Well, that settles that

Today was the last day with a race-pace effort. Similar to those previous, it was five hilly miles, at a relatively easy pace, then all-out for three miles, shooting for my projected race speed. I was able to shave off a few more seconds from last time, and I had to dig pretty deep to get that.

First thing settled: the 310xt does not accurately measure speed/distance with the footpod indoors. My outdoor running speed was about 4:00/km (approximately T-pace), which produced heart rates about where I am during T-pace workouts. So the 9.3 mph on the treadmill is pretty much 9.3 mph outside. It's definitely not the 10.0 mph the footpod thinks it is. I'll try recalibrating it again tomorrow and see if things improve, but if not, at least I know where I stand.

Second thing settled: The rest of the winter and next spring will involve a lot of time trying to lengthen my stride at speed. I spent a lot of time working on a quick turnover, but now I seem to have a near-constant stride length, and can only speed up by increasing cadence. Long-term, that won't work, I'll hit a wall I just can't get through. So now I need to change my plan slightly to increase flexibility and build explosive power in my stride. I'll do intervals at speed and try to force my cadence down. I'll attack the hills more on my long runs to develop bounding power, rather than manage hills as in race strategy as I do now. I won't try to change things before my race next weekend (it's a little late for that), but I think this will be a good plan of attack for the pre-season.

Run: 13.5 km, 40:22/20:05