Exploring a new shaded trail with Paula and running pain-free despite recent sciatica.

This week, Paula and I switched things up and explored a new route. We started on the Guadalupe River Trail and, after Almaden Lake, continued onto the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, where we even spotted a beautiful snake resting in the grass by the trail—a small reminder of how alive and scenic this area is. It turned out to be a great find overall, with more trees and shade and a nicer feel than our usual south Coyote Creek Trail.

At one point we even crossed a street called Minas, so it felt almost like running back home in our state, Minas Gerais — the only thing missing was some pão de queijo at the finish line.

I wasn’t as fast as my last run, but this one was about how I felt. After some left-side sciatica discomfort earlier in the week (triggered by a long-overdue badminton session), I was glad to complete the run without pain. That alone made it a win.

There was also a small data mystery: Strava recorded the run slightly short of a half marathon, while my Pixel Watch 4 and Google Health showed 13.12 miles. I’ll need to dig into the sync settings to figure out where the discrepancy is coming from.

On the audio side, I continued listening to Foundation by Isaac Asimov. The long game of psychohistory, politics, and shifting power dynamics is a surprisingly good match for endurance running—it keeps my mind busy navigating empires while my body quietly navigates the miles.