The plan today was to run 12.5 miles at an average pace of 7:30-7:40 per mile. I just did not feel in the mood to plod along at 8:00 pace today. However, once I left the house that plan almost immediately went out the window. I was not really trying to go faster but I started my run under 8:00 pace (I usually start slower and then speed up after a half mile or a mile) and by the time I was 2 miles into the run I was already running close to 7:00 pace. I progressively got faster after that. I ran the two miles before my turn-around in 6:48 and 6:49 (mild net downhill) and I hit the halfway mark (6.25 miles) in 44:35. After I turned around I immediately sped up even more even though it was not really my intention and I ran the next 2 miles in 6:25 and 6:13. I slowed down a little bit over the next few miles, but I sped up again the last mile running it in what felt like right at or just under 6:00 pace. Total time for 6.25 miles was 1:24:12 (39:37 for the last 6.25 miles). Average pace for the run was 6:44, with an average of 6:20 over the second half. It felt good to run a little faster today. I want to be more careful than I was a couple months ago when I started to develop symptoms of overtraining, so I better not do this too often, but today at least it felt good. | 