Yet Still More Yasso's

Today was track day. As I did last week, I resolved to plan a workout that would scare me. I decided upon Yasso 800’s in a 2:35-2:40 range – ten of them.

I ran with T. to school and kept going from there to the track. Lots of little things didn’t feel right – my butt muscles were sore, and I can’t figure out why; that smoothie I drank for breakfast was sloshing around my stomach; last night’s rain made the polyurethane on the track just a little slick and gave off a wicked glare when the sun came out (I didn’t bring sunglasses); etc., etc., whine, whine.

You can see where this is heading. First 800 goes by in 2:45. That normally puts a damper on the whole set of intervals, but today it just got me to say “let’s see what you got.” The second rep was in 2:39, giving me hope, but then the next two were in 2:41 and the fifth was in 2:40 and I know that I’d unwittingly got myself into a groove/rut a little slower than I wanted. Another 2:41 and then a 2:45, meaning I’m going to have to push on the last three. Push I did and managed to get 2:43, 2:45; and 2:43 for the last one, in which I really had to squeeze out on the last lap. I felt sick to my stomach afterwards, which was a strangely gratifying way of telling myself I couldn’t have done any better today.

So I reached a little too far with my goal today but I knew pretty quickly that goal was not going to work. It’s just a feeling I got, and came through both mentally and physically. So I shifted down to 2:40-2:45 range, which, if these Yasso’s predict marathon times, is probably where I should be. I’m also seeing that this is about where I was last time I did the Yasso’s, on September 27 (3 weeks ago).

11.5 miles total, counting the warm-ups and recoveries. I’m glad they’re over and I can now go on with my day.