Once around the park, Jeeves

Tonight was another tempo session. Since in the next block I'll be doing 2x12 minutes (24 minutes total at T-pace), I decided to extend today a little from 18 minutes to 20. Then it was warm-up, hit my speed for 20 minutes, and cool down. There was a progressive breakdown of breathing over the twenty minutes, holding 4-4 until about minute 5, then 3-3 for about 10 minutes, then floating between 3-3 and 3-2 for the remainder. My legs felt good all the way, but my breathing was definitely getting laboured. Now I'm just relaxing in my compression pants, trying to aid the recovery as much as possible.

Run: 40 minutes, w/20 minutes @ 9.1 mph

And now, a brief glimpse into some the dark thought of the endurance athlete:
It's just over four weeks until my first race, a test workout of 10k, of the season. I have to admit to being less than confident right now. My swimming, on good days, is far better than last year. Although it's nearly impossible to compare, I feel stronger on the bike now than at this point last season, and in terms of max power, than I'm better than any point last year. But I'm not sure about the run, which is really what I've been focusing on.

I'm running a faster T-pace than last year, which is good, but I was doing workouts that had up to 50 minutes at that pace, while right now I'm peaking at 20 (going to 24 soon). Could I do the same workout, but faster now? Not easily, and I don't know how hard it was last season. Given how I felt at 20 minutes, I don't know if maybe I'm overestimating my T-pace, since I question whether or not I could hold this for 60 minutes, and I'll be expected to go faster for twice as long. My I-pace days are harder than anything I did last year, so I have that, but we'll see if that works out to my benefit. I did turn my fastest five-mile aerobic loop recently, but last year it followed 5+ hilly miles, but this time it was after 3 flat miles, so the result may be a little counterfeit. Given my fatigue levels, I don't think I'm undercooking myself, so maybe I'm doing it right and doing just enough without hitting the diminishing returns point. I hope so. I'm getting anxious for race-day, just so I can find out whether or not I'm making things work.