I recently PR'd (3:14) and looking to shave about 8-10 minutes off in my next marathon, which isn't until December or January. Leading up to my recent race, my weekly mileage peaked at 64 . A few questions:
1) What should my off-season mileage look like? My initial thought is to keep it around 40-45 including weekly long runs at 11-14. I'll also be doing strength and flexibility work about twice weekly.
2) What should speed work look like in the off-season? (e.g. mainly tempos, VO2 max intervals, etc.). I've read conflicting info about how to approach it. One coach even suggested avoiding tempo runs, which I found odd. (For this purpose, I define "speed work" as anything faster than regular easy/recovery runs to be done once or twice per week).
3) Given my goal, any thoughts on whether I should increase my weekly mileage next training cycle?
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.