Making the Negativity Split

Sport Chek had a great sale on so hubby and I went shopping for new running shoes today...and somehow ended up bringing home the exact same pair of Saucony Kinvara 3s.   I only let him copy me because it's his birthday today.

Anyway - the path that led me to buy the same shoes as hubby (that is - a pair of mens shoes) was that they were entirely out of women's 11s.  IN EVERYTHING!   So, as I was sitting there watching him try on shoe after shoe - I fell in love with the little pair of Kinvaras behind me and decided "What the heck - I'll give the mens a try!" and they fit great (and now I can say I only wear a size 9 shoe, right?)

Best part of buying on the men's rack?  NO PINK to get in the way.  And they are never out of size 9s!

I had to wait until the munchkins were attempting to nap before I could take them out for a run.    The idea was that I would do a 3k spin around the neighbourhood and see how it went.  Being a more minimal shoe, I was a bit worried that I would miss the cushiness of my Asics so I didn't want to push it too hard.

Is it just me, or do my feet look teeny in these?

I headed out and almost immediately, I could feel some stretching in my Achilles.   Not terribly uncomfortable but definitely different.  

But at the 1k mark, it suddenly felt better and, as if by magic, the tightness in my IT band vanished.   I felt like I was flying (and compared to recent runs, I was.  6:30/k felt almost too easy)

When I was nearing the 1.5k mark where I had promised myself i would turn around...I didn't want the run to end quite yet.  So I carried on.  Over the field and onto the road and then up tot he path on Railway ave.   It was at the 2.5k point that I forced myself to turn around because I really didn't want to ruin a good thing by doing too much too soon.

Instead, I decided to see if I could do the Mojo Jar challenge for this week and turn it into a negative split.  The only thing standing in my way was the strong headwind I was running into...but soon I was seeing 5:15 as a steady pace on the Garmin.  Faster than I have hit recently for sure (even in a race)

I was stopping for short walk breaks every 5 mins to check how my body felt and then pushing it when I ran.  In the end - YEP - that negative split was mine.  I'd love to know how it would have looked without the walk breaks.  Instead - it doesn't look like much of a negative split, but I was going about 30 sec faster per kilometer (approx...my math isn't so hot)

And the fastest non-race 5k I've done in a while...

Feeling pretty good right now.