Respect the Distance

This morning I was up early (for me at least) to squeeze in a 7 mile run before it got too hot outside. I try to be finished with all morning runs by 9:30-10:00 depending on the weather. When my alarm went off at 7:30 the last thing I wanted to do was get out of my cozy bed. I knew that this morning was my only chance to get in a longer run so I sucked it up and got moving.

I have been running with my ipod a lot lately so I made sure it was changed and loaded with some new jams. I started my run around 8:45 hoping it wouldn't be too hot out yet. The last time I ran 7 miles I felt amazing and was going pretty quickly. I knew today was going to be much slower but I still thought I could finish in a decent time.

I felt good when I started running but made sure to hold back so I wouldn't burn out during the later miles. By about the half way point my legs were pretty tired and didn't want to be running anymore. I don't think I was running too fast but I probably could have slowed down even more.

This was my first run after last weekend's triathlon and I probably should have opted to run 3-4 miles. 7 miles really isn't a long distance but it sure felt like it this morning. I thought I could just jump back into training and maintain similar paces right away. Running is very humbling for me and has a way of always knocking me back down when I need a reminder.

Training for a marathon is no joke and I need to remember to never assume that it will be easy. It is always challenging and that is the point. If it was easy everyone would do it, right?