LONDON MARATHON, FINAL TEMPO RUN 6.14 PACE FOR 12 MILES

I was pleased to read this article the other day CLICK HERE TO TRAIN LIKE A 2.06 MARATHON RUNNER!
as it seems all my long tempo [ 11 - 18 miles] runs have been more than worthwhile, this afternoon I set out on my last long tempo before London, I was feeling a little tired after a very heavy night at work but at least the sun was out to make me feel better.
I ran my normal York rd, Trafalgar rd hill, hillside, Ainsdale and back along the coast rd loop, I got blown along by the wind at the start but had to fight the wind along the 2 1/2 mile exposed coast rd, it was hard work but I was kind of impressed with myself for powering along and holding pace!
Turning off the coast road I felt the effort in my legs and I used the downhill to recover a bit before moving onto a 3 mile loop.
10 miles went by in under 1.02 and now I finished off the run on a half mile loop near home, I hammered the straights and cruised the corners, soon I was almost on 12 miles and finished with a 11.7 mph final effort. JOB DONE!
My average pace would have given me a 1.21 half marathon but I'm sure in a race I might have been able to drop a couple of minutes!
Last year I could only manage 6.32 pace for a similar session!
12M, 6.14 PACE, 9.6 AV, 11.7 MAX, = 1.14,58

LONG TEMPO RUNS PROGRESSION;
Sat March 7th
12.23 miles, 9.4 av, 6.22 pace = 1.17.58
Wed March 18th
11.01 miles, 9.5 mph av, 6.19 pace = 1.09
Sat April 11th
18 miles, 9 mph av, 6.41 pace = 2.00 [ day after 4 mile race]
Sat April 18th
12m, 9.6 mph av, 6.14 pace, = 1.14.58
My other long hard runs were a 23 mile run with over 2,300 ft of climbing and a 20 mile race run at 6.18 pace.
I have done 9 steady runs of 20 miles or over and I have run many fartleck runs over 16 - 20 miles this year.
Just one more hard session on Tuesday, 8 x 400m then its easy, easy, rest!