Ran home from work.  8 mile; 1 hour 10min.  It was lovely to run in the sushine for a change and to be able to run along the canal.  Getting lighter and dryer.  Great.

Training plan suggested running at "race pace".  I really went for it running hard to see if I could keep it up and I could.  But I felt that I was really runing much harder than marathon pace, nearer 10k pace.  the problem being that it would be a 53 minute time for 10k which would b disappointing while for a marathon it is only 25 seconds per mile faster than a 4hour marathon pace.  Is that a significant difference?  I find it difficult to judge diferences in pace when they are only a matter of seconds.

I am aiming to average 9min 10sec miles to achieve a 4 hour marathon.  A difference of 10seconds per mile makes a difference of over 3 minutes over the race.  I don't feel I can judge such small differences in pace.