WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness

18.01.2013 Views
2 Adirondack Sports & Fitness Gear up. Get out. Play. Bring this coupon in and get $20 OFF a purchase of $100 or more Shop at Eastern Mountain Sports for the best gear and clothing. Visit ems.com for the store location closest to you. Order by phone at 888-463-6367 or online at ems.com. Use coupon code: 20ADK One coupon per purchase. Must surrender coupon at point of purchase. Minimum purchase does not include shipping or sales tax. Not valid on repurchase of returned merchandise, product rentals, or gift cards. Not valid with other offers or coupons. Offer does not apply to Merrell ® , Patagonia ® , or UGG ® footwear. Coupon valid 1/1/08 thru 2/29/08. Cashier Instructions: F3, F3, key in coupon code 01181595. Albany Stuyvesant Plaza 518-482-0088 Lake Placid 2453 Main St., Ste. 1 518-523-2505 Niskayuna Mohawk Commons 518-388-2700 Saratoga Springs The Shoppes at Wilton 518-580-1505 ONE-DAY SKILLS CLINICS! Saturday, February 23, 8:30am-3:30pm Choose from: Telemark Trees, Steeps & Bumps • Racer’s Edge More Fun at 50+ • Learn-to-Ride for Passholders! $135 ($100 passholders) includes full-day lift ticket, all day coaching from our certified instructors, breakfast and lunch! DARK SKY RAILJAM COMPETITION! Friday, February 22, 6pm at North Creek Ski Bowl Show off your freestyle moves under the lights • Win a pair of Line Invaders! Categories: skiers, snowboarders, male/female, 15-younger, 16-older The North Creek Ski Bowl offers day/night skiing and riding, family-friendly cruising, terrain park with half-pipe – and a great tubing park! For more information visit GoreMountain.com Information: 518.251.2411

