Joy!

My Internet connection went out today so I packed up my laptop and headed to the Sea Bean Cafe, only to find that their Internet was also down.

I took this as a sign to take the day off from work and hit the trails.

And what a day: The sun was shining, the winds were gone, and it was warm enough for just a long tech shirt. I loaded up my faithful dog, The Beebs, and headed to the historic Iditarod trail (not the race trail but the "real" trail).

The conditions were awesome. Hard packed snow that was fast, fast, fast. I planned on six slow miles, to recover from last night's tempo run, but killed the first mile in just over 8 minutes, and the second one not much slower. I finally had to force (force!) myself to slow down.

It was an awesome run, a magical run through douglas fur forest, so much silence, and flashes of sunlight through the trees. In the clearing the mountains were visible, rising up snow-covered and fierce. I love that the mountains appear so impersonal, that they don't give a damn about us, that they offer beauty and silence but no promises. They are like God: They're just there. They just are.

On the way back, I picked up the pace again and oh, the joy of running hard and fast in the cold air, the sun warm on my head, my sleeves pushed up so that my arms chapped red from the cold. Running behind the dog, no one else around but birds and squirrels. Such joy!

I finished 6.5 miles in just over 56 minutes, way too fast for a recovery run. I'm going to have to run super slow tomorrow to make up for it.

Now I'm going to make my guility pleasure food: Amy's organic mac and cheese, with lots of garlic, veggies and hot sauce.

Running: Thursday, 6 miles: One mile warm-up, four miles tempo, one mile warm-down; Friday, 6 fastish and glorious trail miles.

Reading: "Lucy the Giant," by Sherri L. Smith. I met Sherri at Hedgebrook, and she writes awesome YA novels (You go, Sherri!)

Writing: Yes, yes, and oh yes!