Sunday, March 13, 2011
I started the morning by trying to a little hiking in the Metroparks. The snow was beginning to melt, but there was still 8-10 inches on the snow and a swamp beneath it. I tried climbing one ridge behind Squire’s Castle, but found myself slipping back on the saturated earth/mud just beneath the snow cover. It was pretty miserable hiking, but I kept at it until Jack called to tell me he needed to be picked up.
I came home and put an hour on the bike while watching a video on Baseball’s most unbreakable records. Baseball, unlike the three other major professional sports, is a game of statistics and its records are sacred. Like any records though…they are made to be broken though some, like Babe Ruth’s single season home run record of 60, was thought of so passionately by Major League Baseball that when Roger Maris broke it in 1961, baseball’s commissioner attached an asterisk to his new record because Maris had the advantage of playing in a regular season made up of 162 games, 8 more than the 154 Ruth had played in. Maris’ record breaking homer came in game 162…the last of the season (by the way…one of the great sports movies of all time is Roger’s 1961 season and the pursuit of this fabled record called simply “61”. Non-baseball/sports fans can enjoy it, too, as it is a great story about stress, society, the pressures of the press and the issues of challenging an American icon).
Roger Clemens…now tainted by the steroid scandal…narrates. The program was filmed in 2006…before he and Barry Bonds, among others, came tumbling down from their steroid inflated baseball statistical heights. It’s a great program for baseball purist and the top ten picks were selected by current and former major league players, some in the Hall of Fame, as well as managers and members of the news media. I don’t have an argument with any of their choices, though we disagree on the record most unlikely to be broken. The program identifies Cal Ripken’s incredible consecutive games played streak – 2632, where I’ve selected Cy Young’s 511 wins. I know it is unlikely that anyone will again be so good, injury-free, and have such longevity as to challenge Cal’s record, but it could happen. Cy Young’s record, on the other hand, is safe unless the way the game is played is changed. Pitchers no longer start 50 games a year. Pitching rotations are made up of 5-man rosters, not 4 as in Cy’s day…thus negating the chance to pitch in enough games to challenge his record. We’ll be lucky to see pitchers winning 300 games of the course of their careers in the future. Anyway…great program and it kept me going for an hour.
Our neighbors were having a pre-St. Patrick’s Day feast, but we couldn’t get over because of our own Sunday night family dinner. They stopped by after though, and brought us some fantastic soda bread, which I smothered in butter. I’d already eaten too much for the day and didn’t need the additional calories…but what the hell. They also informed me that the giant buck with the rack to die for still has his antlers. They’d seen him in their back yard earlier in the day. Looks like I’ve got some more neighborhood prowling to do.
Hike duration: 45 minutes. Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 90 bpm hiking, 130 bpm biking.
Calories burned during workout: 225 hiking. 900 biking.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Time for a new bike...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
I’d put an hour on the trainer by the time John arrived. He was coming over so we could scope out new bikes for him. He had decided that he’d like something new and that I should take his Trek 1400 to replace the Univega I’d rusted through. “There is no way that bike is safe to ride,” he’d said earlier in the year when observing the rust I’d managed to build up on the key structural parts of the bike. I’d purchased the bike used when I was on a vacation in Michigan about six years ago and had the Kirk I was riding disintegrate beneath me. I’d taken it to a local bike store where the owner looked over the damage.
“I’ve never seen a bike rust out like this…you must sweat a hell of a lot,” he’d said.
“Yeah…I do…and this is the second frame I’ve done this to over the last twenty years and I’m guessing it won’t be the last one, either.”
We took a trip to Eddy’s Bikes where I was put through sticker shock. John was looking for an aggressive triathlon bike, compact and built for speed. He wanted a carbon-fiber, light weight racing bicycle…something with all the advantages he’d need to keep up with my aging ass on our long rides. After view a couple in the $3,000 range, I knew he was going to be kicking my butt. The bikes in this range built out would run in the 16-pound range, or about eight less than mine. That doesn’t seem like a lot…and maybe it isn’t on level ground, but when climbing hills it would be a huge advantage. “If I get one of these, I won’t have to be in as good of shape as you’re in,” he boasted. He’s probably right…which makes me crazy, but will increase my motivation for this summer and I’ll make sure to put in extra mileage. I don’t like getting dusted.
Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 900.
I’d put an hour on the trainer by the time John arrived. He was coming over so we could scope out new bikes for him. He had decided that he’d like something new and that I should take his Trek 1400 to replace the Univega I’d rusted through. “There is no way that bike is safe to ride,” he’d said earlier in the year when observing the rust I’d managed to build up on the key structural parts of the bike. I’d purchased the bike used when I was on a vacation in Michigan about six years ago and had the Kirk I was riding disintegrate beneath me. I’d taken it to a local bike store where the owner looked over the damage.
“I’ve never seen a bike rust out like this…you must sweat a hell of a lot,” he’d said.
“Yeah…I do…and this is the second frame I’ve done this to over the last twenty years and I’m guessing it won’t be the last one, either.”
We took a trip to Eddy’s Bikes where I was put through sticker shock. John was looking for an aggressive triathlon bike, compact and built for speed. He wanted a carbon-fiber, light weight racing bicycle…something with all the advantages he’d need to keep up with my aging ass on our long rides. After view a couple in the $3,000 range, I knew he was going to be kicking my butt. The bikes in this range built out would run in the 16-pound range, or about eight less than mine. That doesn’t seem like a lot…and maybe it isn’t on level ground, but when climbing hills it would be a huge advantage. “If I get one of these, I won’t have to be in as good of shape as you’re in,” he boasted. He’s probably right…which makes me crazy, but will increase my motivation for this summer and I’ll make sure to put in extra mileage. I don’t like getting dusted.
Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 900.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
"That's not snow...it's concrete!"
Friday, March 11, 2011
It’s never a good thing to hear snowplows around 1 a.m. and every hour after that until its time to get up in the morning. The call cancelling school came around 6:30 a.m., so I knew it had to be bad. Mayfield is already over the limit and any further snow days will have to be made up at the end of the year…something they couldn’t possibly want to do. Since Holly’s van was still at Dan’s getting fixed, I was planning on driving her to work in Beachwood and she didn’t need to get there until 9 a.m. It was 7 a.m. and that would leave me with plenty of time to shovel the drive…right?
I opened the garage door, watching for daylight to start shining in as it went up. When it was up over a foot and all I could see was snow…I figured Holly would be late and I’d be later.
I grabbed my pushing shovel and tried to make my path down the middle of our double drive, as I always did. I went about six inches and stopped. To coin a phrase of a friend about shoveling this stuff, “it was like shoveling cement.” I reached for my throwing shovel and began my attack.
I suppose the most annoying thing about sticky snow is that it likes to stick to your shovel. That’s a great thing because you get to pick it up and move it twice…which was what I really wanted to do. I spent the next two hours shoveling only to find that the half I’d shoveled had two inches of new snow on it before I’d finished the second half. I shoveled this and then drove Holly to work. When I returned after a couple of hours, I had another three inches to deal with. I moved that and decided there was no point in doing anything else until the snow stopped falling.
After calling clients from home and rescheduling them for next week, I decided to put in some time on the trainer. I’d already burned a ton of calories and wanted to pile on some more. I managed an hour, took a shower and headed back out for my last push before having to go pick up Holly. There was another couple of inches and I’m guessing that we ended up somewhere in the 15-inch neighborhood and that I’d spent three hours shoveling…easily the toughest day of the winter.
Bike duration: 60 minutes. Shoveling duration: Infinity…plus one minute.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm biking. 150 bpm shoveling snow.
Calories burned during workout: 900 biking. 2,100 shoveling snow.
It’s never a good thing to hear snowplows around 1 a.m. and every hour after that until its time to get up in the morning. The call cancelling school came around 6:30 a.m., so I knew it had to be bad. Mayfield is already over the limit and any further snow days will have to be made up at the end of the year…something they couldn’t possibly want to do. Since Holly’s van was still at Dan’s getting fixed, I was planning on driving her to work in Beachwood and she didn’t need to get there until 9 a.m. It was 7 a.m. and that would leave me with plenty of time to shovel the drive…right?
I opened the garage door, watching for daylight to start shining in as it went up. When it was up over a foot and all I could see was snow…I figured Holly would be late and I’d be later.
I grabbed my pushing shovel and tried to make my path down the middle of our double drive, as I always did. I went about six inches and stopped. To coin a phrase of a friend about shoveling this stuff, “it was like shoveling cement.” I reached for my throwing shovel and began my attack.
