How much rest? Today I was running my 800’s in about 2:50 and jogging about 400M in 2:20, is this to much rest? I could rest/jog 200M in about 80-90 seconds but that might kill me;-) My plan is to jump from 7X800 to 10X800 over the summer/fall to prepare for the Marine Corp Marathon.
Dave in VA
Typically the rest interval is the same as the run interval - for you 2:50. Jog or stand, doesn’t matter.
I’ve always had it described to me that the whole point of a Yasso was to see if you could recover within the amount of time that it took you to run the last interval. And I would think that would mean at least walking during the off time.
My father has become friends with the Hanson brothers in SE Michigan; he purchases all his shoes from them since they opened about 15 years ago. They sponsor the Hansons/Brooks elite running program and have 4 running shops in the area. The Hanson’s are great guys and very knowledgeable on all things running. They swear that your rest internal should be spent jogging and not standing still. They argue that this is paramount for improving fitness and since I’ve been jogging my rest intervals I’ve noticed significant improvement in 5/10K performance.
http://www.hansons-running.com/shop/index.html
Dave in VA
I agree with the other posters … Now with 10Ks or 5Ks the idea is to do 800s at race pace with very little rest (60 sec.) or 800s much faster (30 sec. per mile faster) with a lot of rest (2-3 min) … Mile repeats at about 20-30 sec. per mile slower than Yassos with 2-3 min. rest also work great in training for half and full marathons (if you get bored with 800s) -TB
Per the Runners World web site (who Bart Yasso works for):
“Bart suggests doing Yasso 800s once a week as part of your marathon training. Start with perhaps 4 x 800 and build up to 10 x 800. Between the 800s, take a recovery jog that lasts as long as your 800s. A good Yasso 800 workout: 6 x 800m at Yasso pace with recovery jogs between the 800s.”
So…jog the recovery, and recover as long as the interval.
Of course other workouts would serve different other purposes.
You should jog the recovery, according to some of the better runners here— there’s a few threads on this from last fall, it flushes out the lactate acid better or something. Be careful with those before a marathon. For marathons or halfs, the best thing are tempo runs: 20-40 minute hard runs. I think 800-880 interval training makes you run like a wild goose if you let get inside of you too much.
Mile repeats are even more daunting.