21 Posts

My blogging tool informs me that this is my 21st post. 21 is my lucky number. And speaking of numbers, I got my confirmation email from the Dublin Marathon Organizers; I'm bib number 759. A goodly number. I don't know why. At least it's not 666, or 0, or 13 or anything. I digress...

In recent weeks, I feel like I have been lacking a signature workout that gives me a sense of security going in to the race. For the most part, I've done all the work. But none of my recent workouts have really knocked it out of the park. I did a 20 miler with 15 of those miles at marathon pace, but I really had to work for some of those miles. My tempo runs were going well, but at only 7 miles of tempo, they're not exactly world class (Ryan Hall runs 15 mile tempo runs!). When planning out my workouts for this week, I remembered an old favorite called Yasso 800s. I read about them way back when I first started training for marathons. If you check out the date of the article, it was published before I started running. It's a great article but, since you don't even read this blog, I'll give you the Cliffs Notes. A man named Bart Yasso figured out by pure dumb luck that it just so happens that there is one particular workout that is a great indicator of marathon fitness. It is both training tool and planning tool in one. The math, though, is the magical part. Basically, the goal is to run 10 times 800 meters at the pace that corresponds to your goal time in the marathon. That is, if my goal is to run a 3-hour 10-minute marathon, then I run my 800s in 3 minutes and 10 seconds. I know! It really is cool! ...and pretty hard to believe. But study after study has backed it up.

Quick calculations brought me to the fact that 10x800m = 5 miles. Add a few for warm up and cool down and it's exactly what I was looking to run. The workout was an unexpected success. Not only did I comfortably complete the workout (which I've never actually done before), but I paced with an avg below 3:00! Check out the splits from my watch.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not waltzing to the start line or anything. But, man, I really needed this. I needed something to bolster my fickle confidence. The hay was already in the barn. But there was nothing really satisfying in the way of indicators of fitness. My ambitious resting heart rate goals are way off the mark. My weight is still at an immovable 150. But this, this is meaty. Maybe most importantly, it's solid enough that I wont be stupid and push myself any more before race day. All easy stuff from now on.

The weather is looking like it's gonna be colder than expected. Maybe even some 30s. This is an entirely new ball of wax. There are still 11 days until the race, so I'm sure it will change about 11 more times. But I need to start thinking about being prepared for the chill. Confidence is high, anxiety is lower. Crunch time is here. Can't wait to get it done!