Meh.

What makes the difference between a great run and a really-quite-rubbish run?  Is it a million little things that are barely discernible to the human eye?  Maybe a bit of work stress, naughty foxes hanging out outside your bedroom window at night, that lump of cheese you ate this afternoon?  Who knows?

Tonight was only seven miles - the route I so enjoyed last week, but with just one extra mile added.  For some reason, or none, it felt SO HARD!  This is the sort of distance I have been super comfortable with for years, way before this marathon training lark began.

It's quite a challenging course, with lots of hills - but my 'medium' runs are supposed to be harder than the long ones.  Tonight it just felt like Too Much.  I hit a real slump about halfway around, and even 'had' to do some run-walk-run-walk intervals going uphill.  I say 'had' because there was no real reason for it except that my legs felt really heavy.

At one point, I could have taken a shortcut that would have lopped the last couple of miles off my route.  I seriously considered it and paused for a second at the crossroads while I thought about it.  Happily, in the end, I didn't.  While they were by no means glorious miles, I at least completed the requisite number of miles.

I'm always telling my new-to-running friends that you can't expect an upward trajectory every single time, don't be disheartened, etc.  I know this is true.  But this is marathon training, dude - I'm supposed to be taking it up a notch!

Well.  It will be better next time, hopefully.

I was embarrassingly happy to get home to a hot bath and 'Where D'You Go, Bernadette?'.  The latter is as good as everyone says; I really recommend it.