Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 29, 2012

143 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

another picture forthcoming - I'm being held hostage by my daughter Katie. Homework, soccer, track, and the other activities of a 7th grader are impacting the expediency with which I post pictures.

6B46 group - I'll update with names when I get the info. sorry for  the fuzziness - maybe this is what it actually looks like to most people's eyes at 5 am! I'm missing a few names but I know we have Katherine, Chad S, Jenny, Lindsay C, Chad U, Katie G, Phil P, Aaron M, Jane W, Emily B, and John B (me) - photographer Tom Beck - our friend at the Y front desk

There was a group of 11 runners this morning - we did a 5.9 mile loop that ran west, north, east, and then south back to the YMCA. There were some runners from last Saturday's run, a couple of people I had not before, and my student Lindsay Caes from St. Ambrose. Had a great time running with the "Crazies" aka the '6B46' group (6 miles before 6 am) - the link below shows the route we ran - I didn't include a quick diversion to the Hy Vee parking lot which would have moved this run to back over 6 miles - thus the 6 before 6 actually was realized.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/79073810/?new_route=1

Tomorrow  is a rest day - I may play some basketball if I feel like getting up early in the morning :o) Next big run is Saturday - should be able to get close to a marathon of running in, followed by a Sunday run of 18 miles or so.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 28, 2012

144 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

(picture forthcoming).... in the meantime.....  click on the following link..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVfb9oUWGu4

enjoy the dancing fruit and vegetables!

Gordon and Rick - I'm not a professional photographer - this was the lightest place I could  find at 6 am - no flash on my cell phone camera!

Today was a stair day at the Bettendorf High School football stadium. My good friend Gordon Staley joined Rick and I this morning. We knocked out 61 total sets - 5 sets of 10 and a sixth set of eleven. The stairs seemed easier than Jumers Tower yesterday.- probably because we were able to rest more frequently while riding the elevator down. I wasn't thinking clearly when I typed this :o).  what I meant to say.... the stairs seemed easier because the climb up was shorter (16-18 sec vs. 60 sec) and we had more frequent breaks.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 27, 2012

144 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run....



Jumer's Tower - on left - 9 stories high



Jumer's Tower in the dark - you can't see it as well

Awaiting a couple of pics from my darling, technologically gifted daughter Katie....

Today Rick and I decided to run the stairs in the tower at Jumer's Lodge - the steps our friend Tom Waterman frequently scales. Tom usually does 33-34 sets of these for most of his workouts. We arrived around 5 a.m. and made our way to find the stairs and elevators. The first set of stairs we took was in the lower part of the Lodge, therefore once we hit the fourth floor we were out of stairs. We went looking around the hall and found another set of stairs that would take us up to the 9th floor (and also extended to the lower level). Just around the corner from the stairs was a conveniently located elevator. Remembering the advice from Tom, we took the elevator down to the lower level , pushed '9' as we exited the elevator, and ran up the stairs. Upon reaching the top, we turned the corner, pressed the elevator button and 'wallah..' it immediately opened - so much for rest time. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised the elevator was waiting for us nearly everytime - the hotel patrons did not seem to be interested in using the elevator at this time of the morning.
Each time we turned the corner to reach the elevator we passed a room service tray from the previous night which had a 1/2 of a piece of chocolate cake on the plate! While I love chocolate, it wasn't very tempting.
This workout was more exhausting that I thought it would. be. We did 20 trips up the stairs and back down the elevators. It was a continuous effort except we rested for a couple minutes after the 10th trip. The 9 stories each had 2 sets of stairs that were 8 steps high. Don't worry about calculating the math - it was 144 steps up each trip - nearly twice as many as the 76 steps up the football stadium bleachers. Rick and I both agreed that these steps seemed to be steeper than the bleacher seats.
Part of me wanted to equate this to the stair workouts we do at the stadium and I was thinking our 20 trips up the Jumer's Tower should have been equivalent to 40 sets of stairs at the stadium but for the reasons listed above, I believe it was more difficult.

After completing 20 sets of stairs, we drove over to the St. Ambrose weight room at Lee Lohman Arena and punched out 2 sets of 10 at 185 lbs on the bench press.

St. Ambrose University weightroom

Tomorrow we are running stairs at 5:30 am at the Bettenorf High School football stadium - you are more than welcome to join us.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 24, 2012

147 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Saturday Morning Group - John O., Jane W., Ann R., Josiah, Phil P., Aaron M., Ben D., Jen H., Katie G., Chad U., Emily B. - John Byrne (photographer)

A photo map of our run this morning stolen from Aaron Maurer's blog    http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/ 
We had a really good 15 mile run today from the Isle of Capri to Credit Island and back. We had 12 people run this morning - it was energizing to have so many people getting together to run a long distance. I have a photo that I will post as soon as my beautiful daughter Katie emails it to me from her iTouch device.
The photo is of the 11 of other runners taken at the beginning of the race in the dark. Rick won his basketball games last night and today - his team is in the semi finals tomorrow.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 23, 2012

148 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Happy Friday!

