Speed work was so-so... but driving ahead toward 58 this week

I am at about 20.5 miles through Wednesday, which includes a rest day today. I needed to take today off to recover and plan for a strong run in the morning.

On Monday morning, I cranked out 10 solid miles, which ended being a total avg of 7:40.

On Tuesday AM, I started the day with a recovery 4-miler at 8:40, in anticipation of the evening speed work routine.

Tuesday PM, I ran with CARA Speed Work group. We started up with a 1-mile easy warm-up and ended with a 1-mile cooldown. The core workout was designed to be as follows:

1 mile - Marathon pace - Target 1:41 400m repeats for a 3:00 marathon
2.5 miles - "Tempo" pace - Target 1:37 400m repeats for a 3:00 marathon
1 mile - 10k pace - 1:31 400m repeats for a 3:00 marathon

First off, I was tired going into this workout. Second, I should have written the target splits on my hand, because I forgot what I was trying to run.

Bottom line is that my first 4 laps on the track were too slow at about 1:45-1:46. I then ran solid 1:42's for about 10 laps - then averaged 1:37's for the final 4 laps. Honestly, I forgot what my goal pace was - and no one was pushing me. (Most are novices out on the track, and I have the fastest goal time).

I don't want to go as far as saying this speed workout was a disappointment, since I know from the experts that speed work doesn't matter right now... but I didn't go fast enough for a 3:00 hour marathon. It's all good, I got a decent workout in, but I know I need to focus more on LT runs.

I have a 12-miler planned for the early AM tomorrow. I plan to do at least 4 of the miles tomorrow at lactate threshold pace, which I think is around 6:35 per mile.

That sounds fast, can I run 6:35 pace for an hour (the unscientific definition of LT pace is what you can race in an hour)? Well, I ran 6:46 pace for 1:07:43 at a 10-miler about a month ago, and I have piled on the miles since then.

Rest of week will be the aforementioned 12'er tomorrow, a recovery 5-miler on Friday and then 20 miles on Saturday. I will probably land in the 57-58 mile range for this week.