These Specials Don’t Miss a Beat

One of tonight’s telecasts is likely to get your heart pumping. Another wants to keep it that way.

First comes the Great Outdoor Games (5 p.m. ESPN), an event for anyone who thinks of archery, tree-topping, logrolling and speed climbing as a good time.

Last year’s inaugural event attracted more than 15,000 spectators and 300 competitors to Lake Placid, N.Y., where they took part in fishing, timber events and target sports. If you throw in the sporting dogs, there were more than 400 competitors.

Former pro football quarterback Mark Malone returns as host for the 10 days of coverage (taped July 12-15), which includes a one-hour special airing Sunday on ABC.

Moving on to the medical material, Walter Cronkite narrates “To Heal a Heart” (10 p.m. KCET), a one-hour documentary examining the work of Dr. K. Lance Gould, a physician who has developed nonsurgical means of treating coronary heart disease.

Instead of surgery, Gould prescribes a combination of exercise, stress reduction techniques, a low-fat diet and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Over the last two decades, Gould has perfected the Positron Emission Scanner, or PET scan, which produces three-dimensional images of the blood flow to the heart. This particular breakthrough has enabled Gould to detect heart disease in its early stages.