Pitching the Adirondacks...

Monday, July 1, 2013

I went to visit Eric Harsh, a 1988 state champ in the 1,600 meters I had the pleasure of coaching in high school and a long-time friend.  He remains in excellent shape; running, hiking, swimming, cycling, and lifting.  He’s even done some serious climbing, having summated Mt. Rainier in Washington.  We’d been at the state meet together a few weeks earlier and he’d mentioned he was going with his 10-year old daughter, Sydney, to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks.  I had insisted on bringing him over my trail map and book with every intention of trying to manipulate his visit to include some of the sites I’d already seen and felt he and Sydney would enjoy.

“Mt. Van Hoevenberg and Heart Lake have GOT to be on your itinerary,” I said as I spread the map in front of them on Eric’s kitchen table.  I went into a lengthy explanation of the wonderful experiences we’d had recently when camping on Round Pond.

“We hiked and then took a dip in a crystal clear mountain pond, followed by a trip to the Noon Mark Diner for a dinner of breakfast food.  Then we hiked back to the camp site and built this awesome camp fire and just watched it while listening to the sounds of the woods,” I said, directing my enthusiastic diatribe at Sydney.  She looked excited and anxious to go.

“We’ll be camping in some exclusive hotel on Mirror Lake in downtown Lake Placid,” Eric said.

I clamped my nose with my fingers.  “That stinks,” I said.

He took the map and directions to get to Heart Lake from Lake Placid and promised to join me and the girls on a real camping trip in the near future.  As I left, I reminded Sydney not to wear peanut butter on her hike.  “Bears like peanut butter,” I said.

The trip to Eric’s left me with only enough daylight to do a run.  I went to the park thinking I’d run an hour easily on my last visit, but that was likely a fluke and not something I should try to repeat.  I was right.  After 20 minutes of running, my hip was a little sore and my calf was tightening.  I was feeling sluggish and slow, to boot.  I finished the course I’d started in 35 minutes feeling wasted, but still healthy, at least.

Run duration:  35 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.
Calories burned:  600.