Named after the legendary Bart Yasso, this is perhaps the most well-known speed workout amongst dedicated marathoners of all levels. The premise is pretty straightforward: If your goal is to run a marathon in, say, 3 hours flat, you should be able to do ten 800m repeats in 3:00 with a 400m jog for recovery between reps. A 2:45 marathoner would run their reps in 2:45, and so on and so forth. No doubt, running 10 x 800m in a split that corresponds with your goal marathon time—which actually works out to around your 5K pace, according to the Jack Daniels VDOT calculator—is a challenging workout, but it doesn’t actually tell you anything about your ability to run goal pace for a marathon. It’s simply a good workout. “For me, it was just this coincidence, correlation that I would see,” Yasso told me in a conversation we had a few years ago on Episode 36 of the podcast. “I loved that workout: 10 x 800m, 400m recovery…It was short enough that you get leg speed and long enough that you get the endurance.” Whether you call them Yassos or not (Bart does not, for the record), there’s a place in your program for 800m repetitions at a hard effort whether you’re a marathoner, 5K specialist, or something in between. I like to call 800s “the honest interval,” meaning they’re short enough to keep your attention, but long enough that you can’t fake your way through a set of them. Here are the details:
What: 6-10 x 800m at a split that corresponds with your goal marathon time (e.g. a 2:52 marathoner would aim to run their reps in 2 minutes and 52 seconds, a 3:14 marathoner would target 3:14, etc.) with a 400m jog for recovery between repetitions. If you’re not training for a marathon, or have no idea what your goal time should be, simply aim to run the 800m repetitions at your 5K pace.
Warmup/Cooldown: Warm up before the workout with 15-30 minutes of easy running followed by a set of drills and 4-6 x 20-second strides (i.e., accelerate for 5 seconds, spend the next 10 seconds at near-top speed, and then gradually decelerate to a jog over the final 5 seconds. Catch your breath for 40-60 seconds and then repeat 3-5 more times). Cool down after the workout with 5-15 minutes of easy running.
Why: This workout will improve your speed-endurance and serves as a good benchmark workout to repeat a few times throughout a training cycle.
Where: Yasso 800s are best done on the track but can also be completed on a treadmill or a measured stretch of road or trail.
When: I like to assign this workout three times over the course of 10 weeks during a marathon training block. The first time we do this workout the goal is 6 reps, four weeks later we’ll target 8 reps, and finally, 10-14 days out from the race, we’ll aim for 10 x 800m.
