Change Up

OBJECTIVE
dynamic stretching warm-up
1-mi. warm-up @ recovery pace
1x3K @ half-marathon pace, 90-second active recovery
1x2K @ 10K pace, 90-second active recovery
1x1K @ 5K pace, 90-second active recovery
1x800m @ 3K pace
1-mi. cool-down @ recovery pace

Revised Objective
warm up
dynamic stretch
10x800 @ 3:11 w/3:11 min. active recoveries
cool down

ACHIEVED
1.80 mi. WU
10x800 (3:09/3:04/3:07/3:06/3:07/3:08/3:09/3:09/3:08/3:05)
1.78 mi. CD

total time = 1:36:43
total distance = 11.17

5:16 AM 79° 89% 2 mph

Realizing this would be my last chance to run Yasso 800's before the marathon without screwing up my taper, I changed up the plan today. Instead of mixed intervals I went to the track for Yasso's.

Of course the idea is to run them at the same speed as your goal marathon time. Since my training objectives have my marathon goal time slightly faster than 3:11, I set my Yasso objective at 3:11. I was very happy to hit every single one of them and only had a 5 second variation between my fastest and slowest 800. I jogged during every recovery segment (except after the fifth 800 I stopped to drink for about 30 seconds). The deeper I got into the workout the harder they became but at the same time it was a confidence booster because I knew I could do it. I'm sure I was helped by the fact that ChampionsFit ATP group was on the track running mixed intervals. A couple of the guys there are quite a bit faster than me so I had a bit of a competitive boost to "show them what I had".

I've found myself and subsequently read that the predictive accuracy of Yasso's for your marathon time are a bit optimistic. But that's okay. Today gave me confidence about my overall conditioning and fitness. And I won't be stepping to the marathon starting line trying to run a 3:11 anyway ....

PRE RUN
weight=161
water & ginger snaps

POST RUN
weight=157
SlimFast, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk