u/dt531

Two weeks ago I ran a marathon in 3:19. I had done a full Daniels 2Q training plan consistently hitting 65-70 mpw for many weeks leading up to the taper. I did a mild negative split in the marathon, and I felt my execution was good in both training and the race. I might be able to go a little faster than 3:19 in better conditions, but I feel that 3:19 was near the limit of my realistic abilities given my fitness. This marathon time corresponds to as VDot of between 47 and 48.

Yesterday for the heck of it I did a parkrun 5k in just over 19 minutes. I did no special training or prep for a 5k, and this was the first run above E pace since the marathon. This 5k time corresponds to a VDot of 52-53.

My 5k VDot suggests a marathon equivalent time around 3:03, which seems well beyond my reach.

Is this sort of discrepancy across distances typical? I just got back into competitive running about 7 months ago after over 17 years of no competitive running, so perhaps I just need more years of consistent running to have VDot be more consistent across distances?

If it matters, I am 60yo, male.

I have been targeting the Tacoma City Marathon this coming Sunday, May 3. The Daniels 2Q training has been going great, and I am deep into the taper. Unfortunately the weather forecast is supposed to get to 81 degrees on Sunday, and I am a cold weather runner. 60 feels hot to me. I am definitely not prepared for going hard in truly hot conditions.

So at minimum I am going to back off on my goals, probably add 20-30 sec/mile to my M pace for at least the first half to avoid blowing up.

I am also pondering whether I can transition my strong fitness to targeting a different race that happens six weeks from now. If I do that, I will treat Tacoma as more of a training run at E pace so as not to require a long recovery that would make doing well in the 2nd race very difficult. Of course this approach has the risk of it being hot for the later race, but that one is a mostly downhill race in the mountains where weather is usually cooler.

How effective would it be to do an effective short 6-week training cycle right after a full taper?