Based on what you're saying, if you're "completely spent" after a training run of 4 miles at 7:05, I think you've got a couple problems. You're probably going too fast for a regular training run. You might do that in a one-off time-trial, but not a regular training run. (Though even "completely spent", you did a 1 mile cooldown. Hmm . . .) And you can't expect to do 5 miles at 6:40 if you're completely spent after 4 miles at 7:05. Yes, people frequently run faster on race day. But they're not that gassed after their training runs, even intervals.

Note that I said "Based on what you're saying". The question is, are you truly done-in after those 4 miles. At this point you will likely find out only by pushing the pace in the race. I would hesitate to do a time-trial this close to the race for fear of injury.

Len

I am new to this also.... but I read someplace that your long runs should be 2 minutes slower than your tempo runs give or take....

so my personal "not worth a ((&(^*&' opinion is that you should try your long runs at 9:05,, or maybe 8:55.....

it'l seem really boring for you.... but I read somewhere that it will work well.... who knows....

please see my question on speed work training and see if you have an answer...

thanks,

john