Usually my thought on long runs is to not worry about the pace, just do the mileage. I often end up telling myself to slow down the first few miles.

Today I decided to just go for it and attempt my race pace. So what if I blow-up at 8 miles? It's just a training run.

I ended up doing 13.5 miles at 9:50 m/mile pace--30 seconds per mile faster than my race pace goal!!!!!