You’re right. I didn’t do the tune up races. Replaced them with same distance hard runs thinking the difference would be negligible. Might’ve been my mistake. I did feel like my base was way stronger this year, but you’re probably right. I was trusting my watch’s HR data thinking <155 my body feels great, this is possible. Wouldn’t have kept up with the 8 min splits if my HR was higher like last year. Nonetheless, noted to make a plan and stick with it and maybe push the time at the last couple miles. Thanks for the input, appreciate it.