I suppose the most annoying thing about sticky snow is that it likes to stick to your shovel. That’s a great thing because you get to pick it up and move it twice…which was what I really wanted to do. I spent the next two hours shoveling only to find that the half I’d shoveled had two inches of new snow on it before I’d finished the second half. I shoveled this and then drove Holly to work. When I returned after a couple of hours, I had another three inches to deal with. I moved that and decided there was no point in doing anything else until the snow stopped falling.
After calling clients from home and rescheduling them for next week, I decided to put in some time on the trainer. I’d already burned a ton of calories and wanted to pile on some more. I managed an hour, took a shower and headed back out for my last push before having to go pick up Holly. There was another couple of inches and I’m guessing that we ended up somewhere in the 15-inch neighborhood and that I’d spent three hours shoveling…easily the toughest day of the winter.
Bike duration: 60 minutes. Shoveling duration: Infinity…plus one minute.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm biking. 150 bpm shoveling snow.
Calories burned during workout: 900 biking. 2,100 shoveling snow.
Trying to cope with self-destructive behavior.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
I met an old friend from my teaching days for dinner. We do this every couple of months just to catch up. She gets me up to date with Fieldstone Farm, the place Jim and I used to work and where I served as the Vocational Trainer for the high school students attending school there. She knows all about my background as a fitness trainer and this night, was interested in getting my help.
“John…I’ve got to get back on my diet and lose all the weight I’ve gained…which is over 70 pounds,” she said, explaining the diet low in refined sugar and carbs she used to follow. It didn’t sound like the greatest diet, but it had worked for her for over four years, but like so many of us, some stressful events occurred in her life…and food became the antidote. “I know I want to lose the weight and that I shouldn’t eat like I am…as I’m doing it. It’s like I’m trying to self-destruct.”
I hear the same story from Holly lately, too, and I’ve heard it hundreds of times over the years. In fact…it was me a little over a year ago when I began writing the blog and redefining my goals.
“Of course I’ll help you. You know I’m all about goal-setting and baselines so let’s get together on Tuesday and I’ll give you the step test and we’ll map out a short-term program for the next eight weeks to put you on the path. I think you ought to see my nutritionist friend about your wacky diet, too, and grab the book ‘You on a Diet’ and start reading. I think a lot of the issues you have with your eating issues are addressed in there and it will give you a better understanding of your self-destructive nature as well as some tools for dealing with them,” I said.
She’s a horse person and likes outdoor activity, though she has a elliptical machine and has used it with some success. “I still think you need to set some kind of goal to do something…kind of like how I set a trip to the Adirondacks and then need to be in shape to do the climbing. It gives you a deadline and I’ll map out the strategy to get you there. We’ll start with a fun hike in the Metroparks after I give you the step test on Tuesday. Bring some boots…it’ll be muddy, but that will make it a better workout,” I concluded.
For her, as for almost anyone, its about changing behavior…permanently. If you don’t…you revert. It will be a challenge for us both, but I’m looking forward to it.
I didn’t get in too much of a workout because of the dinner, though. Still, I managed a 45-minute hike before and when I got home to find that Holly was out walking, decided to try and meet up with her. The snow was beginning to fall and the wind was blowing hard. The sidewalks were already slippery. I headed in the reverse direction of our normal walk, figuring I’d find her heading my way somewhere along the path, but of course she’d chosen to go in an entirely different direction and we never crossed. I managed to add another 25 minutes to my walking time, which felt pretty good since I’d wolfed down two large, juicy pork chops and a sweet potato slathered in some kind of sweet buttered, topping for dinner. I could tell that I was likely to have a good workout the following morning too, since the snow was wet, sticky and supposedly coming in large quantities.
Hike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 75 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 250.
I met an old friend from my teaching days for dinner. We do this every couple of months just to catch up. She gets me up to date with Fieldstone Farm, the place Jim and I used to work and where I served as the Vocational Trainer for the high school students attending school there. She knows all about my background as a fitness trainer and this night, was interested in getting my help.
