Final 800 workout

today was our final workout on the Yasso 800 plan - we were to cap at 10 800s and today we did that workout. It was a bit chilly at 7:00a - about 37 degrees with a pretty good wind blowing down in the pit where the track it - but Sean and I warmed up for a couple miles and were ready to go.

Anyone not familiar with the Yasso plan, it goes something like this - pick you marathon finish time (say 3:00:00) - you are to be able to build to 10 800s at a 3:00 per 800 with 3:00 off each one - if you want to run 2:30:00 marathon your 800s are 2:30 - you get the idea.

I was pretty excited for today because I wanted to see where my form was - especially after running 39+ miles in two days last weekend. I really enjoy track workouts - I like the challenge of staying mentally tough for the whole time you are out there - today's workout would be over 12 miles on the track by the time we were done.

After the warm up we were on our way - Sean is running 2:45s to my 2:55s so I could use him to pace off of for the first quarter. Unfortunately we were both slow in the first quarter and 800 - guess we were not as warm as we thought. But the 800s quickly came around.

Sean knocked out his the next 8 in 2:45 with the last one coming in at 2:40 - and I got my next 8 in the 2:54 with the last one coming in at 2:50. All in all a great workout and confidence booster for the upcoming race.

It was a tough morning on the track because of the cold and the wind - we had a head wind on the back stretch which was equivalent to about 3 seconds but a tail wind on the front stretch - so it all equals out right?? I would take a morning like this on marathon dayany time - sure beats the heat.

We will still be targeting about 50+ miles this week but the long run will only be 15 miles with half at race pace and a few other mid distance runs - I also get back on the trails for a 10 miler on Thursday.

I think we are both ready for the marathon to get here and to test our training to see if we were right on or off the mark. It has been a long process considering we did not take any time off after the 1/2 ironman in November (long run was 15 miles the very next weekend). We have basically been training non stop since May/June.

After this week we will taper some and be fresh and ready to roll into Tampa to take a shot at Boston and breaking 3:00:00.

Cheers.