199 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...
The road to Winfield - miles 47 - 52
Anothe picturesque shot of Leadville. This may be the most beautiful race in the world in terms of scenery. Unfortunately between darkness, fatigue, and focusing on the race, I don't think I appreciated its beauty in 2005 as much as I should have. I'll try to enjoy it more this time :o)
The road to Winfield - a deserted ghost town that marks the 50 mile turnaround point. Just coming off Hope Pass, it is a 2.5 mile run along a gravel road to the halfway point and 2.5 miles back to the base of Hope Pass. It sounds like an easy run after coming off a steep mountain but it feels twice as long as it actually is. The 2.5 mile run to Winfield is a gradual uphill and is quite tiring - probably because 47.5 miles preceded it. The run back is a gradual downhill and while it feels good, those good feelings are offset by knowing that the steeper climb up the back side of Hope Pass is waiting...
My training for Leadville 2012 officially began on Sept 1, 2012 - 352 days prior to the race. The half way point is coming up soon - February 24, 2012 to be exact. However, we will substantially taper our training by August 6th - 2 weeks prior to the race. So using August 6th as the date where serious training ends, the half way point will actually be February 17th - only 16 days away - wow! There have been plenty of times I see my alarm clock before 5 a.m. and I will enjoy those future days when I do sleep in longer (or maybe I'll move on to some other challenge which will keep me rising earlier - who knows?). I do need to get to bed earlier though - an area I can definitely improve on - the body needs rest when it is being physically challenged.
I'm beginning to reflect on approaching the halfway point of our training - just like Winfield is the halfway point at Leadville. I am proud of what we have accomplished and I truly feel like we've accomplished what we set out to do in August. I also know we have a long ways to go - and the tougher half of my training awaits. That's okay because we have prepared ourselves to meet this challenge. The workouts we have been posting lately would have been unthinkable last September.
This morning's workout was our regular stair workout at the Bettendorf High School football stadium. Rick and I pounded out 61 sets of stairs in a little less than an hour - 5 sets of 10 and 1 set of 11 (we usually like to do an extra set during the last round - just to dig deep a little more). I felt really good after this workout - felt like we could have gone much longer if we had time.
Looking to go for a couple 3 hour runs this weekend - 4:30 am from my house on Saturday and 5:00 am on Sunday from either my house or Rick's house. We will loop back after an hour and a half to pick up or drop off anyone who would rather only run 1.5 hours.
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
Anothe picturesque shot of Leadville. This may be the most beautiful race in the world in terms of scenery. Unfortunately between darkness, fatigue, and focusing on the race, I don't think I appreciated its beauty in 2005 as much as I should have. I'll try to enjoy it more this time :o)
The road to Winfield - a deserted ghost town that marks the 50 mile turnaround point. Just coming off Hope Pass, it is a 2.5 mile run along a gravel road to the halfway point and 2.5 miles back to the base of Hope Pass. It sounds like an easy run after coming off a steep mountain but it feels twice as long as it actually is. The 2.5 mile run to Winfield is a gradual uphill and is quite tiring - probably because 47.5 miles preceded it. The run back is a gradual downhill and while it feels good, those good feelings are offset by knowing that the steeper climb up the back side of Hope Pass is waiting...
My training for Leadville 2012 officially began on Sept 1, 2012 - 352 days prior to the race. The half way point is coming up soon - February 24, 2012 to be exact. However, we will substantially taper our training by August 6th - 2 weeks prior to the race. So using August 6th as the date where serious training ends, the half way point will actually be February 17th - only 16 days away - wow! There have been plenty of times I see my alarm clock before 5 a.m. and I will enjoy those future days when I do sleep in longer (or maybe I'll move on to some other challenge which will keep me rising earlier - who knows?). I do need to get to bed earlier though - an area I can definitely improve on - the body needs rest when it is being physically challenged.
I'm beginning to reflect on approaching the halfway point of our training - just like Winfield is the halfway point at Leadville. I am proud of what we have accomplished and I truly feel like we've accomplished what we set out to do in August. I also know we have a long ways to go - and the tougher half of my training awaits. That's okay because we have prepared ourselves to meet this challenge. The workouts we have been posting lately would have been unthinkable last September.
This morning's workout was our regular stair workout at the Bettendorf High School football stadium. Rick and I pounded out 61 sets of stairs in a little less than an hour - 5 sets of 10 and 1 set of 11 (we usually like to do an extra set during the last round - just to dig deep a little more). I felt really good after this workout - felt like we could have gone much longer if we had time.
Looking to go for a couple 3 hour runs this weekend - 4:30 am from my house on Saturday and 5:00 am on Sunday from either my house or Rick's house. We will loop back after an hour and a half to pick up or drop off anyone who would rather only run 1.5 hours.
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
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