An interesting note about this,Yasso claims that your initial 1200 time should be your target marathon time: e.g. 3min.19 sec. should translate into a 3 hr. 19 minute marathon time. Hope this helps.
It is Yasso 800’s not 1200’s. Feel free to google it…
@OP I also missed you are only running 12-15 mpw. More miles (getting closer to 30+mpw) will do plenty to help your speed.
the tempo of you feet, have a quicker turnover and dont let your leg go too far in the back
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It is Yasso 800’s.
If you can do a 1200m in 3:19 you are running 67 second laps which is pretty damn fast.
You need to change your post, cause that workout you have 6-8x1200m with a 400 jog @ “balls out” pace is not realistic or completable by most triathletes.
The Yasso 800 workout is generally 10x800m with 400jog recovery. You want to aim for an effort level which produces even split times over all the intervals. If you aim for a 3:00 marathon you should be able to do each and every 800 in 3m0sec.
To get a tad more picky on the Yasso 800s, recovery time = work time. For a good majority that will be near a 400m jog…
Also Yasso 800s by no means guarantee a marathon performance, more the opposite. Bart says that a 3:15 marathoner should be able to do 10x800 in 3’15" (~6:30/mi) with equal recovery time. The work pace should be near your 5K pace – typically the pace for most intervals (except Daniels style Reps).
But 10x 800 is doable?? If you read the post, it’s the first 1200 that establishes a TIME, that’s the one that goes max effort…after that it’s expected that the DISTANCE connected with that time drops off too, so it’s NOT 6-8 1200’s. The actual distance covered will be arbitrary. The number of sets is up to you. My point with the 8 set cap is that if you’re going hard enough, you won’t want to/be able to complete 8.
I stand corrected on the 800 vs. 1200 formula.
Are you looking for the best way or the easiest way? Are you limited to running only three days a week? How long have you been running? Age, weight, medical conditions, athletic history?
What may work for an ex high school or college runner could be much different than for a 40 year old who never ran and is coming off the couch. Getting a bunch of advice from people when they don’t know anything about you may not be at all relevant or useful - or worse it could cause you do try doing things your fitness level won’t support and you get injured.
Hills make you faster. Work them in to a few runs a week and your times will come down.
If you are running 12-15 miles a week - increasing mileage and frequency should be your first priority for improvement. If you don’t have the time to add more training then a greater % of your run miles need to be high intensity. If you stick with your current 3 runs per week, I would go with 1 track workout at paces well below your 8min goal pace - the goal is to make 8 min pace feel easy. 1 tempo run workout at or near 8 min pace and your long run which will be at a slower pace.
Miles Make Champions
http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2008/02/miles-make-champions.html
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Just to throw a couple of comments in:
I am half way through Daniels’ book. What is clear to me is that there is a science to being a good runner (unless you are far more naturally gifted than I). I have not hit the part of the book with pre assembled training plans, but from the information that I have seen thus far, I am ready to start my run training in accordance with his philosophy (which can be summarized as: run lots, mostly slower than your long distance race pace, sometimes run faster, but not so much that you get injured). His book is geared towards runners, not TRIs, so that may be tricky to coordinate. I suspect I will be starting a thread about fitting his philosophy into a TRI plan soon.
On the topic of heat, I just keep telling myself that when the summer ends, I will be mediocre again instead of hideously slow. I am cruising my “EASY” runs a full 2 minutes per mile slower right now than my best training. Plus, these “EASY” runs are freaking hard. I came home last night from doing 7 miles at about 9:30 and my clothes were as wet as if I had worn them in the shower. Southest Louisiana in July . . . got to hate it.
To combine the above, I agree with one of the above posters that I can not imagine incorporating intervals, repeats, or tempo in these weather conditions. I am just happy to run and not pass out right now.
as some others more knowledgable/experienced have said, increase your mileage and frequency and add threshold runs, which are steady-fast runs of 20 to ~45min. This is what worked for me. Without the added endurance from increased mileage any extra speed from true interval/rep work won’t translate to much faster race times, meaning you’ll drop seconds or ten’s of seconds from 5k times by adding intervals/reps, but not minutes, which you probably stand to drop from increased volume.
Find your “sweet spot” mileage, which will take some time. Mine starts about 35mpw, in the past the best time/benefit seems was around 40mpw with regular tempo runs. I know this from training logs and race times. If you’re a mediocre runnner like me, its hard to get 40mpw with full tri training. Try a run focus for several months if running is your weakness. Seriously, take 6 months to devote to marathon or 1/2 marathon training and you WILL get faster over all distances greater than ~400m. This isn’t a recipe for magic speed increases, it will take months to see the benefits, but they will be big gains when they come.