Murphy's Law of New Running Shoes

Rain showers rolling in from southwest

The timelapserunner had a bit of trouble rolling out of the sack this morning but the thought of putting on those bright new running shoes got me going. As I stepped out of the car and noticed that the sky was overcast, I put my clip-on sunglasses back in the vehicle - they would not be needed today. However, Murphy's Law of New Running Shoes would apply.


I warmed up using Galloway's idea of gradually increasing the running to walking ratio as well as the running pace. That seemed to work well and shows up as the little saw blade start of the heart rate chart below. Today's effort called for an 11:35 per mile average pace, interval timing of 2:07 / 1:00, and a running pace of 10:15. You can see that regimen kick all throughout the middle half of the heart rate chart.

A very consistent pace (as indicated by heart rate) until ...

Then the sky began to darken, and the wind speed increased. For a moment, I thought it was mid-November as the wind chill began to drop the effective temperature. It was delightful, but foreboding. What do I do? Turn back? Continue forward? Keep the run/walk ratio and pace going? Hoof it to the finish?

As the drops began to get larger and more frequent, I finally opted for a compromise higher-than-planned continuous run to the car - seen easily in the last portion of the heart rate chart (at about a 9:30 per mile clip). Watches were getting wet. Shoes were getting wetter. I hit one little puddle in the parking lot - just to make it official.

So, as far as the shoes go, does this count as baptism by fire, or baptism by water?