5 mile tempo run

Today was the first tempo run that I've done in quite a while. With the cool front we've had knocking the temperature and humidity down a bit, I decided to run at lunch since I'd be more awake than early in the morning. When I headed out it was 81 degrees which was a nice change from the usual upper 80's - mid 90's lunch time temperature. I ran a 2.5 mile warmup at about 7:15 pace and did some drills and strides and stretched out. My goal was to run the 5 miles at 5:40 - 5:50 pace based on a 16:30 5k time. I wasn't sure if that was too fast a goal time or not since the last couple times I had done progressive runs I had trouble dropping down below 5:40 pace, but the weather conditions were better today so I figured I'd give it a shot. My goal was to run just under 6:00 for the first mile and see how I was feeling and then pick it up from there if I was ok or keep it in the mid 5:50's if I was working too hard.

I hit mile 1 right at 5:56 and felt pretty good. Mile 2 was 5:47 and mile 3 was 5:45. I felt good, but my breathing wasn't quite as easy as I would have liked. Mile 4 was 5:44 and I was feeling it by the end of mile 4. I knew that I could keep the pace for the last mile, but I had to step my effort up some. I finished the last mile in 5:42, but I was definitely working harder than tempo pace at the end. I'm not sure if I would have been able to do another mile at that same pace which is generally where you would like to be for an anaerobic threshold run. I did a 1.25 mile cooldown for a total of 8.75 miles on the day.

I was pleased with the times I hit, but the effort was a little more than I would have liked. I didn't finish the workout feeling as good as I did at the end of Monday's workout, but overall I think it was a pretty good workout. I put a bandaid and medical tape over the raw spot on my foot and loosened the laces on my shoe, but it still was really uncomfortable the entire workout. When I took off my shoe, my sock was kind of bloody and I'm not certain if it was bleeding again and coming through the tape or if the blood soaked into the shoes from Monday's workout was just staining my sock. I think it was a little of both. My other shoes which are a little heavier don't bother my foot as much so I'll just have to wear them for all my runs until this heals up. I have noticed that since I got rid of my Nike Skylon's and replaced them with the Adidas Adizero Boston my plantar fasciitis or whatever was causing the pain in my foot seems to have gone away. I guess I've just traded it for a shoe that rubs my feet raw. I hope that when it heals up I can run in the shoes without them giving me problems because I like the weight and the feel of the shoe (other than the problem I just described) and I think it would be a good shoe to run the marathon in.