Two Miles a Day Through Elk Grove

Today I ran two miles in a 25:27, which is around a 12:40/mile pace.
It was a nice run around the Elk Grove Park which has ancient oak trees, and is rumoured to be the "grove" that a city founder saw "elk" walking through back in the 1850s. Hence the city name "Elk Grove."

I do remember a faster time for me, back in 2003, while training in Overland Park, Kansas. Back then I got fast enough to run two miles in 18:00, which is a 9 minute mile. Two kids later, a one year long heel injury, a marathon trained for and behind me, and I'm much slower than I was before (not to mention the 35 extra pounds I'm currently carrying).

I'm focusing on working out at least 30 minutes a day and when I do run, I'm keeping it to short runs like this (2 miles) so that I can really push my speed. I'm trading off days running with cross training by Pilates and swimming to rebuild my hip flexors and other core muscles.