Distance Running Tips from Bart Yasso

A few days ago (Oct 20th to be exact), I logged onto twitter to see a great chat topic going on. THEE Bart Yasso was starting to take questions and talk about anything related to running.

I wasn't able to take part, but I checked back after the event was over, and I learned a few good tips! Here's a number of things from Bart Yasso's twitter page:

Next he was on to a topic that I've wrestled with myself:

Over the last 2 years, I've really come to believe his next 2 points on this thread:

(I've only completed one marathon [as part of an Ironman], but I'm thinking about these tips in terms of any longer-distance race. These ideas have worked for me in 10 mile races and half-marathons.)

Someone asked how FAR the "race pace runs" should be. Here's Bart's response:

Next he went on to talk about something I HATE: 800s on the track. Specifically, HIS 800s workout: "Yasso 800s."

"...in your goal time" meaning if you're shooting for a 4-hour marathon,
you do 4-minute 800s.

He even mentioned a half-marathon version of the Yasso 800s. In this case, he has people run 400s:

That sounds like a horrible workout, but something I WILL try sometime.

Before going on to the next topic, he had 2 funny tweets regarding Yasso 800s:

Ha! Love that! :)

It's the end of the summer running season (... OK, it's been ended for some time now...), and Bart had a question about how to handle these upcoming months:

Good to hear, because (1) I think so too and (2) I know
I'll be doing a lot of cross-training this winter




Sure, I'm injured a lot, but I TOTALLY agree with this

So I hope you can use some of these tips from Bart Yasso. And follow him on twitter to be updated on future #BartChat topics! Thanks Bart!

Happy training, everyone!

p.s. If you missed my weekend post on my training / racing goals for the winter, scroll down or click here.