Dear Trail,

As E wrote yesterday, our evening workout included climbing up Deer Trail, at the top of Lee Hill, until the pavement ended at the turn off for Mine Lane. It's a steep little road, only 1.5 miles or so, but it took me over 16 min to climb up it, and that was after ~35 min of climbing up Lee Hill Road.

During my assent, my mind started to wander a bit. It came around to the thought that Coach J had mislabled this part of the workout as Dear Trail (not Deer Trail). So I started composing letters to the road. First they were directed to the complaint department:

Dear Trail,
Please make yourself less steep. And with a bit less loose gravel in the turns.....

Dear Trail,
There are too many turns on this road. Please make yourself straighter and less steep......

This wasn't really working. It was a nice night out, and the road is a good challenge, but I was becoming too negative and not enjoying the opportunity to get stronger and fitter, and I definitely was not enjoying my surrounding environment enough. In fact, all this negativity just made me want to pull over, stop, and wait for E to get up and come back for me. That wasn't a good idea, so I switched focus and started to write thank-you notes instead.

Dear Trail,
Thank you for being so steep. Thank you for making me stronger.....

Dear Trail,
Thank you for the chance to climb up you and get fitter......

Dear Trail,
Thank you for not having more traffic. Thank you for having good road. Thank you for being a good, hard challenge, I mean opportunity.......

It worked! It didn't make it easier physically, but it got me up and over the mountain mentally. A simple mis-spelling by our coach had me off on quite a tangent.

By the end of the climb, my thank-you notes had dribbled into a mere chant: me-stronger,me-fitter, me-stronger, me-fitter........... And then, once at the top, I did look around and absorb the view. And the descent! What fun! I love a smooth, fast descent on my bike. The only choice we had to make was what side of Lee Hill Road to take down.

A quick run (that was slightly complicated with a gassy tummy) and we were done for the day! For all of you local readers, I recommend a climb up Deer Trail on your bike. It isn't easy, but it sure is a rewarding opportunity. And a quick trip from Boulder, easy to do after work. I like Sugarloaf, too, but this one has better roads to get there. Try it out!

-A