“John…I’ve got to get back on my diet and lose all the weight I’ve gained…which is over 70 pounds,” she said, explaining the diet low in refined sugar and carbs she used to follow. It didn’t sound like the greatest diet, but it had worked for her for over four years, but like so many of us, some stressful events occurred in her life…and food became the antidote. “I know I want to lose the weight and that I shouldn’t eat like I am…as I’m doing it. It’s like I’m trying to self-destruct.”
I hear the same story from Holly lately, too, and I’ve heard it hundreds of times over the years. In fact…it was me a little over a year ago when I began writing the blog and redefining my goals.
“Of course I’ll help you. You know I’m all about goal-setting and baselines so let’s get together on Tuesday and I’ll give you the step test and we’ll map out a short-term program for the next eight weeks to put you on the path. I think you ought to see my nutritionist friend about your wacky diet, too, and grab the book ‘You on a Diet’ and start reading. I think a lot of the issues you have with your eating issues are addressed in there and it will give you a better understanding of your self-destructive nature as well as some tools for dealing with them,” I said.
She’s a horse person and likes outdoor activity, though she has a elliptical machine and has used it with some success. “I still think you need to set some kind of goal to do something…kind of like how I set a trip to the Adirondacks and then need to be in shape to do the climbing. It gives you a deadline and I’ll map out the strategy to get you there. We’ll start with a fun hike in the Metroparks after I give you the step test on Tuesday. Bring some boots…it’ll be muddy, but that will make it a better workout,” I concluded.
For her, as for almost anyone, its about changing behavior…permanently. If you don’t…you revert. It will be a challenge for us both, but I’m looking forward to it.
I didn’t get in too much of a workout because of the dinner, though. Still, I managed a 45-minute hike before and when I got home to find that Holly was out walking, decided to try and meet up with her. The snow was beginning to fall and the wind was blowing hard. The sidewalks were already slippery. I headed in the reverse direction of our normal walk, figuring I’d find her heading my way somewhere along the path, but of course she’d chosen to go in an entirely different direction and we never crossed. I managed to add another 25 minutes to my walking time, which felt pretty good since I’d wolfed down two large, juicy pork chops and a sweet potato slathered in some kind of sweet buttered, topping for dinner. I could tell that I was likely to have a good workout the following morning too, since the snow was wet, sticky and supposedly coming in large quantities.
Hike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 75 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 250.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
New idea for a triathlon...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
I received and interesting comment on the blog the other day. The ‘Postman’ is one of my regulars and an old high school buddy now living in Florida. On a visit last fall, he and I made our way to Slyman’s for some over eating and then later met at the Metropark so he could go through a workout with me and see the haunts he’d been reading about. His comment followed a story I’d written about getting ready for this year’s birthday triathlon…something he believes I can handle easily if I follow last year’s format and add a ‘1’ to each distance. He wants me to incorporate more of what I’ve been doing over the last month.
“Get even more in touch with nature. Perhaps you should run after a deer for 56 minutes with a bonus if you rip off one of its antlers or time off if you can touch one. From there…swim with the beavers for 56 minutes and then cap it off with a ride on a ground surveillance eagle stalking mountain bike,” he wrote. These are all excellent ideas, Postman, but there are some issues. In all likelihood, the antlers will have fallen by April 18th…my birthday…so I won’t have the opportunity to actually rip them from the head of a deer (otherwise I’d be all over that most excellent idea). Swimming with the beavers could be interesting except that the water is so shallow in the masrh that I’d have trouble with the flip turns in trying to keep with them and…as you are well aware…you CANNOT ride a mountain bike…even one especially equipped to mount surveillance on eagles at the marsh…off-trail in the Metroparks.
In the famous words of the Sundance Kid…”you just keep thinking Postman, that’s what you’re good at…”
I hate cold, wet, rainy days (as opposed to ‘dry’ rainy days) and when they happen…I head inside. I could have run, but I’m sticking to every other day for a while and besides, the trails are truly underwater. I went home and climbed on the trainer for a ride and an episode of ‘Lost’ before church and ashes on the forehead. I figured I could get in an hour ride, but that wasn’t allowing for Holly’s making a dinner and eating it first. She stuck her head in the office to notify me that we’d be eating in 10 minutes, which meant I’d only get in a forty-minute ride and, more importantly, not be able to finish the episode I’d started. I know better than to be late for dinner though, so I cut the ride short. I hate to miss the training time…especially now that I have ‘Postman’ working on alternative events for my birthday triathlon.
