Yasso 800s - wow!

My last two rounds of Yasso 800s have been somewhat disappointing from a time perspective. I've felt relatively strong, but I've been slower than I'd hoped. My goal for the past few months has been to get to 10 x 800m, with an average of 3:20 or so for 10 repeats. I feel that if I can average 10 repeats at 3:20, which predicts a 3:20 marathon, I'll have enough of a margin to be able to run under 3:30, without having to run too aggressively early in the marathon.

Earlier today I said that I hoped to average 3:22 tonight. If I could do that on the roads tonight, I figured I could average 3:20 on the track a week from Saturday. Instead, I felt great on the roads tonight, and not a single repeat was as slow as 3:22. I started with a 1-mile warm-up and then started the repeats. Because I was using my Garmin on the road, I was doing 1/2 miles rather than 800 meters - close enough. I really believe in not just the predictive value of this workout, but also that performing it is essential to get me ready for the hard effort of the marathon. Yes, I believe the predictive part has worked well for me, but I think the training itself is more important than the predictive aspect. Anyway, here are tonight's splits:

3:16
3:17
3:17
3:14
3:16
3:16
3:20
3:15
3:17
3:20

The seventh repeat was slightly uphill and into a wind that seemed to be picking up (or I was getting tired). For the last repeat, I was working hard, but I just couldn't get under 3:20. My average was just under 3:17.

OK, so I just whined in my last post about being too fat, or at least too heavy. I may weigh more than I like, but I'm clearly in pretty decent shape.

Yesterday, I reserved hotel rooms for my marathon. My family is going to go along for the weekend, so it should be a fun trip.