September 21, 2007

Enjoying it All


This past week has been another rest week for us, and being that fall is certainly in full swing here in Lake Placid, we took full advantage of the time off.



Zach and I started the week off by going apple picking, because what good upstate New York resident lets the fall pass without picking apples?? Since we went on a Monday, we had the orchard all to ourselves, which was fabulous. It couldn't have been a better day: sunny skies and pleasantly cool temperatures made for a beautiful drive over and a great time in the orchard. We picked two baskets full of Cortland, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Gala and Honeycrisp varieties. Currently, the enormous pile is sitting in my room and quickly disappearing. Most people would be amazed at how Zach and I are able to go through apples! The best part, though, was sampling all the different apples. If you've never eaten an apple right off the tree, you are REALLY missing out. Supermarket apples just can't compare. My favorites? It's hard to choose since I like them all, but the best would probably be the Cortlands and Honeycrisps. We'll be back in the orchard before fall is over for sure.


On Wednesday afternoon, Zach and I hiked into a shelter on Copperas Pond, about 15minutes from Lake Placid and an easy 1.3 mile hike (or 0.5 miles if you take the short way that we didn't know about). It was absolutely beautiful in the mountains. The shelter is right on the pond, so waking to the first light hitting the pond in the morning was amazing. Perfect weather, of course, and a great one-night trip.


Then it was time to begin some easy training again. Today we took a run up a hill overlooking Lake Placid and Mirror Lake (the lake around which the town of Lake Placid is situated). It was beautiful (this is getting to be a welcome theme here...) and we had a great time exploring new trails and taking in the views. We had to stop and get our bearings as we looked over the town, I guess we're not quite locals yet!

Tomorrow we have some tough bounding intervals up Whiteface Mountain (the alpine ski area here), which marks the end of our easy week. There is really nothing that can compare to a Northeastern Autumn, and each day I am reminded but the beautiful foliage how lucky I am to be living my dream. September is more than half way over, which means snow and racing are quickly approaching. I can't wait!

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