8miles at 25mile race pace

Today we drove out to a country road call southwood today where we(the mens team) had 6-8 miles at 5:45-6:05 pace.
While warming up, I could still feel fatigue in my muscles from the time trial but atleast they were not tight like they had been. I figured today would be hard for me because of how I felt, but that was not the case.
We took off on the run and I came through 5:27 and litterally said "oh shit" to myself. That was the easiest 5:27 I hae ever ran in my life, I was cruising. I proceed to run a slow 6:00 the next mile, but from that point on I got into a great rythem and went 45:44 (5:45 pace)for the 8miles. I split 5:36-5:45 for almost every mile after the first two.
I felt like a million bucks until the last two miles, and even then it wasn't that bad except for the hills that came about.
I think I'm in better shape than I showed in the time trial, but I think once we start running mile repeats and doing faster paced runs I'm going to run really well. My base is solid this time around. I can't wait to see what I can pull out during this season. I haven't improved in a while, it sure would be nice to drop some time this year.