You've seen some version of this diagram, right:
I was looking at all my paces and noticing that my 4 mile "easy" run on Wednesday was still in the 7s for pace. My "recovery pace" for my goal half marathon finish time is 8:30-9:30. My warm ups and cool downs have been in the 7s, or low 8s if I am lucky. TOO FAST. No wonder I am tired as all get out.
This morning I forced myself to SLOW down. My first mile clocked in at 8:45. My next was the same (8:47). I noticed so much more on my run and I wasn't caring about the pace. I stopped to take a picture of a waterfall and forgot to pause my watch so my 3rd mile was at 10:32. I wish I could tell you that I didn't care. Nope. I picked it up slightly on the way back home (next 3 miles were 8:13, 8:16, 8:11) so that the 3rd mile would not mess up my overall avg too much.
THAT IS MESSED UP.
Needless to say, pace is something that I still struggle with.
This is actually harder than it sounds and running slowly is a skill. Something I actually learned this week is that it's hard to slow down once you've logged a faster mile. It's easier to start slow, not speed up in the first place rather than back off the pace later in the run. At least, for me. I think that in really warm weather slowing down becomes even more important, and the paces should be even slower with the added stress of the heat. But, kudos for making the effort and I think the fact that you are aware of it will really help.
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