Every Thursday I coach around 20 runners for speed sessions at the Leamington Spa Track. None of the group, (myself included), are track runners however, we are simply trying to improve our speed, in long distance races from 10k to a marathon.

One difficulty we have is relating distances like 200 metres or 400 metres to something we actually race. The only track distance that makes sense to us is the mile. Everyone knows that a 4 minute mile is fast, and distance runners always know their mile pace, for every race they enter.

Bart Yasso a marathon coach for Runner’s World magazine has created an excellent speed session, that all distance runners can relate to. It’s appropriately called Yasoo 800′s. This consists of running 800 metres in the minutes/seconds of your marathon time.

If you want to run a 4 hour marathon, then you should run 800 metres in 4 minutes. A marathon time of 3 hours 29 minutes translates into 800 metres in 3 minutes 29 seconds. Jog 400 metres to recover, then repeat the 800. Beginners should start with 4 x 800, Intermediate runners 6 x 800, Advanced runners 8 x 800 and Champion runners 10 x 800.

If you haven’t run a marathon yet, you could use this session to estimate a time.

Run 6 x 800 as fast as you can. If you are able to keep a consistent time of  2 minutes 58 seconds per 800, then this means you have the speed for a sub 3 hour marathon; 2 hours 58 minutes.  (You still have to do the endurance training though, with long runs of 20/23 miles)!

John McNally