March 17, 2010
Get yer Yassos off!
INTRO
As usual, I'm no expert, but I've done a few sets of these Yasso800s now, so here's what I've learned from experience and these links. If you don't know anything about Yasso800s or why you'd want to subject yourself to them, visit those links. This is not intended as a primer on Yasso800s. This is just one guy with a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch explaining to another guy with a Gamin Forerunner GPS watch how he goes about running these.My take on a Garmin Forerunner/Training Center workout is here (right-click and save-as): Oblivs_Yasso800_workout.tcx
If you'd like to see what the splits of this workout look like, here is an example on RunSaturday.
PREMISE:
Your 800m target = your marathon goal as minutes. For a 4 hour marathon, you get 4 minutes to run 800m and 4 minutes to recover (more detail below, but in my experience about 400m). Build up until you can do 10 sets at a certain pace, and theoretically you can run a marathon in that time.GOTCHA
Since the 800 is roughly a half mile, the PACE is going to be double that - or in this case 8:00/mi. I KNOW that's stupidly obvious, but it's easy to get confused going between race hours, interval minutes and pace per mile. The sanity check on the 800m PACE is that at our speeds, it's going to be around 1 minute per mile FASTER than marathon pace. MP ~ 9:00/mi., 800 Pace ~ 8:00/mi. NOT 4:00/mi. :DMY TRAINING CENTER FILE:
The Warm-up and Recoveries are open-ended so you hit the Lap button to complete them. I did this so I'm sure I'm in a good spot on my road to kick off the next set since I don't do them on a track. You could optionally automate the starts.Goals (WarmUp/CoolDown distance, target pace) are in the "Custom Name" for each leg. They are only guidelines, of course, and do not affect the execution of the workout.
Take a look at the "Targets" for the steps. Setting HR zones for the WU/CD/Recoveries sounds like a good idea to me, but in practice is pretty useless. For the actual 800s (well, half miles), I have a Speed Zone defined as "Yasso800." You can set this in your user profile, or you can remove the "Specific Target" for this step. All it really does is chirp at you if you're too fast or too slow - which neither of us can hear anyway. FYI, I have a 10 second cushion on both sides of my target, so that speed zone is 7:40-7:20 (for a 3:45 marathon goal).
THE WATCH:
I think my IDEAL screen setup would be:
LAP AVG
lap dist | inst. pace
That said, my current is:
LAP AVG
lap time | lap dist.
It's workable, but knowing my instant pace (to know if I was WAY too fast or
flagging) would be better for me. You kind of get to know the pace, but
fatigue makes all cloudy by the 5th or 6th one. The lap time IS useful
on the recovery lap, so I may stick with this layout after all. I don't
want to be switching screens per leg. Let me know what works for you.If you use the 'workout screen' and you have set the pace target, that might be good enough, but 'In desired Zone' is too vague for me.
REMEMBER to press Lap when you kick off for your sets. Again, the 800 is auto-lapped, but the warm-up and recoveries are manually advanced.
THE 800 (or Half Mile):
Don't get lulled into a false sense of security. The first 2-3 won't seem so bad, in fact you may be tempted to push your recovery cycle a little short. You can do that if you're stupid. ;) It doesn't matter much, actually, because even with full recoveries, it won't take but a few sets to get into oxygen debt. THAT is where the workout really starts and you'll have to keep a close eye on your pace to make sure you hit it. I get into full-on huff and chuff mode to finish each 800 after the first couple. If you don't want to puke, you're doing it wrong and may need to adjust your marathon goal pace.Pace will yo-yo a bit - again, especially if not on a track. Over such a short distance, it might not be so bad to go out a little quick and bank some time for when you start sucking wind. I've played these both ways, and I've got to say THAT way is a touch easier than trying to dig out of debt at the end. No negative splits here! That's how I missed #5 today - I started conservative, got behind and could not catch up.
THE RECOVERY:
Strictly speaking (The Word According to Yasso), you have as much time as the interval took. E.g. A 3:45 interval at 7:30/mi pace means you also get 3:45 for your recovery jog. Some have refined that to allow a max of 2-3 minutes recovery arguing that any longer is too much rest. _I_ think THOSE people are full of shit. :D Whichever school of masochism you choose to follow, take all of the recovery time it allows (see above re: sucking wind).THE COOL DOWN:
The Runners World marathon plan I use calls for 2 miles each, warm-up and cool-down. I think this is the first time I've stuck to that (or very close), and though I had to walk a few times on the way home (I mostly jogged (10:00/mi +/- :15)) my legs are feeling GREAT now, so I believe there's real benefit in those miles. I don't know if they squeeze out the lactic acid or what, but I'm a believer.ENJOY:
If I know you, you'll learn to love to hate these. Remember, they're not so much intended as a workout themselves, but more of a 'test' of where you are and what you're capable of. Given that, it's OK to 'fail.' Up until the last set of 10, anyway. :DHTH. Ask questions: oblivion at ratula dot net.
Posted by oblivion at March 17, 2010 03:18 PM
