Heavy Legs

So maybe I was a little too optimistic on Monday after my tempo run...... Or maybe I was a little lacking in the wisdom department when I designed a schedule that called for 2 fast runs followed by a long run with no rest days in between.   Either way, yesterday's 13 miler was a tough one.   Let me start with Tuesday's hill workout though.    My schedule calls for hill repeats once every three weeks, but since I procrastinated and pushed the first set of repeats back until last week, that meant I had to do hills this week again.   Luckily my friend Brittany braved them with me.   We did the same workout as last week, except that we did 4 repeats instead of 3.   My goal was to do all 4 in under 2 minutes.   Definitely not there yet.......
Repeat 1: 2:09
Repeat 2: 2:11
Repeat 3: 2:13
Repeat 4: 2:13

All I can say about those numbers is: "Probably need to keep working on the hills."   Lucky for me, I changed my marathon plans and have signed up for the Ojai to Ocean marathon in Ventura Beach instead of the Rock N Roll here in San Diego.   The Ojai to Ocean has a negative elevation with very few hills, so that means I don't have to worry too much about these repeats, right?   Also, Susannah is heavy!   Safe to say I'm relieved that I have 2 weeks before I have to meet with the 6th Avenue hill again. 

Yesterday I was excited about my 13 miler because it was going to be uninterrupted.....I drove Susannah to my friend's house so I started my run from there.   This meant all 13 miles with no stroller, so sippy cup retrievals or string cheese opening pauses.   Yae!   Unfortunately, before I even hit my stride I could already tell that this was going to be a tough day.   My legs felt heavy, the sun felt hot, and the miles felt long.   I pushed through though, managing to keep each mile split between 9:22 and 9:25.   But I felt tired.   Really, really tired.    The one highlight of the run was that I saw several jack rabbits.   They are so cute and so so fast.   I really want to take a picture but I don't think my reflexes are fast enough.  

Next week is a 14 miler and I'm hoping it will be a little less daunting.   I haven't run this far since my November half marathon, so maybe it is normal for me to be feeling this tired.   I have to say though, that running a full marathon at a pace that is an entire minute per mile faster than what I did yesterday seems close to impossible right now.  Lucky for me I have 3 more months of training and I have the promise that "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me."