Rick and I ran 6.9 miles this morning in about an hour. Nice leisurely ran, worked up a sweat, and had some good conversation. Not to say that it wasn't work but it did feel a little strange to quit after only an hour based on what we have been running during the weekends.

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/77407484/?new_route=1

Finished the day with 3 sets of 8 at 185 lbs on the benchpress today. The bench press is coming along - slowly but surely. While we were probably doing something like this last year I know that I could not have been doing this a few months ago when we first started back on the bench press. It's kind of cool to realize the gradual improvement. One of my goals that I've put on the back burner is bench pressing 300 lbs. I came up short last year at 275 lbs but I will get it in the future - you can bank on it. There are bench press calculators (e.g. http://www.benchpressmax.com/bench-press-chart.html ) that project what you can max at based on higher reps at lower weights. The magic number of reps at 225 lbs is 10. I've never been able to do this many reps at 225 lbs but we'll get there sometime in the future. Enjoying the gorgeous weather - hope you get a chance to be outside this weekend.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 21, 2012

150 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

What a great morning to be outside! I'm not going to say it but the wonderful temperatures made me think ahead to those days when I'll want to say "I wish it weren't so hot...." My memories of running in very cold weather are too recent - I'm not going to complain about heat for a long while :o)

Today was a stair day at the Bettendorf High School football stadium. When Rick and I arrived there was a man running around the track with a headlamp on. As he ran by I said "Hi" - just trying to be friendly. About a minute later he comes over by us as we are stretching out to begin running stairs I could finally see through the dark and around his bright shining headlamp that it was Phil Pancrazio! Phil is a friend of ours from the Y and joined us on a long weekend run a few weeks ago. It was nice to have someone else join us for a stair workout (hint hint). Seriously, local readers of this blog should consider joining us - we typically have a 5:30 am standing date with the steps on Wednesday morning. The nice part about this workout is that you can do as many as you wish and you can do them at whatever pace you wish. There are 4 lanes of stairs to run up and they can be shared as well. We'd like to see you there if you are looking for something different from your regular routine.

Today we ran a total of 66 trips up, broken down into 6 segments - 4 segments of 10, 2 segments of 13. I always take satisfaction in trying to finishing strong, doing the most at the end - today we accomplished that :o)

Rick is in a highly competitive basketball tournament this weekend so he isn't allowed to run much this weekend - his teammates will never let me hear the end of it if they think his tired legs may cost them a game. I believe they have won the tournament the past two years and I'm predicting they will make it a 3-peat. I may do some running this weekend but haven't made any plans yet.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 20, 2012

151 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Today was a climbing day at the Y. Rick and I notched the speed down a bit but we walked for an hour straight at the highest incline on the Y's treadmill - level 15. We have never walked for an hour at incline 15.0 so it was a new barrier we broke down.

1/2 mile warm up jog

0 - 30 minutes incline 15.0 level 3.5
30 - 45 minutes incline 15.0 level 3.6
45 - 59 minutes  incline 15.0 level 3.7
59 - 60 minutes  incline 15.0 level 4.0

finished on the benchpress - 2 sets of 10 at 180 lbs.

Amazing spring weather! Looking forward to tomorrow - we will be running stairs at the Bettendorf High School football stadium beginning at 5:30 am if you wish to join us.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 17, 2012

154 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Top o' the Morning to You...

61 degrees this morning! I have been waiting for this. Ran in a t-shirt and shorts - no hat, no mittens, no jackets - it was wonderful! It was still very dark as we started from Rick's house at 4:30 a.m. and with 'spring ahead' for daylight's savings time last weekend, the sun stays down a bit longer - didn't feel like we saw any light until after 6:30 a.m.

Since the CASI St. Patrick's Day 5K Run was this morning, as well as the back weekend of Spring Break, we figured there wouldn't be too many runners joining us this morning. Rick and I headed out for the first leg of our run and while it didn't feel like we were moving that fast, we covered nearly 9.8 miles in 1 hr 24 minutes - this time included some short walk breaks on hills. We didn't get a negative split in on this one - we probably moved out faster than we had been used to.

Rick and I had some great conversation on career aspirations and goal setting. He's probably tired of hearing my talk AGAIN about my desires for more motivational speaking opportunities and finishing my book. He gave me some great ideas on how to promote myself to others that I will follow up on. I had not really thought much about this blog being material for an upcoming book but it actually could play very well into that as I'm putting real time thoughts down as I'm experiencing them.

On Wednesday, April 18th I will be offering a motivational speech at St. Ambrose University's Rogalski Center at 7 p.m. to the graduate students (sponsored by the Graduate Student Government Association). This event is free and open to the public. Please know that I would be delighted to have you attend. My talk stems from my experiences with the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run and ties into a number of issues that are important to all of us in achieving our own goals (i.e. personal, family, career).

