Pleasant run

I had half a mind to get up early this morning for my run, but the half that didn't want to get up early won out and I ended up doing 7.2 miles after work. That's OK, though, because half the run was in the daylight, and the weather was perfect.
Since I have a 20-mile run planned for Saturday, my goal this evening was to avoid placing any extra stress on my legs. At no point did I want to feel my legs tiring. I started out fairly slowly, I thought. In checking my splits at the end, however, I saw that my first mile was 9:18, which is significantly faster than my normal opening mile. The first mile also has the most hills, so that makes the split even more interesting.
Mile two was 9:15, and then mile 3 was 9:05. At no point in any of those miles did I feel like I was burning up extra energy. Mile 4 was 9:15, which seems a little curious since it is mostly flat to downhill.
Mile 5 was 9 min. flat, and then I did 8:51 and 8:53. The last 2 tenths was run at an 8:48 pace.
The whole run was very comfortable. I spent most of the 65 min. thinking about how to pace myself on Saturday. I'd like to do the first three miles at 11 min. pace, the next three at 10 min., and then something like 9:30 over the final 14. A slow start like that should set me up nicely. We'll see.
I hope everyone has a good run on Saturday. They're all important now. -- Rob