Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: The boat (& board) demo
Tag Archives: Great Outdoor Provision Co.
Fly fishing clinic hooks more than a trout
I used to think ski instructors were the most patient people around. That based on having myself tried to teach a friend or two to ski, and constantly being baffled by their inability to grasp a concept as simple as the snowplow: Pinch your knees in, weight the inside edge of your skis, turn. What could be more simple — SO WHY DON’T YOU GET IT?
Sorry. Didn’t mean to raise my voice.
I held that conviction for 35 years. Until I met Scott Wood and Jim Coveney.
Scott and Jim teach the daylong Intro Fly Fishing clinic for Great Outdoor Provision Co. In addition to being expert fly fishermen, they are gifted in the art of cheerful tolerance and eternal optimism.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here,” Jim said as he walked over to examine my hopelessly tangled tippet, the microscopic microfiber that links the slightly thicker leader and the heavier line, with the lure.
I looked around and remarked that no one else seemed to be inventing new knots with their line.
“Nah,” he replied. “This is the third one today I’ve had to untangle.”
Patient and diplomatic.
Sage Rountree: A dozen thoughts for novice triathletes
“For how many of you is this your first triathlon?” Sage Rountree asked the 70 or so women who had shown up for last night’s informational meeting on the Ramblin’ Rose women-only triathlon series.
Nearly every hand shot up.
Predictable, but a good thing considering Rountree’s presentation was a Triathlon 101 primer for newbies. Of course, Rountree being perhaps the Triangle’s best-known and accomplished trainer/coach/yoga practitioner, she likely would have done fine had nary a hand gone up.
So, what does a first-time female triathlete need to know? Here are a dozen thoughts on the subject from Rountree.
It’s warming up, let us help you have a hot time
We’re finally catching up with the mail bag — and just in time for what appears to be the first warm weekend in a while.
You write to us for a variety of reasons. To find out where to take visiting kin hiking. To see if we know what the latest bear situation is in the Smokies. To ask if you can optimize our visibility on the Web, for a modest fee. You also write to point out certain … deficiencies in GetGoingNC’s content. Your latest batch of constructive comments comes in time to help others make the most of a weekend that will see sun and temperatures climbing into the mid 60s.
A 26.2-mile education
Saturday, I ran the Umstead Trail Marathon on rolling natural surface trail at Umstead State Park. It was my first marathon, and it was an education — an education in how not to train for a marathon. Don’t, for instance, cap your weekly distance at 33 miles. Or your longest run at 17. Or start tapering in three months out.
So how do you train for a marathon? I explore that in a piece on the blog of one of the race’s main sponsors, the Great Outdoor Provision Co. Not only did I write it, but I plan to cut it out and post it on my bulletin board as a reminder for the next time.
Read it here.