Yasso 800's

One of my goals is to PR my half mary in October by 10 minutes which would be under 1:45.  I read this article about Yasso 800's and decided to give it a go since I have no coach or background in this area..  So doing a little figuring, I came up with a goal pace for my 10x800's of 7:20/mile (or 3:40/800).  I decided I would make Tuesday morning, track morning or OOP morning (oval of pain).  I decided to start with three 800's and add one a week, taking some weeks off and even back tracking if needed.  The first week, I couldn't even run fast enough to hit 3:40.  Not sure if it was a cardio issue, leg turn over issue, or both, but since my half mary isn't until October, I wasn't too worried about it.  Each week, I added one for 5 weeks and my speed increased nicely.

Week 1: 3:50, 3:55, 3:53
Week 2: 3:44, 3:45, 3:45, 3:45
Week 3: 3:39, 3:45, 3:43, 3:44, 3:38 - yeah for sub 7:20!
Week 4: 3:40, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40 - treadmill makes it easy, keep up or fly off
Week 5: 3:41, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40, 3:44, 3:42, 3:40

The last set wasn't as consistent as they look.  The first 400 on most of them was 1:52 or 1:53 so I had to pull a 1:47 or 1:48 on the second 400. I don't have a Garmin, just a stopwatch.

I log my workouts at BT and they automatically get tweeted.  A really cool social media thing happened after the week 5 tweet.  One of my twitter friends replied and included the author of the article in the tweet.  (I blanked out her name in case she doesn't want it blogged).  Bart Yasso responded with his advice on my half PR quest!  Here is the exciting tweet stream :-)

So according to Bart, I need to step it up another notch for the half.  I'm not sure if I'll switch to 400's, stick with 800's or mix them both in.  I see the benefit in both and I have plenty of time before my PR attempt.  That said, the combination of my increased running load, plus the extreme fitness class at the Y, plus trainer rides have left me a little battered.  Luckily I got a travel stick from my secret Santa and I have an office with a door so I can roll my sore to the touch left calf and twingy right hammie a couple times a day.  I'm keeping up, but just barely.  I'm on the verge of injury.  As I type this, I'm wearing this for my shoulders.  Even with its faults, I can surf, tweet and blog with ice sitting on my shoulders.  Think the guys at work would mind if I made a dress shirt version? :-)  Speaking of the guys at work, I have a couple guys I hang around with outside of work and when I shared the fact that I was going to close my door and rub a stick across my legs and butt they busted out laughing wishing they could record that comment :-).

6:20 am after my workout, it was dark when I started

I'm so lucky to have this track 3/4 of a mile from my house.  Perfect warm up/cool down distance for me.  With no snow this winter, I've been able to run this whenever I want and have had the track to myself every time.