Mount Defiance: Day #2 of Lake George

I was able to start day #2 up in Lake George off with not one, but two kayakers to escort me on a short .6 mile OWS in the cove where I was staying. Thanks to my sister and cousin!

My thing about open water swimming is that I like to swim in water where I CANNOT see the bottom. Or rather, ANYTHING other than the person in front of me whom I am drafting. Got it?

Lake George is a clear lake, especially in the morning, and even with two kayakers near me, I still get freaked out when I see a fish, or a GIGANTIC boulder underneath you.

But do you really want to know what freaks me out the most? When I hit a gigantic DEAD fish out in the middle of the lake. GAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!! hahahahahahaa! I came up and was all panicked with, "What was that! What was that!" My little almost 12 year old cousin was laughing with, "Haha! Haha! You hit a dead fish!"

Ok, I got a chuckle out of it after I realized what it was. But man! Talk about freakout! What are the chances that out of the ENTIRE lake that I hit the one dead fish in the cove!?!?!? I could actually smell it before I came near it. So gross! I even cut my finger on its fin. Blah!

So after the swim, I laced up the shoes and went for a run with my super runner aunt. I said I needed to do 9 miles and she responded with, "Oh! We can go up Mt. Defiance."

Special thanks to Jeff @ Dangle The Carrot for shooting me a great of definition of what "defiance" means:
intentionally contemptuous behavior or attitude. OR a hostile challenge.

Does this look like a "hostile challenge" to you?

Says the average pitch is 9.36% ....I'd say the max is ~16%. Get your climbing gear out!

So my aunt gets us to mile 4 and we start going up a pitch and she says, "By the way, this isn't the hill yet." WHAAAAT!!!! We get to the top of the pitch and she then says, "Here is the turn to head up." We make the turn and I see this wall in front of me. GULP!

I collected myself and we started the ascent. It went wall to short plateau to wall to short plateau and my breathing got heavier and heavier and my pace was crawling to that of a slug. Finally we come to a flat section and I can see a clearing. I am convinced that the end is right there. WRONG! I turn another corner and again look up to even STEEPER sections that are even LONGER. OH MAN GET THIS OVER WITH!!!

Now my brain has switched into full on Mt. Ventoux climbing mode. The SUCKAGE is at its greatest and the top will come and this hill climb will pay off dividends in two weeks @ Timberman.

Well, at least the rewarding view at the top was literally breathtaking! Hahaha! Get it? I was out of breath when I got to the top? Oh man....I will be here all week folks, try the duck!

View to the north into Vermont. This is the bottom of Lake Champlain.

That fort is Fort Ticonderoga. The Brits hauled two canon up to this view and shot artillery shells down upon the fort during the Revolutionary war. Can you imagine hauling canon up this road?!?!?

View to the south into Vermont. The very bottom of Lake Champlain is down there even further.

We took it easy on the way down so as to not get blisters on the feet. It took us 12:30 to run the 1 mile up, and 11 mins to run the 1 mile down. I can't risk blisters at this point. Gonna save em for two more weeks. We rounded out the run @ 10.2 miles for the morning, rounding out a solid weekend of training.

I then fell asleep in a hammock on the shore with the wind rocking me side to side. That was a great and well deserved nap!