Yasso 800s - I'll give myself a pass (just).

Headed down to the new track after work yesterday for my Yasso 800s session (10 x 800m @ 2.45 with 2.45 jog recovery between each rep).

I had run my usual 8.4km recovery run in the morning (48 mins, HR 128).

Traffic wasn't the best and despite my good intentions and leaving work at 4.15pm, I didn't get onto the track until just after 5pm. 2km warmup (more on the warmup later).

There was a little bit of a headwind (westerly) around the first bend and in the back straight and some drizzly rain.

10 x 800 reps as follows:
1 - 2.39
2 - 2.45
3 - 2.46
4 - 2.49
5 - 2.44
6 - 2.45
7 - 2.43
8 - 2.48
9 - 2.48
10 - 2.41

I found the first rep pretty easy and then just cruised through the next two. Probably too much so as on the fourth rep, I went out too slow on the first lap and couldn't make it up over the second which was a bit annoying. I think the first 3 reps had given me unrealistic expectations of a pretty straightforward session as it got a lot harder from there with reps 5 - 8 taking a bit of effort. Reps 8 and 9 weren't the greatest so I decided to make sure I ran sub 2.45 on the last rep to ensure that my average overall was hopefully around 2.45. A 2.41 final rep resulted in an overall average of 2.44.8

The last time I did this session was in early March in the lead up to Boston. That time I averaged 2.46 in better conditions and in the morning (as stated many times, I am not a fan of afternoon/evening running) so this was a definite improvement with the majority of the reps being at the pace I wanted or faster. I wanted to run 2.45s and I averaged just under that so I will give myself a pass for this session.

With the warmup and warmdown and the recovery running between reps, this session works out to around 17km so it made for a 25.4km day.

I had a shower and got changed at the track (Skins under track pants) and headed home at around 6.30pm. It absolutely bucketed down on the way home so I was very lucky to have got finished ahead of that.

Back to the warm up - here's a tip: If you ever want to feel self consciously inadequate as a runner, just make sure that you are doing your warmup laps at the same time as two Kenyan runners are running some easy laps being filmed by a camera crew. Those guys just glide across the track, loping along. Hopefully, I didn't end up on anything being filmed as the contrast in styles would be embarrassing. I think the two runners were Joel and Gilbert who were featured in a story in the weekend's Sunday Times. Even running easy in track pants and jackets, they looked super impressive so hopefully we will get a good view as they run past in the City to Surf Marathon before we start the 12km.

18.4km medium long run tomorrow before another recovery run and then a (tentatively planned) longish run in the hills with Sandgroper on Saturday. About time I got some real hills in ahead of Rottnest.