bath or cold pool/lake, that works as well.  Ice is my favorite recovery tool.  A nap in the afternoon will be blissful.
5. You may not feel like running or even walking for a few days, but you be glad if you at least do some spinning or power walking the next day.  Just remember to start out really slow.  Listen to your body, but not 100%.  Your body will probably tell you to do nothing.  The spinning or walking will not only warm up and loosen the muscles, but will aid in flushing the remaining lactic acid and byproducts of your muscle.  Your muscles and joints may be sore, but they should no feel like they are grinding.
6. When you get back to running, keep it slow and try to keep your heart rate to no more than 75% of max for the next week or two.  Now is not the time for machismo. Sometimes I am running lightly by Tuesday.  Sometimes it is Wednesday.  In my earlier marathons, it was not until Thursday.

Chicago Marathon

So, I have decided to start blogging again about running.  If you are reading this, there is probably some good insights in here.  I stopped blogging just before Chicago last year.  It was the hot and memorable 2007 race.  So hot they stopped it.  I was trying for a 3:30 to qualify for Boston.  I was ready, but it did not happen that day.  We come a full year later and here we are:

I was looking forward to a nice flat, fast, and cool marathon after last year here.  2 out of 3 is not bad.  Anyhow, Ellie Alexander, Kim Gray, and Santos Salinas were also running.  We had a great pasta meal Saturday and I think I downed at least 600 grams of carbs throughout the day.  I skipped the beer. Before the race I loaded up on oatmeal and electrolyte capsules which I also took during the race along with 6 GU’s.   The heat was the only issue.  Some cool breezes, lots of fluids, huge crowds as usual.

I must have checked the weather 40 times in the past week.  It seemed like every time I looked, the morning low was forecasted higher.  55, 57, 58, 60, 61…  When I woke up Sunday it was already 67 at Soldier Field and most of the other readings were 62-65.  It was like last year minus the 90 percent humidity and maybe 5 degrees cooler.  I felt pretty good and was in the B corral so I did not have quite the wall of people around me this year.  Thankfully is did not approach the 80’s like last year.

My goal was 3:20 and my plan was to just try to stay under 7:30 (I needed to average 7:38) as long as possible.  I never did hit a wall, but my legs were pretty weak by Mile 22.  I had to dial it back to 7:45 for the last 4 miles before the sprint for the finish.  My calf muscles began to spasm before I got to the free beer.  Thankfully they had a lot of people to help and lots of ice.  I missed the obvious tactic of crossing Lake Shore Drive and standing in Lake Michigan.

At Chicago there is a lot of walking.  So, this helped along with the 4 Motrin, a massage, water, and electrolytes.

I was very happy with the result, but it was nowhere near the emotional rush of Cowtown this year.  Maybe next year, Chicago will have Chicago weather while I run St. George with Jeff Wills.  It will probably snow in Chicago.