I got up at 5:30 this morning for an easy 4 miles. I got up yesterday morning at 5:30 for an easy 4 miles. I also did a lower body strength training workout late yesterday afternoon. I am tired. More specifically, my legs are tired.

According to my training plan, these easy runs are supposed to be at a 10:14/mile pace, but in reality, I did both of them at a 10:06/mile pace. Yesterday, my average heart rate was 158, today it was 153. But today felt harder than yesterday. My legs felt heavier…slower.

I think what this says is that while my cardiovascular system can handle these back-to-back easy runs, with lower body strength training mixed in, my legs aren’t quite there. Perhaps it’s just a matter of time until they are accustomed to the additional workload—this is the first week of my half marathon training, after all. Or maybe I need to scale way back on the strength training, leaving in just enough to keep myself balanced.

For the record, while I am struggling a little bit to get out of bed for these early morning runs, once I’m out there running, I really like it.