Alaska Paul is coming to town...

Friday, January 14, 2011

I felt my phone vibrating in my shirt pocket and pulled it out. I could see the name ‘Paul’ on the display and that could only be one person – Alaska Paul.

Paul and I have been friends since high school. Shortly after his senior year, he was in Colorado going to school and then on to Oregon. He eventually made his way to Alaska where he worked as a teacher and principal for the next 30 years or so. He’s worked in Inuit villages so remote that he had to be flown in and would live there for the entire school year. He was dedicated to his profession and his love of travel and the great outdoors. He’s been on every continent (except Antarctica) and sailed every ocean. He’s biked across Europe and Africa and visited places I’ve only dreamed about. There are times when I’m very jealous of him and his lifestyle.

“When will you be in town?” I asked.

“Be in Sunday. Just got back from a 30-day trip down the Colorado River and it was pretty awesome,” he replied.

He doesn’t rub my nose in it because he knows how much I’d love to have been on the trip. We decided we’d meet up on Monday and take a hike in the Metroparks. He’s always in peak form and never wants to sit still for long. He’s gone to the Adirondacks with me on a couple of occasions and I always figured for a guy who’s seen the places he has…it must be almost boring there. When I asked him on our last trip what was the best place he’d been for hiking, camping and views, he said, “I think the Adirondacks are my favorite. You’re above the trees in under 5,000 feet, they’re easy to get to and the trails are great. What more could you want?” Little else, I suppose.

Kim texted me later that night that she’d run a 4:56 mile…another PR for her. An hour later she broke her 800 record with a 2:17…both good set-ups for the All-Ohio 5K she’s scheduled to run this coming Friday.

Me? I just did a boring one-hour ride on the bike and took another deep snow hike in the Metroparks with Dakota. Holly said she’s going to join me over the weekend on one of those hikes, but I think I’ll keep her to the trails. She hasn’t been exercising in some time and the off-trail stuff really is quite tiring. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Bike duration: 60 minutes. Hike duration: 60 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking. 75 hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 900 biking. 300 hiking.