Balboa Park Long(ish) Run

88 mins.
~12 miles

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning in San Diego and headed over to Balboa Park to put in a longer effort. I had 15 on tap and was remarkably not sore from last night's drills, so I was hoping to complete the run fairly easily. Jordan planned on staying on his feet for another hour or so in order to bang out his longest run in his Austin Marathon training cycle, so we each packed a few GU's before heading out the door.

Despite the auspicious beginning, I could tell after 30 minutes or so that my legs were pretty dead. I'm not entirely sure why, unless I'm dealing with some residual fatigue from Friday's tempo, but nonetheless by an hour I was cashed. I also feel the beginnings of a cold coming on which could've contributed as well. We covered all the familiar Balboa Park terrain and I was enjoying the weather and the time with Jordan, but I could tell I needed to cut things shorter than I'd planned. Jordan knows me well enough that he can tell from the sound of my breathing or the inflection of my voice whether I'm having a good effort or not, and he agreed it was time to deliver me back to the house. He dropped me off just shy of 90 minutes and then headed out for the rest of what turned into a 23-miler. While I was disappointed with my lackluster performance, I will still easily hit my mileage goal for the week so I'm not too upset about it.