Bike duration: 45 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 675.
I received and interesting comment on the blog the other day. The ‘Postman’ is one of my regulars and an old high school buddy now living in Florida. On a visit last fall, he and I made our way to Slyman’s for some over eating and then later met at the Metropark so he could go through a workout with me and see the haunts he’d been reading about. His comment followed a story I’d written about getting ready for this year’s birthday triathlon…something he believes I can handle easily if I follow last year’s format and add a ‘1’ to each distance. He wants me to incorporate more of what I’ve been doing over the last month.
“Get even more in touch with nature. Perhaps you should run after a deer for 56 minutes with a bonus if you rip off one of its antlers or time off if you can touch one. From there…swim with the beavers for 56 minutes and then cap it off with a ride on a ground surveillance eagle stalking mountain bike,” he wrote. These are all excellent ideas, Postman, but there are some issues. In all likelihood, the antlers will have fallen by April 18th…my birthday…so I won’t have the opportunity to actually rip them from the head of a deer (otherwise I’d be all over that most excellent idea). Swimming with the beavers could be interesting except that the water is so shallow in the masrh that I’d have trouble with the flip turns in trying to keep with them and…as you are well aware…you CANNOT ride a mountain bike…even one especially equipped to mount surveillance on eagles at the marsh…off-trail in the Metroparks.
In the famous words of the Sundance Kid…”you just keep thinking Postman, that’s what you’re good at…”
I hate cold, wet, rainy days (as opposed to ‘dry’ rainy days) and when they happen…I head inside. I could have run, but I’m sticking to every other day for a while and besides, the trails are truly underwater. I went home and climbed on the trainer for a ride and an episode of ‘Lost’ before church and ashes on the forehead. I figured I could get in an hour ride, but that wasn’t allowing for Holly’s making a dinner and eating it first. She stuck her head in the office to notify me that we’d be eating in 10 minutes, which meant I’d only get in a forty-minute ride and, more importantly, not be able to finish the episode I’d started. I know better than to be late for dinner though, so I cut the ride short. I hate to miss the training time…especially now that I have ‘Postman’ working on alternative events for my birthday triathlon.
Bike duration: 45 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 675.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
It's all about 'who you know...'
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
I’m sorry if you don’t like to hear about local, public corruption, but its something about which I get rather incensed…which helps me burn extra calories…but necessitates a need to vent. Jobs are hard to come by in greater Cleveland over the past year or so…unless of course you’re related to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Bill Mason.
Bill’s put at least 13 relatives on the county payroll during his 20 years in office with taxpayers providing more than $2.2 million for their salaries during that time. You might say “only 13 in 20 years? Not so big a deal,”…but that doesn’t include friends of relatives (and there are many), and relatives working for other public officials. Some of these people were hired to positions that were never posted, thus not giving the general public the opportunity to apply.
Now…Bill’s got one pretty solid excuse he’s not using. He’s one of 15 children and as such has 119 members of his immediate family. Start adding in cousins and such and I doubt the man could possibly know who all his relatives are and may be hiring them without even knowing. Apparently, Bill declined to be interviewed by the PD and wouldn’t disclose whether other relatives have obtained public jobs, though in a statement issued through his ‘public spokesman’ (people assigned to speak for you so you don’t make an ass of yourself…I could use one of those), he said he encourages everyone, “including my family” to consider public service. Well…we would…but you’ve already filled all the jobs with your family.
Okay…enough of that. Yeah…I was in the woods hiking around looking for antlers again. I only spent 90 minutes in this futile pursuit before changing over to my running gear. I started on the bridle trails, which were a combination of ice and ankle deep mud and got discouraged with it in about five minutes. I turned around and started jogging back to the car so that I could go home and ride the trainer, but kept on going right past the car and decided to try running the road until something exploded. I crossed River Road and began working my way up Rogers Road. It’s the steep, little bastard hill upon which I’ve snapped three bicycle chains over the years and someplace I was likely to snap an achilles tendon. It hurt on the way up, but I pressed on, reaching the top in a little over four minutes (interpret as I was barely moving).
I returned to the car managing a run of 33 minutes of which all but four was on pavement. It’s the longest I’ve run on hard surfaces…without hurting myself…in about a year. I don’t see it as a new trend…I’ll hit the trails as soon as I don’t need waders to run there…but at least I got in a run.
