Trying to improve my running

Pretty flat run just wanted to do somwthing quick this AM before going to work. All of the miles were faster than 8:30. I tried to push the last mile extra and the split was 7:54.

AP: 8:10/mile 

Wanted another quick run with a little more distance and a bit more of a hill. I was still able to go out pretty fast on this the average pace was still 8:10, even though there is a bit more of a hill on this. Interestingly I used to feel like this was such a hilly route. Today I was trying to get the 2nd mile the one with the main hill under 8:30, it was 8:32/mile.

AP: 8:10, Vert 110 

Ran on the trail through Saquaro park by my house again. I was able to run the steep hill much easier than prior. it felt really good to do. I wish again there was a better steep hill that didn't have so much loose rock for me to fall on. I seem to slip almost everyday on this trail. Saturday I ended up with a bunch of cactus thorns in my ankle and arm I didn't even notice all of them until several hours later. Today my fall was more of a stumble I went down but not to painful. I guess that running trails is good to get used to all of this stuff.

AP: 11:12/ mile. The second mile with the most elevation gain had an AP of 14:24. 

Nothing special (Wade road to the pass) on paved roads. The first mile was a little slow, I think just warming up 8:39 the third mile had the big hill in it and was 8:54. I think 2/3 was uphill and 1/3 was down hill.

AP: 8:21/mile 

Did a new steep hill that I found not too far from my house. Here is the course on Garmin. This hill was really hard not as hard as some of the trails but I couldn't blame not running on the difficult terrain it is a dirt road but smooth. It was good training though. The grade of the hill from the gate was 13%, with the steepest part of the hill (about 0.25 miles) being 21%. I wasn't able to run the whole thing I will keep trying it until I am though. it was almost as slow coming down as going up b/c I thought I would fall and kill myself.

AP: 11:05/mile, Vert 342 ft (334 in 0.5 miles).

Wanted to do a long run today. I decided to go out on the trail by my house and see where they go. The first part I have ran a bunch and I went up the steep hill to the saddle by sombrero peak then I went down the other side and ran over the back of that ridge into Avra valley and decided to run up to the hill with the radio towers I did yesterday and see how hard that is after having run for a while. The first hill I thought was less steep then the second hill but it turns out it is just as steep (15.5% 361 feet) as the overall hill up to the radio towers (13% 334 feet). It was a nice run through the dessert with a bit of scenery I haven't seen. I then did a little hill just after 4 miles that I used to feel was quite hard, it seemed like nothing today. A little blip after having gone 4 miles. It didn't slow me down hardly at all. It is amazing the different perspective. the radio tower hill was quite hard after having gone just over 6 miles to get there. I ended up walking a lot more of it than yesterday. I did try and push it as much as I could though. Then I jogged home on the roads. Great run. I need to remember to put on sunscreen though. I forget how long it will take me to do these runs I was out for almost 2 hours and got a little burned.

AP: 10:37/mile. Time 1:51:28