Last year comparisons

Did 12 miles this morning at about 8:30 pace. It was very humid and about 22C.

You'll have to indulge me while I go off into engineering/math mode for this post. I've been thinking about my training paces lately, trying to judge how far I've progressed since last year. I averaged 7:30 pace last year for the marathon and my Boston pace is about 15 seconds faster so I figure that to be in reasonable shape that my training paces should all be about 15 seconds faster than they were last year. Since I'm using the exact same training plan that I did last year, it's easy to compare workouts.

For example, this past week, I did a Vo2Max workout and averaged about 6:25 pace for 1km intervals. Looking back to last year, when I did this same workout, i averaged about 6:33 pace. Not quite the 15 seconds that I was looking for though my HR this time around was a little lower than it was last year so I can probably push a little bit faster.

My long run paces on the other hand don't seemed to have improved that much. I'm still doing them at around 8:20-8:40 which is what I did them at last year. I think my HR has been lower though. I'm going to try for the remainder of my General Aerobic runs to get them a little faster.

The other thing that gets me is that around this time last, I did a half marathon in 1:35:04. This was done at 7:15 pace which is my current BQ pace. One year later, I'm now hoping to maintain that pace for TWICE the distance. When I describe it like that, it seems almost impossible.

Anyways, I've decided I'm going to try and run 7:15's for 14 miles of my 17 mile long run this weekend. I've already started water and carboloading and will probably even try to start really early to simulate race day. The only problem I have is when I start this early, the restrooms on the trails aren't open yet. I guess I may get to practice my peeing on the run, which may (or may not) come in handy on race day!

I hope everyone's week has gone well.