I've felt slow since my marathon. I know, some of it is
rest/recovery but it felt like it was more than just that. During
the last few runs I've done a stride on the return leg and picked
up the pace by 20 sec/mile or so.
Today was... interesting. Overcast, low 40s and breezy, wore
tights for the first time, etc. But I was paying more attention
to my pace and decided around the halfway point on my 6.1 mile run
to make today a tempo run.
At a 'fast' place on the trail I suddenly felt something change.
It's hard to describe but I felt like I shifted from a "fast jog"
to a "slow run," that there were dozens of subtle biomechanical
changes that added up to a major difference.
When I got back to my car I saw that it wasn't just in my head.
My usual training pace for this distance is around 9:45 - 10:15,
on my return leg I was around 8:15 - 8:45. That must have driven
a number of subtle changes.
P.S., my Bolder Boulder time back in May was a hard-run 67
minutes... and I was happy because I was expecting a time between
72 and 75 minutes. I was maybe 100 yards short of 10k today at 55
minutes.