Life on the trail: priceless

Storming round the Res (Boulder Reservoir) on Sunday, every time I checked my watch I shocked myself. I'm no danger to the Kenyans, who have just arrived back in Boulder to put the finishing touches to their Boston marathon preparations, but I have no idea why I was running so fast.

I knocked out 11 miles at 7:30 pace, which is probably the fastest sustained bit of running I've done there. Well, it's fast for me. What I can't understand is where the pace has come from. :)

Monday had to be a rest day; I could have gone out, but Abby persuaded me to go out for breakfast, and by the time that was over and digested, the slump had set in.

So today I was in the mood for something refreshing... and boy did I get it. I went for an easy 2.5 miles uphill, 2.5 downhill to one of my all-time favourite Boulder running places: the Anne U.White Trail. It is so beautiful, it's the sort of place I always feel I have to earn the right to run there, so I make myself take an approach run of a mile or two up a busy road to get to the trailhead.

Once in the trail, it is a totally gorgeous 1.5 mile narrow, switchback nature ramble that gradually ascends as it follows a mountain stream uphill. You cross and recross the stream on stepping stones. When it's full of meltwater, as it is now, you will get your feet wet.

As you run you hear the stream (Fourmile Canyon Creek) nearly all the time. And as rocks sometime crowd you in among the cool of the trees, you become very aware that this is mountain lion country, and your imagination convinces you that you are being watched. :)

Today though, nothing but butterflies out in the sun and, at one of several points on the trail where I am just forced to stop, look and "be," it is so beautiful, I noticed a big red-tailed hawk quietly sitting on a branch above my head, giving me the eye.

This trail is so sheltered that it still has ice and deep snow in parts. On the descent I fell heavily on ice and tore up my elbows and banged the back of my head. I had one of those "And no one knows I'm here" moments, before I realised I was OK.

Back out on the road and dealing with the hared downhill slope and the traffic, it really feels like you are coming down from the mountains back into civilisation after a long time away.

Total 5 miles; much of it at a dead easy pace. Lots of moments stopped and staring. Average HR: barely ticking over. "Training" value: next to zero. "Life" value: priceless.