Pacing the Run
I've STILL got my eye on y'all, and I've been noticing a number of you putting in some pretty impressive times on your VDOT tests and long run paces. I'm going to say, "Great, that shows you're getting the strength you'll need to carry you on the entire 26.2 mile run at a good pace."
BUT: don't let yourself get carried away by the numbers your are putting up now for your long runs and VDOTs. I've found I've had good success by pacing my run based not on my recent, best VDOT, but rather by using one down a notch or two. E.g., instead of the 49-50 VDOT I've earned, I pace my marathons off of about 47, which is the number I get from a stand alone half marathon. Using that, I've been consistently able to even- (sometimes even barely negative-) split my IM marathon. In other words, I probably COULD do a 3:55 IM marathon, and maybe someday I will. But I SHOULD do a 4:01-4:06, and I've been able to execute at that slightly slower pace to good effectover tha past 3 years. "Humility; discipline." "Never underestimate the arrogance of the human ego" You don't want to do this to your race: 
FWIW, my goal for this race was to go sub 4:01. I hope to get there again by 2012.
Comments
great advice, Al. my best run was IMAZ 2008. i past hundreds from mile 18 to the finish and i think i did negative split. i'll have to review my pacing for that year. IMAZ 2009, i had a faster first lap on the run compared to 2008, but then had to slow the remaining two laps and did not have as much after mile 18. both years i had confounding factors that affected my race prep.
this year, i am stronger and the lead up to the race, so far, has been more stable, so it'll be interesting to see how i hold up this time around. i'm keeping close tabs on how my body responds to the training/pacing/testing/recoveries, etc.
wishing you continued healing and keep up the great advice!
GH
P.S. how do you get more emoticon options than those listed on the right?
@Gilberto, I remember you crushing that run. The emoticon "hack" is explained by mike hedman as:
1. Open EN forums in a browser window.
2. Bookmark that page.
3. Open your bookmark to edit it...
4. First change the name to "Smileys"
5. Second change the location to the following, but please note you need to remove the "XXX" for it to work: javaXXXscript:void(function(){var s=document.createElement('SCRIPT'); s.type='text/javascript'; s.src='http://mikehedman.com/smiley_helper.js'; document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s); })();
6. Works best when you hit ADD REPLY.