I've got my downhill speed back. In the past I have been able to go fast on downhill trail runs, but this year it has not been the case. I have arthritis in my knees. I take medication for it and that keeps it under control. Back in February I went off the medication because we wanted to have another child. I needed to be off of it for three months before we could get pregnant. Being off the drugs caused my arthritis to flare up, which put a damper on my running. I still had my endurance but I lost my speed, especially my downhill speed. We got pregnant and I got back on the meds. It took a few months before they were taking full effect. I have been building my speed back up and today I think that I have gotten it back. I ran with the Dirt Tours tonight. We ran Mueller Park. About a mile and a half up the trail we started to see patches of snow. As we reached Elephant Rock there was a fair amount of snow that hadn't melted and the trail was nice and soft. I was running behind a guy named Ryan. There was a couple with two dogs hiking down. Ryan stop and walked around them. As he did this one of the dogs lunged toward him tried to bite his wrist. The owner got him off and started yelling at the dog. Ryan had a large hole in his sweatshirt but the dog didn't break his skin. It was surprising to have a dog react like that when it was with its owner. It was even on leash. We made it to Elephant Rock with a fastest time for this year, 34:38. We rested for a few minutes and then headed down. The other guys told me to lead out because they knew that I like to run the downhill fast. The trail felt great today, so I just relaxed and really opened things up. About halfway down I had lost the other guys and was still gaining speed. Because of the recent storms, there weren't a lot of people on the trail so I didn't have to slow down or stop much. I was impressed at how fast I was going, yet it didn't feel like I was pushing the pace or running all out. I made it down in 22:28, also a record for this year. This is not the fastest I have ever ran this trail. Once last year I made it up in 33 minutes and down in 21. Considering the conditions of the trail, snow, mud, and slush, I felt like I was really moving. Splits:
Mile 1: 10:46
Mile 2: 10:27
Mile 3: 9:31
Mile 4: 8:27 .4 up .6 down
Mile 5: 7:12
Mile 6: 6:02
last .8: 4:41 (5:47 pace) Whoa!! avg pace up: 10:11
avg pace down: 6:36 | 