Maiden Voyage of My New Shoes

Say hello to my little friends.  I am the proud owner of a pair of Asics DS Trainers.  Compared to my Asics 2150 road shoes and 2150 trail shoes, these babies are super lightweight.  I'm counting on these new kicks, along with all the hard work that I've put in the last few months, to get me through the Eugene Marathon with the ultimate PR in less than 4 weeks.

I took these pink ladies for their maiden voyage today.  It was a beautiful sunny 70 degree day here in Eugene.  According to my marathon training plan and advice of hubby/coach, I was slated to run a nine mile cut down tempo run.  Before last night, I had never even heard of such a thing.  Today I would attempt to execute one with a gimpy leg.  Some muscle in my right leg has been giving me a load of grief for the last couple weeks.  I've been taking three Advil at least twice a day to keep the pain and mobility under control.  I was keenly aware of it during my mile warm up and wished for the umpteeth time that I was able to get an earlier appointment with my chiropractor to fix me up.  I had doubts that I'd be able to run seven consecutive miles, without rests, at increasing speeds.  I was supposed to start at 8:45 min/mi and cut back a few seconds after each mile for seven miles before cooling down. 

Fortunately Steve and the girls met me around two miles into the run.  They were playing at the playground by the park.  I was able to whine to Steve about my leg and how I doubted that I'd be able to do the distance and certainly wouldn't be able to run at the speed I was supposed to.  He listened without comment and fetched me an emergency Gu from our car, along with a drink of water.  I really just wanted him to take me home, but instead I handed him the sunglasses that I no longer needed and went on with my workout.  I was thankful for the brief companionship and encouragement from my sweet family.  I peeled out of there trying to look good running away from Steve in my running skirt at what felt like time warp speed. 

Thankfully my leg loosened up and I got into a nice rhythm.  I felt light and quick in my new shoes.  At times I was aware of the surface below my feet (uneven pavement, sticks, rocks on the path, etc.) as the Asics trainers are more minimal than what I'm accustomed to.  The shoes were comfy and supportive.  They passed my inspection.  The cut-down tempo run on the other hand...

Wowsers, are cut-down tempo runs ever tough!  I'd run my heart out for a mile, be overjoyed that I survived the whole ordeal, then have to run another one even faster!  There was no built in reward system like with intervals where you get rests in between your tough parts.  It truly is a masochistic workout.  I knew that this was similar to how I had planned to run my marathon so it was good practice.  Even though the miles were grueling, my confidence increased with each one. I was able to go faster than I thought for longer than I thought.  Thank you Steve for believing in me and setting up a workout that I otherwise wouldn't have attempted! 

I am happy to report that I clocked the miles fairly close to what I was supposed to.  Warm up mile, cut down seven miles: 9:24 (oops, slow but I was working through some leg issues & figuring out the watch) 8:36, 8:35, 8:33, 8:22 (hello!), 8:24 (am I done yet?), 8: 22 (Done! Woot!), cool down mile.  I must say that I felt like an athlete out there today in my shiny new shoes.