I had been doing two sets of speed work and a long run each week for about a year now. 50 miles a week, 6 days a week. I did the speed works HARD (tempo and intervals) and the long run moderately hard. My easy days were easy, but in the aerobic zone on my watch.
Now I am switching up for marathon training. I am following JD 2Q. The workouts are tough, more mileage and I'm not use to running 12 miles at marathon pace, but my easy days have become much faster, and much closer to the VDOT recomendations for Easy Days. I just feel fresher on those days.
So I must have been running my easy days at a recovery pace.
So, why shouldn't I push harder on hard days and even slower on easy days? Is a recovery run pace not as helpful?
VDOT says I should be near 8min on easy days, I had been doing like 9:30, now I'm doing 8:20. My T pace is 6:15.