Week -8 is over. It went OK, but it became clear that I'm not as strong as I hoped I was.

I ran a 5-mile LT run on Tuesday, and it was quite a bit slower than I wanted it to be. Mile splits were 6:25, 6:45, 6:40, 6:56, 6:41. The 6:56 mile was a slight uphill, and I had to stop for cars, I think, twice. The last mile was slightly downhill. Altogether 71ft of climbing in 5 miles.

So this is like 6:41-6:42 average, but let's call it 6:40. That puts me below 52 VDOT, or a 3:05-3:06 marathon. Not terrible, just a little weaker than expected. The moral of the story is not to train harder than 52 VDOT.

Training paces (max): 7:42-8:41 easy; 7:02 M; 6:38 T; 91, 3:48, 4:32 for 400m, 1000m, 1200m intervals.

My long run of 17 miles was pretty hard, but I ran it at 7:48 pace, which is pretty much as fast as I can expect it to be. Besides, this was my longest run for almost a year.

Week -7 (recovery):

M: Rest

T: 12 MLR

W: Rest

T: 9 w/ 4@LT

F: 5 R

S: 16 L

Total: 42 miles