Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Lake Placid and Mont Tremblant Running

Sunday (6/21/15) - 10.14 miles, 1:29:47, 8:51 pace - Run to the beach with the Petite Pacer.

Monday (6/22/15) - 6.38 miles, 56:46, 8:54 pace

Tuesday (6/23/15) - 6 miles, 49:59, 8:20 pace - Speed workout at the gym.  One mile warmup, 6 x 800m intervals with 400m recovery runs in between, and a cool down.

Wednesday (6/24/15) - Off

Thursday (6/25/15) - 6.16 miles, 48:39,  7:54 pace - Six mile tempo run.

Friday (6/26/15) - 9.09 miles, 1:19:10, 8:43 - We drove up to Lake Placid, New York, Thursday night.  Lake Placid is a tony mountain village about 300 miles north from Long Island.  I was scheduled to run an easy six Friday morning.  I looked at the tourist map given out by the hotel.  One loop around Mirror Lake is two and a half miles.  I didn't feel like doing a double or triple lap.  According to the local web site, a town loop is "7+ miles".  That sounded right up my alley.

I made a right out of our hotel lot to Main Street.  I missed the direct route (Surprise!) and made a few turns to get there.  I  ran north on Mirror Lake Road which was shaded and lined with beautiful homes.

Beautiful Mirror Lake

Lakeness Monster sighting!  
Best photographic evidence to date.

Back in town, I made a right up 86, a busy  55mph country road, but with very wide shoulders.  Cycling is huge up there. Lake Placid is famous for the amazing 1980 winter olympics when USA whooped some Cold War Russian behind.  But it is also known for hosting the Ironman.  This is ski country so the hills are no laughing matter.  There were cyclists everywhere, more so than runners.  

86 brought me out of town and into a wooded area.  At the time, two escaped convicts were possibly in the area, however my bigger concern was...bears (How'd you know?).  I made a left onto Old Military Road which was even hillier and more bear-y.  I kept checking my phone app because I felt like I was running more than my prescribed distance.  In the end, I ran 9 instead of 6 and I ran faster to avoid any possibility of becoming ursine porridge.

Old Military Road

Lake Placid Olympic ski jump.
These are enormous in real life.
How does one ski down these for the first time?


Saturday (6/27/15) - 8 miles - Friday we drove to Mont Tremblant, Québec from Lake Placid.  This is another beautiful ski town in the Laurentian Mountains.  Also, another Ironman locale with even more cyclists than Lake Placid.  As we approached the town, I took note of a bike path just steps from our hotel door.  

Saturday morning we drove 45 minutes to Saint-Donat where Pete and Sanibel ran a 5k trail race and each placed in their age group, despite the challenging terrain.  In the afternoon, I set out for my 8 miler.  Of course, I asked the hotel clerk about the safety of the bike path, e.g., bears.  She assured me there were none.  I took that with a grain of salt (Suspicion is my middle name, after all).  The path was idyllic, snaking through the woods along a river.  There were bikers, runners, and walkers along the path, but few and far between.  I did not have my data activated on my phone since we were in another country.  I was going to run by time, figure 36 minutes out at hopefully, a 9 minute mile pace, and 36 minutes back.  The path was marked in kilometers and split off at many areas.  I'm not sure of the accuracy of my mileage since I think my pace was faster when I was alone on the path.


Entering Canada.

The river along the bike path.





Approaching Mont Tremblant.


Village of Mont Tremblant.
No cars.

A couple of giant insects walking the streets.

Total Weekly Mileage: 45.8







4 comments:

  1. Only you would choose to run on a 55 MPH road rather than do laps around a beautiful lake. Or be more concerned about imaginary bears than desperate fugitive murderers who were probably following your every step. Great pics though.

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    1. Lake Placid and Mont Tremblant playlist:

      "...If you go out in the woods today,
      You'd better not go alone.
      It's lovely out in the woods today,
      But safer to stay at home.

      For every bear that ever there was
      Will gather there for certain, because
      Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic."

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    2. Replacing the words "escaped convicts" for "teddy bear" doesn't flow as easily.

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    3. That's my favorite Steely Dan lyric.

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