A year rolled around with no racing, and an extra 18 lbs of weight. I didn't completely stop running though. This December/January I started to get myself back to the grove. Surprisingly, I didn't lose much weight, but I did get a bit faster, and feel lighter somehow. There is still an obvious bulge where my 6-pack is supposed to be, and currently I'm 165 lbs. I used to be 150, and later, after my firefighting days, 155-ish.

I struggled with just plain mileage increase, so I cut back a bit to start to workouts. The last 4 weeks were 36 miles each with one speed workout and one VO2 max. I'm nowhere where I used to be. The circumstances were never ideal (no track, nor treadmill, all on the street with GPS), but they are still obviously much slower than I used do these. Averages from the last 4 weeks:

R paced 1/4 miles: 1:37, 1:37, 1:36, 1:36. Amazingly consistent, suggesting a roughly 44 VDOT.

I paced 4-minute runs (in min/mile): 7:07, 6:52, 6:56, 6:45. This one is getting a bit better, so optimistically suggesting a 45 VDOT.

The crazy thing is that I still do my easy/long runs at around 8 min/mile, and 8:30 usually feels really easy, when, according to the VDOT table, should never be faster than 8:40. It seems like I do my easy runs at my M pace.

This may also be the reason I struggled with base building you can't do that at your M pace!

So let's try some training based of 45 VDOT. Slow down the easy runs. I'm going over Daniel's Blue plan, starting Phase II, Week 5 tomorrow.

M: 60 min E (can be two runs)

T: 15 min E + 4 x (200 R + 200 jg + 200 R + 200 jg + 400 R + 400 jg) + 15 min E

W: Rest, or repeat Mon

T: 30-45 min E + 8 ST

F: 15 min E + 20 min T + 4 ST + 15 E

S: Rest, or repeat Thu

S: 60-90 min L

Paces: E/L: 8:40-9:44, T: 7:25, R 200: 47 sec, R 400: 94 sec.