My race is coming this sunday and I'm having trouble setting a goal pace. I've been following the training schedule pretty strictly and found that I've been getting a little faster after each long run. Even over the last few weeks doing the 10, 14, and 12, I've been feeling stronger. I worked hard on the 12 mile and ran a pace faster than I could have sustained for a marathon. Yesterday, I ran the 10 at the same pace feeling very relaxed, like I could have kept going for a long time. The thing is, it's been almost a month since I've run a really long run. It's tempting to set my goal a little faster than I originally planned. My only other marathon was 12 years ago and I held back too much early then tried to speed up to meet my goal but hit the wall around 20 mi. I wasn't nearly as well prepared then. Any advice?
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