Week 11 Tempo

This is why I train for the marathon.  I hate tempo runs.  But today I did 8 miles at a 7:21 pace.  It felt a little hard - but really pretty easy considering I would have died on this not long ago.  I warmed up with a 7:34 and 7:29 first two miles, then did 7:17, 7:12, 7:24, 7:17, 7:06 for the next 5 before cooling off with a 7:30.  My only concern is that I could handle pacing slower.  I really need to try and run the 20 miler in the 8:10-8:20 range.  But of all the complaints I could have - pacing a little fast on an 8 mile tempo is a pretty good gripe.