MUST DO 26.2 WORKOUTS

MUST DO 26.2 WORKOUTS

When preparing for a marathon, make sure you fit these two workouts into your training
By Amby Burfoot

PUBLISHED 07/17/2007

Mile Repeats

In a fascinating article in Marathon & Beyond in 2002, veteran marathoner Dan Horvath plotted various workouts against his subsequent results in 30 marathons over a 12-year period. The most effective workout? Mile repeats. Horvath would typically run 6 x 1-mile at his 10-K race pace once a week. It turned out that the faster his mile repeats prior to a given marathon, the faster his marathon time. Mile repeats are a modified form of tempo training.

Yasso 800s

This deceptively simple workout has been used effectively by thousands of runners over the last decade. The goal, after several months of working up to it, is to run 10 x 800 meters in the same minutes:seconds as your goal time (in hours:minutes). If you want to run a 3:40 marathon, for example, you run your Yasso 800s in 3 minutes, 40 seconds. This workout isn't based on physiology; it's just a very tough effort that's got a mathematical appeal to it.