www.AdkSportsFitness.com February 2008 3 RUNNING & WALKING Athlete’s ‘Bucket List’ New Goals to Find the Joy in Your Life by Laura Clark hen I joined the Saratoga Stryders Wrunning club, I was amazed to discover that fellow club member Bill Taylor spent a good portion of each New Year’s Day meticulously plotting out his life for the next 12 months. Not his work life or his family life, but his athletic life. While the rest of us mortals were resolving to eat one less donut, Bill was adding a positive spin to the yearly challenge. While spontaneity is still a big part of my life, I have come to recognize that focusing on a new goal defi nitely helps get me out the door. I know that I have a tendency to get stuck in a rut, feeling duty-bound to enter the same events year after year. But instead of plotting the same routine on predictable graph paper, I have learned that it is vital to step out of that little blue-rimmed square. It doesn’t have to be a big leap, just a small step into somewhat unfamiliar territory. Here are some suggestions to consider adding to your life list: “S” Stands for Snow… Have you noticed that many of the snow sports also begin with the letter “s”? Take ski biathlons, snowshoeing, skijoring… While snowshoeing is rapidly catching on, skijoring and ski biathlons are still more popular in Europe than in the United States. Getting in on the leading edge of any sport means that until the rest of the world catches up, even average individuals have an opportunity to shine. The sport of snowshoe racing is a great way to avoid falling off a boring treadmill, or breaking an ankle on icy roads, plus it will get you in shape really fast. Ever wonder why many of the top mountain racers like Paul Low and Nikki Kimball also happen to be champion snowshoers? The reason is that a few months on snowshoes will develop strong quads and lungs and place you way ahead of the pack once spring arrives. To get started, visit the Western Mass. Athletic Club (runwmac.com) for events and their SnoNews tips, and Empire State Snowshoeing (empirestatesnowshoe. org) for New York happenings. With the names Fido and Spot giving way to Finn and Sophie as pets are awarded family member status, attendance at dog obedience school is as obligatory as three walks a day. But what if you and your pet want to break out of the mold? Simply try skijoring by trading your sneakers for BIATHLETE SEAN HALLIGAN OF WILTON AT THE EMPIRE STATE GAMES IN LAKE PLACID. COURTESY OF SARATOGA BIATHLON CLUB cross-country skis and your dog’s leash for a skijor halter. Skijoring requires intuitive cooperation between interspecies team members and is best approached with a few starter lessons. For instruction and advice on reliable gear, contact Garnet Hill Lodge (garnet-hill.com) in North River, Salmon Hills (salmonhills. com) in Redfi eld, and the Olympic Sports Complex (whitefacelakeplacid.com) in Lake Placid. Also, check out rundawgrun. com, adirondackskidog.com and skijornow.com, and the books Skijor with Your Dog by Mari Hoe-Raitto and Ski Spot Run by Matt Haakenstad. For biathlon, the Saratoga Biathlon Club in Day (saratogabiathlon.20m.com) offers a convenient location to practice snow skills. The club exists in a magic area where snow falls early and stays late despite what it is doing in the rest of the Capital Region. For an inexpensive membership fee, you get unlimited use of challenging groomed trails. You will be welcomed by Jim and Betty Schreiner, who host ski, snowshoe and running biathlons year-round. Just arrive an hour before any of their events, check out a loaner rifl e and learn the basics. For info on the Lake Placid Biathlon Club and the sport, visit nybiathlon.org. Tower Climbing… Looking for a sport that will impress your friends but requires less time to complete than your average 5K race? Try tower (or stair) climbing. There are two events in Albany, the 20th annual Corning Tower Stair Climb (cff.org) on February 7, and the inaugural Climb UAlbany (alanys.org) in the 22-story Colonial Tower on March 29. Runners are sent off in waves, avoiding the ping-pong effect of a mass-start up a narrow stairwell. At last year’s 42story Corning Tower race, I won my age group in a respectable 9:11, coming off a strong snowshoe season with little actual stair practice. I also discovered the “climber’s hack” wheezing and coughing experienced afterwards, however it’s really no big deal since it doesn’t affect your race. For a list of climbs worldwide, go to towerrunning.com. Climb Another Mountain… The 13th annual USATF-New England Mountain Running Circuit (usatfne. org) takes the children’s song, The Bear Went Over the Mountain, to new heights with six mountain challenges. The series begins in late May and continues through the middle of June. USATF members who complete all six events receive a coveted Mountain Goat T-shirt and a lottery bypass for the Mount Washington Road Race on June 21. Obviously, it takes a good deal of stamina to run all the way up any mountain and many folks power hike the steepest sections. This quest is an ideal follow-up for those coming off a strong ski or snowshoe season and surprisingly, easier on the joints than a “normal” race. Best of all, running up a mountain never fails to impress fl at 5K devotees. “The Streak…” Runners in pursuit of the streak are often regarded with a mixture of envy and consternation. As defi ned by the United States Running Streak Association (runeveryday. com), a streak involves running at least one continuous mile every day. While maintaining a streak will get you out the door, this is often not a good thing to do when sick or injured. However, there are more inventive and potentially doable streaks just waiting for anyone with a little imagination. You could aspire to complete all the races in a series, like the Mountain Running Circuit or the Albany Running Exchange’s fourth annual free Summer Trail Run Series (albanyrunningexchange.org) on Thursdays from late May through August. Some events like the WMAC Snowshoe Series also acknowledge “points” leaders. Theoretically, the headliners would be bigname stars whom you could never beat in a thousand years. But think again! The big stars often have other, more lucrative commitments, and might make only one or two of the series races, leaving room for you – especially if you’re a female. Last year, I was second female points leader despite the fact that I mostly fi nished on the bottom half of the race results. Sometimes it pays just to show up! Another possibility is to join The Adirondack Runners (adirondackrunners. com) and enter their Mileage High Club, where members are invited to pursue a yearly mileage goal that is both doable and somewhat challenging. All who achieve their goal receive certifi cates, with the possibility of earning patches at signifi cant milestones. Mileage is tracked quarterly in the club newsletter for all to see, if you so desire, which defi nitely serves as good motivation. For inspiration, here are three books to consider reading: Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously by Bill McKibben; Over the Edge: A Regular Guy’s Odyssey in Extreme Sports by Michael Bane; and To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley and the Mystery of Endurance by Kirk Johnson. Once you get started on your quest, New Year’s resolution time will become an occasion for revitalization rather than dread. There is an endless parade of possibilities to add to your life list from running a marathon in every state, to competing in a 24-hour relay race, to giving back by volunteering at an event. Whatever new path you choose, know that you will return both refreshed and reenergized. Laura Clark (lclark@sals.edu) of Saratoga Springs is an avid trail runner, snowshoer and cross-country skier. She is a children’s librarian at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.

Page 1: APR 18-20 FREE! 22,000 CIRCULATION

Page 5 and 6: www.AdkSportsFitness.com February 2








male

female

saratoga

mountain

springs

lake

ballston

albany

park

snowshoe

whiteface

adirondack

sports

fitness

www.adksports.com

WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness

WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness ... View more WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness

Delete template?

Save as template ?

WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness WHITEFACE TURNS 50 - Adirondack Sports & Fitness