8 Miles of Yasso 800s!

For my mid-week long-er run / speedwork session today, I decided on Yasso 800s.

Since the workout was 8 miles, I did 9 reps of these half-mile intervals on the treadmill. I set my recovery speed for 5.4 mph (about an 11:00/mile pace) and my run speed for 6.4 mph - a 9:22/mile pace which is equivalent to 4:41 for the half-mile (and in the theory of the Yasso 800 workout a 4:40 marathon).

It was a piece of cake!

It almost made me think that perhaps I'm setting my sites too low for a 4:40 time...should I aim for a better time?

On the other hand, a 4:40 would still be shaving 20 minutes off of my previous marathon time - almost 1 minute per mile off the average pace. That's a big improvement right there.

Also, I need to realize that I will have some great workouts and some not-so-great workouts. Don't rearrange my entire plan just because this workout was great (remember, I could barely run 7 miles during a long run three weeks ago...).

I'm not sure why I had such a great workout. It couldn't have been the weather (which I give credit for yesterday's great run) since I was running inside. Perhaps it was the music - Beethoven's 9th Symphony and then the beginning of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Or perhaps my conditioning is just getting better as my miles ramp up.

While on the treadmill, my prospective running partner for this weekend's long run hopped on the treadmill next to me for a few minutes. Our plan - to run the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda into DC and back on Saturday morning. It looks to be a 16.5 mile run...if we're feeling good, perhaps we'll add an additional half mile on the streets of Bethesda to make 17 even!