craftily

At this point, you can maintain your base while establishing the speed
needed to race the distance. Third, sometimes it's better to have a
planned slide than an unplanned one.

It's a very good idea to start this phase with some hill repeat workouts
to build strength before launching into real intense speed workouts. For
a runner, it doesn't matter what speed you have if you don't have the
aerobic capacity to run at a high effort level for the duration of the
race. Just try different things and see what works for you.