Finding your own 'Adirondack Serenity'

Saturday, March 8, 2014

I have this picture hanging in my office at the Y and I use it often to suggest to people I’m helping begin an exercise program about setting goals and for my own reminder of a good reason to stay in shape.

It’s about the end game, I tell them.  It’s about finding something you really enjoy doing that has the added benefit of putting…and keeping…you in shape.  The scene depicted in the picture is a shot across the meadows of the Flowed Lands with the McIntyre Mountain Range of the Adirondack Mountains on the horizon and a place I love to go.  I can’t hike in to this spot with a 50-pound pack or hike and climb 10-15 hour days unless I’m in shape for the effort.  It keeps the focus over the summer training months.  With my clients, we look for their ‘Adirondack Serenity’; something they would like and sacrifice for to keep them on task.

I went to the North Chagrin Reservation with the intention of running the bridle trails.  And I started there, but after several minutes of running on mostly ice, decided I’d be better off switching to the roads.  It was a good plan generally, except that I picked Rogers Road heading east from River Road, which means ‘big hill’.  The first portion of Rogers Road ascends steeply once you cross the Chagrin River and it is on this section that I have twice snapped bicycle chains when putting maximum crank effort on the pedals to climb.  I was doing something that resembled running going up the hill and though it was slow-going, my heart rate was in the Red Zone.  Still, I made it to the top, ran another 10 minutes and then retraced my steps back to the car for another 40-minute run.  When I returned home, I hopped on the trainer for another 20 minutes so I could record another day of at least an hour of exercise.

My next door neighbor invited me out for dinner and we went to another local burger joint where I ate the most decadent burger I’ve ever had.  It had a name which I can’t remember right now, but it amounted to a burger inside a grilled cheese sandwich…lots of butter, cheese, and fatty beef.  Fries came with it, of course.  If I keep eating this way, I’m certainly going to need more running and cycling time.

Run Workout:  40 minutes.  Bike Workout:  20 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm running and 120 on the trainer.
Calories burned during workout:  700 running and 350 riding.