Learning to run slow

I have a problem. When most people run, and their mind wanders, they slow down. I'm kinda the opposite. If my mind wanders I speed up. Now, I don't sprint, but my pace goes up to 7:15m/m. In my marathon training, I need to slow down. I ran my last half at 7:30ish pace. ALL training schedules that I have looked at say my easy pace should be about 8:30m/m. I struggle with this. I'm afraid if I don't slow down, I'll hurt myself. This fall I had some IT band issues. I asked folks over at RunningAhead to look at my running log, and many people said I should rethink my training and slow down a lot on my easy runs. So thats what I have been trying to do. Hopefully, my running will improve and I'll keep those pesky injuries away. I'm going to stick to one day of speed work (tempo, fatlek, intervals) and keep the rest SLOW as I build my mileage

Today I did 8 miles, at 8:00m/m. Felt comfortable... sometimes it felt slow. I definitely noticed the difference... I don't feel as tired after the run, which could be less about the pace and more about lack of windchill today!