Hi All,
Long time reader, first time poster. First, love 80/20 and recommend it to every runner I know (convinced one to buy and read Matt’s book).
I hope this is a fairly straightforward question, and I believe I know the answer, but want other people’s opinion based on experiences.
I am currently in week 9 of Marathon Level 1 (training by pace) and completed the 20 minute fitness test to update my pace zones. My threshold pace went up by 10 seconds (now at 8:01/mile from 7:51/mile). Based on a search of the forum, losing some speed appears to be normal during marathon training (per David, “For marathons … you need to lose a bit of speed and VO2 in order to switch to the specific demands of those distances”).
I know there is a lot of time left, but I think my 9:00/mile goal for the marathon is unchanged based on today’s test.
My question is should I be using the new pace for training or stick to the old one so I do not lose more? I am fairly certain the answer is the new one since it is what I currently can do, but do I risk my marathon pace goal?
Hope this makes sense.
Thanks!
Andrew