I've been running almost two years now. Im 6'2' and weight 180 lbs. My current PRs are 4:41 mile, 17:03 5K, 36:53 10k and 1:24:53 for Half Marathon all of these were set from May-September this summer in road races.
I've been following Fitzingers 13 week 50-70 mpw marathon training plan and have been consistently running around 50 MPW since the beginning of the year. I haven't done any real speed work or tempo runs and my long runs have been around 7:40/mi down to 7:20s or so.
I recently did a 18 mile tune up race in central park and was holding steady at 6:50-6:45 until mile 13 where I started to suffer a bit mentally and physically from some chaffing on the heel from my shoe which started to bleed. I ended up stopping and walking for a bit and finished with an overall pace of 7:20/mi officially. The course itself is pretty tough and it was around 75 degrees with 82% humidity that day which I realize probably effected my performance.
I realize I am on the heavier end for a Marathon Runner and I am currently trying to cut down some weight there are 6-7 weeks to go until the NYC Marathon and I am hoping to lose about a lb a week to get down to 173 lbs or so. Is this realistic, should I even bother? Just looking for some advice here