Run duration: 33 minutes. Hike duration: 90 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 bpm running, 75 bpm hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 560 running. 350 hiking.
I’m sorry if you don’t like to hear about local, public corruption, but its something about which I get rather incensed…which helps me burn extra calories…but necessitates a need to vent. Jobs are hard to come by in greater Cleveland over the past year or so…unless of course you’re related to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Bill Mason.
Bill’s put at least 13 relatives on the county payroll during his 20 years in office with taxpayers providing more than $2.2 million for their salaries during that time. You might say “only 13 in 20 years? Not so big a deal,”…but that doesn’t include friends of relatives (and there are many), and relatives working for other public officials. Some of these people were hired to positions that were never posted, thus not giving the general public the opportunity to apply.
Now…Bill’s got one pretty solid excuse he’s not using. He’s one of 15 children and as such has 119 members of his immediate family. Start adding in cousins and such and I doubt the man could possibly know who all his relatives are and may be hiring them without even knowing. Apparently, Bill declined to be interviewed by the PD and wouldn’t disclose whether other relatives have obtained public jobs, though in a statement issued through his ‘public spokesman’ (people assigned to speak for you so you don’t make an ass of yourself…I could use one of those), he said he encourages everyone, “including my family” to consider public service. Well…we would…but you’ve already filled all the jobs with your family.
Okay…enough of that. Yeah…I was in the woods hiking around looking for antlers again. I only spent 90 minutes in this futile pursuit before changing over to my running gear. I started on the bridle trails, which were a combination of ice and ankle deep mud and got discouraged with it in about five minutes. I turned around and started jogging back to the car so that I could go home and ride the trainer, but kept on going right past the car and decided to try running the road until something exploded. I crossed River Road and began working my way up Rogers Road. It’s the steep, little bastard hill upon which I’ve snapped three bicycle chains over the years and someplace I was likely to snap an achilles tendon. It hurt on the way up, but I pressed on, reaching the top in a little over four minutes (interpret as I was barely moving).
I returned to the car managing a run of 33 minutes of which all but four was on pavement. It’s the longest I’ve run on hard surfaces…without hurting myself…in about a year. I don’t see it as a new trend…I’ll hit the trails as soon as I don’t need waders to run there…but at least I got in a run.
Run duration: 33 minutes. Hike duration: 90 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 bpm running, 75 bpm hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 560 running. 350 hiking.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
"You've found three already?"
Monday, March 7, 2011
“That needle for hot and cold went all the way to hot and the car started dinging at me…so I pulled into a parking lot. What should I do now?” Holly asked.
“Well…you did the right thing. I’m on my way,” I replied. Not good. She’d been telling me she wasn’t getting any heat in the van and I was scheduled to take it to see Dan after work. But the damn thing couldn’t wait until then. I grabbed a gallon of anti-freeze and a gallon of water and went to meet her. My hope was that I could get it to run cool enough to get it to Dan’s and avoid the tow.
I filled the radiator with fluid…it only took about a half gallon so I didn’t hold out much hope. With good reason. It didn’t do a bit of good and I called for a tow. Dan would check it out later and give me a call with the bad news. What’s worse is that since I don’t have a functioning road bike, I’ll have to drive out to pick it up instead of my normal bike ride to Chardon.
I made my way to the Metropark for another hike after work. I was reinvigorated for antler searching after seeing the two deer in my back yard yesterday still carrying antlers. There was a couple of inches on the ground…just enough to make them stand out without covering them completely. I hadn’t gone five minutes when after climbing out of a small ravine, came face to face with…a face.
I did a double take…but it was definitely a skull with both antlers attached lying against the base of a tree. I picked it up to discover it was fairly complete with all of the teeth to the upper jaw. The lower jaw was missing. Though I’d seen many like this in my friend Jeff’s fathers’ garage, I never expected to find one. I had left a message for Jeff earlier in the day to question him about how late into the season I might expect to find antlers, but he hadn’t called back yet. I continued my search with my trophy hanging loosely from my hand.
I felt the vibration of the phone and reached into my pocket to check the display. It was Jeff and I answered, explaining to him what I’d been doing, but not mentioning what I’d found to date. “My dad has found them into May and they’re still dropping now. In fact, if you find a big one, look around for the other. The bucks are really unbalanced when they lose one and try to knock the other one off right away,” he told me. “They’re really hard to find though…I’ve only found one antler over the years,” he concluded.
