Runners love the idea of predicting a marathon finishing time and hence the long standing legend of the Yasso 800’s. A simple, yet tough, speed workout designed by the renowned runner and writer Bart Yasso. He formulated a concept where running ten 800-meter intervals might foretell one’s marathon finishing time.
This unique training concept has become a cornerstone for many marathon hopefuls looking to boost their speed and endurance.
The beauty of this exercise lies in its uncomplicated nature, making it useful to runners of all levels. Yasso 800s offer a structured yet flexible training method that you an use to progress over the course of a training cycle.
Let’s find out more about this classic workout and how people use it to determine a potential marathon performance.
*As a running coach, I have to remind you that this is but one of many tools and that even Bart himself, a long time editor at Runner’s World and high performance athlete, has said it’s not a perfect correlation of race day performance.
What Are Yasso 800s?
Coined by renowned runner and coach Bart Yasso, Yasso 800s involves running 10 repetitions of 800-meter (or half-mile) intervals at a pace correlating to your target marathon time. The idea is if you can hit each 800m repeat at your goal…
