Playing in the woods...and other things.

Monday, October 04, 2010

The Plain Dealer reported that Stan Austin recently took the reins of the Cuyahoga National Park, accepting the position of Superintendent of the 33,000 acre park. I can’t help but like the things he’d like to see the park doing since they are close to my heart, as well. His last assignment as Assistant Superintendent of the Rocky Mountain National Park would have found him in a totally different environment and I’m sure, a radical difference in the populations served and how they used that park. Rocky Mountain National Park has tremendous peaks for climbing, hiking and skiing, backcountry wilderness for camping and extensive wildlife. Cuyahoga National Park lack the peaks and the backcountry wilderness camping, but is beautifully situated for the urban masses to utilize. It is the fifth most visited national park in the country and offers 184 miles of trails for biking, hiking, and running – among other things.

The things I like about Stan’s plans for the park are his interest in establishing camping and attempting to bring the youth of the area into the park to experience the great outdoors. I grew up in the woods and wish my own kids had gotten the opportunities to do what I did. It was our playground and was right out the back door. I built tree forts, hunted for frogs, snakes, turtles and salamanders, played army and went on long hikes with a packed lunch. Not that staying inside to watch TV was an option, but I wouldn’t have wanted to anyway. It was just way to much fun to be outside and in the woods. If you haven’t read “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv and you have children, you should. He tells a wonderful story about the way my generation grew up with our access to things outdoors and contrasts it with the way kids are forced to grow up today…missing that important connection to things wild. He’s got some wonderful ideas on how to remedy the problem on both the micro and macro level.

It was another overcast, rainy day…lousy for the bike but perfect for a run. I’d done 43 minutest the day before and in an effort to make sure I didn’t overdo it, I’d figured maybe 30 minutes. What I hadn’t figured on was feeling so good. I was running strong and wanting to go faster, but held back. I’d created a new course and when I found myself still 10 minutes from the car at the 30-minute mark, I decided to just keep going. It turned out well…no hip pain…and now I’m thinking since it’s supposed to be crappy again tomorrow that I’ll try running for a third day in a row.

Ash texted me that she was walking home, which is 3.5 miles and that she’d like to go up to the track for a workout afterwards. I’m never one to discourage working out, so we climbed in the car when she got home and headed up to the school. I took her into the bleachers where we did 7 sets before coming down to the track. She’d told me that on an earlier attempt to run, she’d been gassed after half a block. I suspected she’d gone too fast at the start and figured I’d take her on a lap to show her how to run slow. We walked one lap to gauge her walking pace…it turned out to be 16 minutes per mile and then went into a slow jog for 400 meters. She had absolutely no trouble with it and could have gone on, but I just wanted to get her started without killing her. We returned to the bleachers for three more sets before heading home. I think she liked the variety, which I’ll make sure she gets plenty of on future trips up. Myself? I did the same 10 bleacher repeats and easy quarter jog to go with the 40-minute run. I’m starting to feel like my old, invincible self. Usually a sign that another injury is on the way…

Run duration: 40 minutes. Bleacher workout: 15 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm running. 100 in the bleachers.
Calories burned during workout: 675 running. 125 for the bleachers.