Winter Dolphins

The only way I find the kind of dolphins I'm talking about is to go uphill. Perhaps some background on these special creatures will help. Like most good stories, it's a little convoluted at first, but eventually the story comes together.

My husband is one of those natural born athletes gifted with exquisite coordination, endurance, and a passion for outdoor sports which has earned him a physique worth writing about. I inhabit another spectrum, that of a human draft horse. I am inordinately strong but have a slow, plodding form of endurance that while noble, isn't terribly colorful or pretty. Mike is a beautiful athlete, his telemark technique merits "wooHOO's" from the chair lift. I get down the slope safely. The only "wooHOO" I ever got was for a spectacular fall.

I do have a history of participating in and enjoying team sports, but I've never been overly fond of running. The concept of a "runner's high" was just that to me, a concept. While I enjoy exercise, it's clear that my husband lives for it. Even though I enjoy a sense of fun, wonder, and accomplishment, primarily I just get hot, sweaty, and tired. Mike gets...high. The short explanation is that Mike's fine tuning of his body in athletic pursuits has him primed to tap into and release endorphins...the ultimate "feel good" natural hormone. Thankfully, there is hope for us lesser mortals. I was 50 years old before I experienced my first memorably euphoric endorphin release. As I excitedly jabbered about the "endorphins swimming in my blood stream," the vision another wonderful feel good experience, that of dolphins swimming next to my ocean kayak, came to mind.

Henceforth, endorphins became known as dolphins, and I began to pursue them in earnest. I've chased them on mountains, rivers, oceans, and bike paths. I've employed boats, bikes, windsurfers, snowshoes, and skis. I find them most readily when going uphill. UP. I consistently find winter dolphins residing in the slopes of the White Grass Touring Center (Nordic) in Canaan Valley, WV. The rhythm of cross country skiing allows me to naturally attain a heart rate that my dolphins revel in. If I push too hard or too fast, they hide. Too often, especially on mountain bikes, I blow out my heart rate and scare off the dolphins. (Maybe that hard thumping scares them off.) I also don't find them plodding along on flat land at a steady pace. The heart rate changes that come as a byproduct of the natural terrain at White Grass serve as a siren song for my dolphins. As much as I enjoy alpine skiing, the short intense bursts followed by overly long chair lift ride rarely merits an appearance of my dolphins. Blessed with easy access to Nordic and downhill venues, we now often finish our days on our backcountry skis in peaceful pursuit of the most treasured of all creatures, the White Grass Winter Dolphins.

Here are some tips from Health Central to find your own dolphins: http://www.healthcentral.com/fitorfat/408/41285.html

...[Y]ou can get from exercise a natural high, similar to a drug high but with none of the bad side effects. People who do long, continuous, gentle exercise enjoy the most effective stress therapy known to man. How long and how hard do you have to exercise to get the endorphin high? Most researchers have found that moderate-intensity exercise lasting at least 20 to 30 minutes produces the greatest increase of blood endorphins. In stationary bicycle studies, subjects pedaled for eight minutes at 25 percent of their maximum exercise capacity followed by eight minutes at 50 percent, and then by eight minutes at 75 percent. The level of endorphins in the blood did not change during the 25 percent and 50 percent bouts. But it rose significantly during the 75 percent period. Then, ironically, if the subjects continued to exercise to exhaustion, the endorphin level dropped dramatically. It's as if the body were [sic] saying, "If you're going to exercise this hard, you must be in trouble. Maybe a bear is chasing you. Whatever it is, this is no time to be high!" This seems to provide yet another reason to exercise slowly and aerobically...So, to get your natural high -- 20 to 30 minutes of exercise at 60 to 80 percent maximum seems to produce the best results, but longer duration and lower intensity will also work. The only thing that doesn't work is short, high-intensity workouts.

Adapted from The Fit or Fat Woman by Covert Bailey and Lea Bishop. Copyright 1989 by Covert Bailey and Lea Bishop, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

If you've not yet found your dolphins, don't give up. They're out there, trust me. You just need to know where and how to "look."

See you on the hill!