Picking up the Pace

Now that I have 3 races in mind my brain and body are starting to communicate about the mission ahead. Beat myself! On the stopwatch that is.
Today I decided it's been too long since I did some speed work so I headed to the track to do a simple 1600/1200/800/400 session. I wore the new heart rate monitor to see what speed work did to the ol' ticker. My My. In comparison to previous lap times I kicked axx! Every split was a record time. My 1600 was a 7.48 followed by 6.01, 3.57 and 1.47. The HRM exceeded my top range on the shorter distances as I pushed to finish strong. I felt good but not necessarily fast so I have to do it again to see if it was real.
The best part today was after I came in and stretched before my shower I took a little extra time and made a point to relax my brain and not "force" the stretches, just letting them happen and relaxxxxxing throughout and enjoying them. I haven't had such a rewarding stretch in a long time. Stretching had become a chore. I remembered how it can be a nice bridge between the workout and work.
The Disney Marathon is this weekend. I feel for all who run it in the heat. Take it slow, my friends. I will do a private long run and think of you.