195 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...
Fun Superbowl! I love close games!!!! Incredible to think that the Hail Mary pass at the end of the game was almost caught!
My good friend Doug Himmelman.
I met Doug 6 years ago when our sons played baseball together and came to know him better through school activities, coaching together, and doing a lot of training together. Doug is a great guy, has an awesome family with his wife Jody and their boys Johnathan and Carter, is a great role model for me and many others with his relentless desire to do the right thing by God and in the community, and he is a tireless worker - a trait I admire so much in a person. I'm not sure if I've met anyone who is so committed to staying physically active whether it is weightlifting, running, swimming, biking, or cross training. He embodies the spirit of an athlete - often training for a marathon, half-marathon, triathalon, obstacle course run, bench press goal, Leadville, or something else cool.
I had the honor of going to Colorado in 2007 with Doug and his family when he entered the 2009 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run. It was fun sharing my prior knowledge and experiences from Leadville with Doug and training with him. There aren't too many friends you can find who will go run 20, 30, and 40 miles with you - I'm lucky to have a few friends like that.
Doug played football for St. Ambrose University in the mid-late 80's and is a member of the Hall of Fame - although you would never know it by talking to him - he's pretty humble. Doug is an incredibly strong man. Recently he benched 300 lbs - after having completed 74 reps of lighter weights laddering up to 300 lbs! I was blown away when I learned this; on the other hand, it should't surprise me. I know Doug has a goal of hitting 325 - 5 lbs more than he benched in college and I would bet anything that he will achieve it. He knows how to set goals and how to persevere enough to complete them.
Doug is a two time champion of the Himmelman Distance Classic (est 2010) - an annual marathon that occurs in Bettendorf, IA. How many people do you know who have a race named after them and who have won all of its races?
Recently he has had some issues with his hip so he has been joining us on some slow bike rides along side of us while he is getting healed up. I can't put into words how meaningful that is to me to have a friend who is willing to rise early in the morning to spend time with us.
Below are maps of the two legs we ran this morning. Mr. Reliable, Rick Fountain, showed up ready to go at 5:30 am this morning. Our legs were a little tired and a little sore from yesterday's 20 mile run but we were doing well and know this is the type of training we must continue to put our bodies through. A great lift occurred on the 2nd leg when Doug showed up on the bike to haul our Gatorade and water, provide conversation to motivate us and keep us distracted from thinking about tired legs :o)
http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/67876176 9.08 miles
http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/67876458/?new_route=1 8.98 miles
Total 18.06 miles
I was really happy with the distance we covered and the pace at which we ran today. I truly felt like we finished quite strong and felt like we could have kept going for a while longer if we wanted to. We didn't plan to go further and I needed to get to church so stopping at 8:30 am worked out just fine and I made it on time :o)
We finished the weekend running a little short of 6 hrs and covering over 37 miles. We take tomorrow off - looking forward to the rest - I think we've earned it :o)
Rick and I talked about our attitude toward running on Sunday when we had just ran 3 hrs on Saturday. If it weren't for Leadville we would not feel so motivated to run Sunday. But since we want to be successful at Leadville, Sunday's workout felt necessary. It didn't really matter if it rained, sleeted, or snowed (we did have beautiful weather though) or if we had plenty of sleep the night before - we were GOING to run this morning.
I joke with Rick that I give our other friends an option as to whether they will join us or whether they want to go 1.5 or 3 hours with us on our 4.5 hour runs - but he does not have an option. In part, it is true - I want him to succeed so badly and know that the harder we work, the less difficult Leadville will be. I feel so good about what we have done to date and I truly believe that we have built an extremely strong base to continue getting better and have a couple of great days when August arrives. We need to keep working though - and our friends have been an instrumental part of us being able to continue working hard and running long.
Weighed in tonight at about 196 lbs - I'm supposed to be at 192 lbs. No big deal but it is time to really get serious about what I'm putting in my body. I've had people ask me what my diet plan is and I'm a little sheepish when I say I really don't have one. As a result, I do tend to eat what is in front of me and what looks good at the moment. While I'm not overweight and can maintain with this heavy workout schedule, I know that I must become disciplined in my diet if I intend to lose 16 more pounds. I'll take some tips on diet if you wish to offer some. I will consciously try to eat more soup for meals and cut out bread and desserts.
When I think about it, the hard part ought to be getting up so early in the morning and putting in the work in that we do - which we have done a great job at. It would seem that getting adequate rest and eating properly should be the easy part. But since it doesn't seem to be for me, I need to buckle down and get to work. This week served as a wake up call for me. I WILL have a good week eating and look forward to reporting better results next weekend.
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
