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I have been running 6 days/wk around BerryP Long Medium Short mileage (I make adjustments here and there) for about 20 weeks. My aerobic base needed some attention. My short distances were decent paces, but I felt as though that was not translating to faster long course.
I decided to govern my pace by HR keeping it at 140-150, which for me should be fully aerobic and is pretty low... At the beginning this was painfully slow. I tracked my average pace over the course of each week... the first four weeks were between 10 and 10:30 pace for weekly averages. Over the course of the block that has dropped to 8:15 at the same HR, and I can maintain 8:30-8:45 in the 130 HR range. My mileage started about 30MPW and I peaked at 60MPW last week with many weeks prior in the 50-55mpw range.
One thing that was tough was keeping ego aside... I would find myself at a group run doing a short run of 4-5 miles at slower than 9 min miles getting smoked by the people that like to race group runs. It is hard when you know you are faster then those guys but you know you need to slow down. I was able to check my ego and stick to my plan.
Will this be a difference maker for my fall IM? I donno, I sure hope so, but only time will tell... My progress has stagnated over the last four weeks at 8:15 which signals to me it is time to start to reduce mileage a little and add in some speed work. I think I need to build some room between what is now my easy pace (8:15 - 8:30) and my threshold and VO2 max paces. After a good block of mixing in speed, strength, and tempo leading into racing season, I will probably transition back into more aerobic running focus to dial in my IM pace.