New trail, better times

I decided to go numerous loops around the park behind my house today for a more ambitious trail. I headed to Little Dry Creek Trail down the street from my house and checked out the damage from last night's torrential downpour in a little out and back run.

The last week or two of running hasn't been good. I mentioned before that I felt like I was in a slump; my pace was slow and my breathing was crap. I had exercise-induced asthma in high school, and realized that this is the first time I've really, truly exerted myself since organized sports back then. I found an over-the-counter asthma medication and tried it out today. 

Wow. What a difference. The first mile was pretty good but my breathing wasn't there. I struggled a bit going into the second mile, and thought, oh well, the pills didn't work. I walked a bit at end of that mile, enjoyed some beautiful scenery, chilled out, and turned around to head back. My third mile was the same pace as the first, but felt so much easier. I was feeling really good by this point. I cranked it up for the last full mile and ran it in an 11:14 minute pace, and then pushed the last 400 feet at a 10:31 minute pace!

I'm still slow, but this felt gooood.

Parts of it could have been faster... we had a pretty heavy rainstorm last night and a couple of the underpasses were muddy and slick. I had to tiptoe my way through these to prevent myself from skidding out. It was crazy to see the damage from last night's storm... wish I'd had a camera on me.