Uncle Bill and the Survival Workout

Monday, September 12, 2011

The plan for the day was to return to Noon Mark for breakfast and then drive the two hours north to Potsdam and the home of my Aunt and Uncle where we would spend the night visiting with relatives…including my 105-year old grandmother. The plan did not include any hiking or climbing…a shame in my estimation…so I alerted the girls the night before that I might get up before dawn and climb Mt. Van Hoevenberg so I could get some pictures of the sun rising over the high peaks. This only made sense if I had a clear morning sky, so when I woke at 5 a.m. to overcast conditions, decided it wouldn’t be worth making us late for breakfast. I fell back asleep, but woke again around six to see the color of fire in the sky over the mountains I could see from my tent. I quickly dressed and headed for the meadows where I was sure to take some great pictures and I wasn’t disappointed. A mist was rising off the tall grasses that spread in front of me to the mountains beyond. The sky over the mountains was more orange than anything else and I cursed myself for not climbing…but what I was seeing was still spectacular.

I returned to the tent and began taking it down and returning my gear to the van and organizing the mess we’d made of it over the past two days. By eight I was getting hungry and woke the girls, still sore from yesterday’s climb, to begin their process of packing to leave. We went for our breakfast and then drove to Potsdam where we found my very fit 66-year old aunt and 72-year old uncle preparing us a healthy lunch and talking about the afternoon’s activities. “I was thinking we could all go for a ride…Eunice and I on the tandem, the girls on the mountain bikes and you can ride my road bike, John,” my Uncle Bill said. Heidi was okay with it, but Savannah is no big fan of riding and the 13-mile trip he discussed had them both thinking…no thanks. Aunt Eunice came to the rescue and suggested a trip to the Raquette River and some kayaking…of which they had two…while I biked with my Uncle. Perfect.

My Uncle has been biking for over 30 years and always has the best equipment. He ordered me onto his Trek 2400 carbon fiber road bike, which I gladly accepted. He was riding a much slower mountain bike and so I did a series of hard rides out and back to him as we pedaled the country roads outside of Potsdam. I could see from his speedometer that I was riding much faster than I usually do averaging 21 mph for 31 miles of riding. His bike was easily 8 pounds lighter than mine, which would account for the 3 mph difference I was enjoying. I was extremely pleased to get in the ride as I was thinking it was going to be a day with no activity.

Later that night after a fabulous dinner of fresh corn, spinach picked that morning, a fresh garden salad and a meatloaf of veal and pork, I treated them to one of my smoothies. After dinner, my Uncle and I got to talking about his workout routine and how he found it difficult to always get to the gym and that he felt he needed more upper body strength. He hadn’t counted on what came next…a full demonstration of the Survival Workout with particular attention to the things he could do around the house. “My balance is bad, Johnny…and ideas how to make that better?” I showed him how to ‘walk the line’ in the duck walk position and to do knee bends while staying on the balls of his feet. He thought it was so great that he called my Aunt to show her what he’d learned. With little effort…another convert.

Bike workout: 90 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1,200.