Go ahead and scold me........

paces like the VDOT are just guidelines you could use based on recent race/test performances to estimate your current fitness level. In theory you want to have a plan mixing different distances/intensities based on your goals, needs, fitness, training phase etc hence sometimes your run easy some other times you run hard.

Still what matter is to manage the total training load (all easy, short, long hard runs you do during a week/cycle) and as long as you recover from session to session and you can complete your following sessions meeting your goals then it is ok to sometimes go a bit faster. OTOH if you are pushing at all your sessions to the point you can't do your next sessions or are training above your fitness level then you might be setting yourself up for doing too much too soon, injuries, etc.

I usually tell my athletes to run (suing VDOT) as a reference of what they could do but adjust the pace based on RPE for that given day. Sometimes your pace might be a bit faster cuz you are feeling good and some days it might be a bit slower cuz you are feeling tired. If you are feeling recovered today and can do your training it wasn't THAT bad you run a bit faster. If you are sore, achey and it is challeneging doing your training today you probably did go too fast and need to slow down next time. You'll have to find that sweet spot but when in doubt IMO always go a bit easier and leave something in the tank for the next session. The sum of all your sessions (consistency) is much more important than ONE session

X2