Longest tempo run

Good. +/-0ft; 9.04miles @9:12min/mile.

Lot of apprehensions while starting the run. The first two miles were really tense. My right foot threatened to go out on me throughout those two miles.

Like I mentioned, I decided to use my orthotic insert only in my right shoe in order to mitigate my foot numbness problem. It did work on the 16 mile run last Sat on the treadmill. But still, that was a treadmill run (no banking of the pavement), while today was a real world run–who knows whether the solution works here as well?

Then, there was a threat of rain. When I started ominous black clouds were filling up the sky, and the forecast had predicted rain with 70% probability.

Normally, I love running in the rain. But I have new shoes in the trial period now. My shoe store is great—they allow you to run on streets to try the shoes and so long as only the sole is dirty, they take it back. Rain, however, would soil more than the sole—so running in the rain would mean I can’t return the shoes despite the generous return policy.

I half considered going to the treadmill again. But I wanted to at least try to run on regular pavement for a reasonable time before my visit to the podiatrist tomorrow. I told myself I would do as much as possible before my foot went numb and finish the rest on treadmill.

When I started the first loop, I told myself that if it rained, I would give up at the end of the loop (3.55 miles) and drive up to campus to finish the rest of the run on treadmill. There was a minor drizzle at mile 2. But then, things started looking up—the tingle didn’t develop into numbness, it just disappeared. The drizzle never developed into rain, in fact the sky started clearing up!

So I went into the second loop. My apprehensions in the first few miles meant that I slacked off a little on the pace. I had done the first loop in 33:14 at 9:22min/mile, about 7s/mile slower than my goal pace for this run. I picked up on the second loop—just a little since I wasn’t all that off, and finished the second loop in 32:08 at 9:03min/mile, about 12s/mile faster than my goal pace. Great! I decided to keep the goal pace for the remaining two miles. Well, almost–I was a little faster than goal pace the last two miles, though not by too much–9:08min/mile.

I finished at 9:12min/mile about 4s/mile faster than the pace I had to keep. 4s/mile isn’t too much—therefore I declare success! The LONGEST tempo run went by at the correct pace, yippeee!!!!!! And I am keeping my shoes!

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