Trail run.

Taking another cue from Kara Goucher, I decided to run on a trail near our house today.  In her book, she suggests running on three surfaces each week: road, trail and track.  She says, "Running on these three surfaces ensures your running scenery will vary, and your feet and legs will get a better workout on the different terrain."

I began by running up and out on this dirt road for 1.5 miles.  I didn't realize how "up" it was until I turned around to run back and felt the downhill slope.

It was an interesting run because I didn't get out there until after 8 this morning, so it was already starting to get really warm.  As I slowly and heavily put one foot in front of the other on the first half, I felt quite tired, like bricks were in my shoes weighing me down.  Because of that, my average pace for the first half was around 12 min./mile.  Blah.  But...as I quickly picked up my pace and basically just "rolled" down the trail for the second half, my average pace lowered to just over 9 min./mile.  Talk about negative splits!  And even though I only ran 3 miles, when I finished I was dripping with sweat and my skin felt like it was starting to burn.  Good training for the last part of the marathon, I guess!  I won't be surprised to find myself running in the sun and heat on that day, too.

Oh, and another great thing about this run?  I didn't encounter any rattlesnakes!  Although I did have a couple of mule deer bucks bounce across the road in front of me from out of the shrubs.  I sure wish I could go as fast as they do... :)