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New Workout: 800 Float Intervals

Like a root beer float, only better.

This is one of those new workouts I was talking about in my last post (I think it was that one?). It's your standard 800 interval workout, but instead of resting between intervals you "float" at marathon pace.

I'm not really sold on Yasso 800s. I know they're popular, but they just seem too...easy (can I say that?). For marathon training, at least. Actually here's a better way of putting it: Yasso 800s are in my comfort zone. The marathon is a race that's not in my comfort zone. Therefore, I should be doing workouts out of my comfort zone.

Seems logical, captain.

This was the first time I've tried this workout, and it was not fun. I mean, the "float" rest felt easy, which was nice...until I started the next interval, that is. And then I realized that rest wasn't really any rest at all. Essentially, this is a continuous workout, instead of the standard interval workout which starts and stops. That's what makes it tough. And that's what makes it better for the marathon that regular 800s. (I hope).

This continuous 4.5 miles took me 22:47, or about 5:04 pace. Oooohhh so that's why this was starting to get real tough by the end...

Anyway, for the 800s I was able to average 2:25 and the 400 floats were all between 80-82 (5:20-25 pace). That's about what I expected for the workout, especially the first time doing it. As my training progresses, I'm trying to step up the number of reps to 10 and decrease the 800 split to about 2:20.

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