“Oh?…I...um…I’ve found three…actually. I figured I was doing poorly…,” I replied. There was a pause before he answered. “You’ve found three? You called to rub it in…didn’t you?”
I hadn’t actually…though it was something I’d do. “Yeah…I’m holding a skull right now.”
“You’re holding a skull?”
“Well…no…I’m holding an antler…but it’s attached at the other end to a skull,” I said. We talked some more about his dad…the ‘Michael Jordan’ of antler hunting. He’d found seven this year already and averaged twenty a season. I tried to soften the blow of my discoveries by claiming to be lucky…which I was. I’d walked within twenty feet of today’s find on at least two other occasions and not seen it. We agreed that I’d come out to see his dad soon to show him my trophies and hung up.
That was it for the evening though. I did see my beaver friend as I worked my way around the marsh and saw an eagle overhead as I made my way back into the woods. He was flying into the sun and was out of sight before I could get a picture, though. I know I need to give up the searching soon because it consumes all of my training time and I can’t see myself working ‘antler hunting’ into my birthday triathlon.
Hike duration: 2 hours.
Training Heart Rate: 90 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.
“Well…you did the right thing. I’m on my way,” I replied. Not good. She’d been telling me she wasn’t getting any heat in the van and I was scheduled to take it to see Dan after work. But the damn thing couldn’t wait until then. I grabbed a gallon of anti-freeze and a gallon of water and went to meet her. My hope was that I could get it to run cool enough to get it to Dan’s and avoid the tow.
I filled the radiator with fluid…it only took about a half gallon so I didn’t hold out much hope. With good reason. It didn’t do a bit of good and I called for a tow. Dan would check it out later and give me a call with the bad news. What’s worse is that since I don’t have a functioning road bike, I’ll have to drive out to pick it up instead of my normal bike ride to Chardon.
I made my way to the Metropark for another hike after work. I was reinvigorated for antler searching after seeing the two deer in my back yard yesterday still carrying antlers. There was a couple of inches on the ground…just enough to make them stand out without covering them completely. I hadn’t gone five minutes when after climbing out of a small ravine, came face to face with…a face.
I did a double take…but it was definitely a skull with both antlers attached lying against the base of a tree. I picked it up to discover it was fairly complete with all of the teeth to the upper jaw. The lower jaw was missing. Though I’d seen many like this in my friend Jeff’s fathers’ garage, I never expected to find one. I had left a message for Jeff earlier in the day to question him about how late into the season I might expect to find antlers, but he hadn’t called back yet. I continued my search with my trophy hanging loosely from my hand.
I felt the vibration of the phone and reached into my pocket to check the display. It was Jeff and I answered, explaining to him what I’d been doing, but not mentioning what I’d found to date. “My dad has found them into May and they’re still dropping now. In fact, if you find a big one, look around for the other. The bucks are really unbalanced when they lose one and try to knock the other one off right away,” he told me. “They’re really hard to find though…I’ve only found one antler over the years,” he concluded.
“Oh?…I...um…I’ve found three…actually. I figured I was doing poorly…,” I replied. There was a pause before he answered. “You’ve found three? You called to rub it in…didn’t you?”
I hadn’t actually…though it was something I’d do. “Yeah…I’m holding a skull right now.”
“You’re holding a skull?”
“Well…no…I’m holding an antler…but it’s attached at the other end to a skull,” I said. We talked some more about his dad…the ‘Michael Jordan’ of antler hunting. He’d found seven this year already and averaged twenty a season. I tried to soften the blow of my discoveries by claiming to be lucky…which I was. I’d walked within twenty feet of today’s find on at least two other occasions and not seen it. We agreed that I’d come out to see his dad soon to show him my trophies and hung up.
That was it for the evening though. I did see my beaver friend as I worked my way around the marsh and saw an eagle overhead as I made my way back into the woods. He was flying into the sun and was out of sight before I could get a picture, though. I know I need to give up the searching soon because it consumes all of my training time and I can’t see myself working ‘antler hunting’ into my birthday triathlon.
Hike duration: 2 hours.
Training Heart Rate: 90 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.
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