Weekly Wrap-Up

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is having a nice relaxing Sunday. I took yesterday as a rest day from running, because my knees where not feeling that great, and I didn't want to push it. I'm technically not in training until next month, so for now I am not running on a set schedule.
This morning I woke up and decided to get my mom out of bed to go for a run with me. Well, she walked, I ran. But I was impressed because she ended up walking a mile while I was running, so she did good!
I was surprised by my times and think that I may have been running a little too fast. I mean I was stocked and all, but I don't think that I should aim to run that fast if I want to go further distances and hold a steady pace. Which brings me to a question for you readers/running gurus. I have been doing some research in order to make out my training schedule, and most of the things that I find tell me that I should do my easy runs at about a 10 minute mile pace. However, usually when I just run at a natural pace on long runs I run a little bit faster than that (about 8:50-9:20 min miles). So here is my question:

How important is it that I slow down on my easy runs? Should I really try to slow myself down to that pace for the sake of training, or should I just run at my natural pace that is a little bit faster?

I know that a lot you have ran several races and have done a lot of training, so any input into that would be great!
So back to my run today. I ended up warming up with a mile jog and then running 3 miles, while my mom walked. Here are my stats:

Total Distance: 3 miles
Total Time: 25:11
Total Calories Burned: 250
Mile 1: 9:02
Mile 2: 8:17
Mile 3: 7:55

Not too sure what was going on there, not a steady pace AT ALL! oh well.
So, since it is Sunday, I will do a quick week wrap up of my workouts for the entire week. I only got my Garmin on Wednesday, so I don't have fancy stats for my run on Monday or Tuesday, just the mileage :)

Monday: 6.5 miles
Tuesday: 6 miles
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: 6.2 miles @ 9:21
Friday: 2 miles @ 8:25
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: 3 miles @ 8:25
Total for the week: 23.5 miles

I'm thinking about doing some yoga later on tonight, since I have nothing else better to do, and my legs are feeling a little stiff. So that should give them a nice stretch!
Hope everyone has a great day! Tomorrow is back to grind :(
<3 Em