Running Running, As Fast As We Can

I am goal oriented.  What that means is, I am unable to accomplish much without an end goal in mind.  I have always enjoyed running (well, jogging because I am so slow), so I recently set a goal to reduce my min/mile by 2 mins before my next half marathon in October.  Lucky for me, I have a coworker who is my size and runs 8 min/mi, so she's living proof that my goal can be accomplished (I always used the excuse that I had a shorter stride, so I couldn't run any faster), especially because I just want to get down to 9:30 min/mi, haha.  Running with speedy Gonzalez helps because it forces me to try, key word try, to keep up with her.  We've been running the UCSD campus loop twice a week which is an amazing 4 mile run.  Here's the breakdown:

A. This is where we start our run.  Starting from here gives us another .25 miles.

B. My coworker "forces" me to run up this as a warm up. It is uphill at a 45 degree angle and I'm usually saying "I hate (love) you" the whole way up because it's not even where the official loop starts yet and I'm already getting tired.

C. This is where I really hate my life because it is a steep uphill battle for about 1/3 of a mile all the while my coworker continues to run like the energizer bunny.

D. This is where I do a halfpoint check on my breathing - if I'm breathing hard, then I know I'm running at a good pace; if I'm not panting at all, I know I've been slacking.

E. This is where I am singing "happy happy joy joy" in my head because it is all downhill from here!  I get to trick myself by telling myself that I'm running faster, but we all know it's because the downward angle is pushing me forward.

F. This is where we run by the canyon so there is always a breeze to cool us off.  It's my favorite part of the loop.

G. This is where we high-five each other and begin our walk back to our hotel while talking about what we're going to stuff our faces with for dinner.