You can't run fast what you can't run slow. In preparing for a marathon it is important to have some long runs under your belt. By long run I'm talking about 30+kms. I'm not fast so that's a big time investment. However, you either invest the time and do the long runs or you hit failure 15kms short of the finish line. That's a long walk home.
The purpose of the long run is to prepare the body for the distance. When I started strength training I couldn't do a one arm push up. My body didn't know how to do it and it wasn't strong enough. I had to develop and teach my body what to do. Same for the marathon. You can't skip the long runs. But, and here is an important but, the long run doesn't prepare you to finish fast, it only teaches you to finish.
Our bodies, like our minds, do what we have taught them to do. If I practice running long and slow guess what will happen on marathon day? I'll run long and slow. That's fine if my goal is to finish. But it's not. My goal is to finish with a better time than last time (without losing any lean body mass). Getting in enough long runs is essential to finishing but to finish in a better time I need to add speed.
I could simply run the long run at marathon pace but in practice that isn't a good idea. The marathon puts enormous strain on the body and training at that pace would lead to injuries and burn out. A different workout is required to help develop speed. Please welcome Mr Yasso.
I was introduced to the idea of running Yassos, and the story of Bart Yasso, reading The Runner's World "Complete book of running." You can read the same information online here and here. Essentially, you run and rest in minutes what you expect to run in hours, over 800m. When you can do 10 of these then you are in good shape to run the marathon in that time. Practically it looks like this: since I want to train for a 4 hr marathon I would run 800m in 4 mins, rest (slow jog) for 4 mins and then repeat 10 times. If I can do all 10 then I'm good to go. Assuming of course that I've been doing my long runs as well.
Not everyone thinks these are the best indicator or the best workout leading up to a marathon. Coach Jeff thinks that a fast finish long run is better than doing Yassos. Personally, I've never done the fast finish long run training but I do hope to include at least one of these going into this marathon. I have, however, used Yassos in the past and I find that they are a great workout and a great indicator, so I intend to stick with them.
To finish you need to train your body to go the distance. Do the long run.
To finish fast you need to train your body to run comfortably at a faster pace. Do Yassos.
12 weeks to go.
The purpose of the long run is to prepare the body for the distance. When I started strength training I couldn't do a one arm push up. My body didn't know how to do it and it wasn't strong enough. I had to develop and teach my body what to do. Same for the marathon. You can't skip the long runs. But, and here is an important but, the long run doesn't prepare you to finish fast, it only teaches you to finish.
Our bodies, like our minds, do what we have taught them to do. If I practice running long and slow guess what will happen on marathon day? I'll run long and slow. That's fine if my goal is to finish. But it's not. My goal is to finish with a better time than last time (without losing any lean body mass). Getting in enough long runs is essential to finishing but to finish in a better time I need to add speed.
I could simply run the long run at marathon pace but in practice that isn't a good idea. The marathon puts enormous strain on the body and training at that pace would lead to injuries and burn out. A different workout is required to help develop speed. Please welcome Mr Yasso.
Not everyone thinks these are the best indicator or the best workout leading up to a marathon. Coach Jeff thinks that a fast finish long run is better than doing Yassos. Personally, I've never done the fast finish long run training but I do hope to include at least one of these going into this marathon. I have, however, used Yassos in the past and I find that they are a great workout and a great indicator, so I intend to stick with them.
To finish you need to train your body to go the distance. Do the long run.
To finish fast you need to train your body to run comfortably at a faster pace. Do Yassos.
12 weeks to go.
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