Deliverance

Was taking pictures on the way up here today to do a "guess where i am" but the camera died. I'm back in Lake Placid - I don't need to once again describe how great it is up here and to be back up here. Let's just say that if you aren't here, well, that's a shame.

Jeff met me up here today, a day before camp starts. Our plan was to run up Whiteface. We have ridden up it a few times, and were anxious to tackle the 8+ mile climb by foot. We started the run in sunny 70's weather around 2pm. You start right at it on this sucker, just climbing right from the get go. The pace was comfortable and we were clicking away the miles, solving the worlds problems. Around the 3 mile mark, you encounter the toll booth. There is only one road that climbs up Whiteface and between the hours of 8:30 and 4:30, while cars are allowed up, cyclists and runners aren't allowed on the road. The toll booth kid seemed a bit stoned so Jeff and I persuaded him to let us keep going. About 4.5 miles up the climb, a pick-up pulls over right in front of us and two bearded, wild eyed guys jumped out. One had a shot gun and the other a billy club (why is it called a billy club???). As the guy with the shotgun held me at gun point, the other overall wearing, billy club wielding redneck threw Molson into the back of the pick-up. I heard a lot of squealing and couldn't spot the billy club for a bit... OK, truth be told, (because I know that if there are a few of you out there reading this, you were buying it) The guys did hop out and yelled at us like we were high school kids telling us that we were breaking the law and ordered us to get into the pick-up, where they drove us back down to the toll booth and let us out to run back down the mountain. We did however find a trail that goes to the top of Whiteface and tomorrow morning, we will be there, reaching the peak by foot.

We drove back to LP and stopped at Mirror Lake for a swim. I actually swam! The water was beautiful, and warm, easily in the upper 60's which with a full wetsuit made it more than comfortable. I swam a loop of the IM course and felt pretty good. Maybe all that Vasa trainer training actually worked?. I swam with the new MyAthlete waterproof "Shadow" gps tracking device. I'll post a link tomorrow since I'll be training with the shadow all week at camp. It tracked me swimming in mirror lake with no issues!

The last two weeks have been stressful and tiresome weeks for me. My training hasn't been great at all during these two weeks and I even had some freak virus over the weekend, so to say that it feels great to be here is a serious understatement.

Cheers,

EH