Hike and discussion…

On day 2, we traveled to Robert H. Treman State Park.  Since we’ve been camping in the same area we’ve never hit this park and boy, have we missed out.

This park had a WONDERFUL hike around a gorge – up and down one side and then up and down the other.  Even for us, it was a challenging hike – some very steep uphill climbs. 

One section had stairs carved next to rock walls.  I counted 228 steps.

On one of the really steep and long uphill climbs I noticed that I wasn’t breathing hard at all.  But my legs – mostly my quads – were on FIRE.  Marc on the other hand, was breathing pretty heavy, but he said that he felt absolutely no soreness in his legs at all.

That prompted a discussion about fitness and the different types of fitness and how certain events in our lives lead us to where we are. 

Marc had just recently been reading a lot on VO2 Max – it’s a measure of aerobic fitness – read up on it if you’re not familiar.  He had been using some of our run times to calculate our fitness using online calculators.  Of course, this is not precise, you can get it measured professionally.  But the calculators are fairly accurate and – no duh – MUCH cheaper!!

Anyway, he was surprised that his calculations put him in only the “average” range – while mine put me in the “excellent” category.  But we were talking about how he grew up on a farm – spending many hours in a haymow inhaling all that comes with that – including mold which never leaves your lungs.

BUT all those hours of working on the farm also made him strong in addition to years of being a bike rider – his legs are like steel.  Whereas my cardio seems to be really good but I’m nowhere near as strong.

It was an interesting discussion.

Anyway, the hike provided some beautiful views, like this waterfall:

 

There was also plenty of places for the dogs to cool off:

 

 

 

 

It was a fascinating hike offering lots of different environments – from woods to rocky areas to some forest like areas.

At the bottom of the first trail there was an awesome stone bridge:

We did another short hike that day, but ended up taking a wrong turn that led us back to the SUV, so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the campground. 

There, I attempted a run, which turned out to be a disaster and I made it only 3 miles. 

Falling off the wagon, running wise, continues through today.  I think I’ll talk more on that tomorrow.