I"m also very proud to tell you that the Graduate Student Government Association will be making a significant donation to Hand-in-Hand, a not for profit dedicated to assisting children with special needs and their families. If you would like to learn more about this organization, please go to the website....   http://www.handinhandqc.org/

Curt Johnston joined us on our second leg of the morning - we went 9.3 miles in 1 hr 28 minutes. We did hit a negative split on this leg of the run. It had been 2 weeks since I had run for more than an hour - I could tell my legs were not used to it but they feel good now. Not sure what the schedule is tomorrow but I'm guessing a quick 2 hr run from 5:00 - 7:00 a.m. Make sure to text me if you want to join us (563-343-3909) as I'm not exactly sure where we will start from, when we'll start, or if we are going to run for sure.

1st leg of the run - Rick Fountain, John Byrne
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/75767630

2nd leg of the run - Rick Fountain, Curt Johnston, John Byrne
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/75771874/?new_route=1

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 13, 2012

158 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Mt Ranier - Washington

This is the view looking east from the hotel I am staying at - sadly it was too cloudy this week that I haven't been able to see it yet. Maybe by the end of the week but with the rain and snow in the forecast I don't think it will happen.

Yesterday I did a treadmill workout consisting of...

0 – 5 minutes  level  5.0               12:00 mile pace
5 – 10 minutes  level  5.5             10:55 mile pace
10 – 15 minutes  level  6.0           10:00 mile pace
15 – 20 minutes  level  6.5           9:14 mile pace
20 – 25 minutes  level  7.0           8:30 mile pace
25 – 30 minutes  level  7.5           8:00 mile pace
30 – 35 minutes  level  8.0           7:30 mile pace
35 – 40 minutes  level  8.5           7:03 mile pace
40 – 45 minutes  level  9.0           6:40 mile pace
45 - 50 minutes  level  9.0            6:40 mile pace
50 - 55 minutes  level  9.0            6:40 mile pace
55 – 57 minutes  level  9.5           6:19 mile pace
57 – 60 minutes  level  10.0         6:00 mile pace

Bench press 3 sets of 10 at 185 lbs on a smith bench machine – easier than free bar – there must be something in the pulley system that makes it a little easier to bench.

I have mixed feelings about this workout.  My original plan was to continue increasing the speed level by .5, ending by running for 5 minutes at 10.5 (approximately 5:43 mile pace). Before starting, I thought  I shouldn’t be tired at all until 40 minutes since at that point I will have only run 5 minutes at the level 8.5 pace – which was  a far cry from last Thursday’s workout when I ran 45 minutes at level 8.5.  So I thought I could gut out four more 5 minute segments of 9.0, 9.5, 10.0, and 10.5. I was doing fine during my 5 minutes with level 9.0 but as I started thinking about the next 15 minutes I did not feel confident that I could continue to increase my pace. I also did not want to step backwards so I made a decision to stay at level 9.0 for at least 10 minutes at which time I wanted to move up to 9.5 for 5 minutes and 10.0 for the last 5 minutes. As I was approaching the 50 minute mark I felt like I could continue the pace I had set but did not have the confidence that I could finish the final 10 minutes at a higher level than 9.0. Therefore I stayed at this level for 5 more minutes. I had contemplated trying to jump straight to 10.0 for my final 5 minutes but I doubted if I could keep that pace. I did want to finish strong though so I convinced myself that I could do a combination of 9.5 and 10.0 for the last segment. I toyed with the idea of 3 minutes at 9.5 and 2 minutes at 10.0 and considered a 2:30/2:30 split. But in the back of my mind I also thought I could pull of 2 minutes at 9.5 and 3 minutes at 10.0. About 30 seconds before the 57 minute mark I made the decision I was going to try for my final 3 minutes at 10.0 – and I did it! I finished running about 8.5 miles in an hour which is something to be proud of. I didn’t achieve the crazy goal I had set at the beginning of the workout which is good for my humility. On the other hand, running the final 30 minutes at progressively faster paces from 7:30 down to 6:00 minute mile paces after getting in a good 30 minute warm up is a testament to the endurance we are starting to build with this training. I worked hard, it felt good, and I will keep training for the beast that I will encounter in August!

Today I ran 6.2 miles through the city of DuPont. It was a little cold and drizzling but the sun came out and it was good to get out for a run after being inside all day teaching a class for the US Army. I was attempting to make it to Puget Sound and thought I had it figured out on the map but I must have miscalculated. I ran up against a fence surrounding a corporate building that blocked my path to the water - so I went back and ran more through the city. Came across a young woman who turned onto the path and she was moving at a pretty good pace. I visited with her for about 5 minutes as we ran together and learned she was training for the Seattle marathon. Her goal was to break 4 hrs - her previous run was 4:17. At the pace she was moving I told her she would blow 4 hrs out of the water. I never asked her what her name was - just enjoyed visiting with another runner. She seemed to be a very happy person and was thoroughly enjoying her time outside. The route I ran is listed below...

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/74926298 

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 12, 2012

159 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Chicago Skyline

Went on a mini-vacation this past weekend with my family in Chicago. My wife Joan had a Physical Therapy continuing education conference while 4 of my 5 children and I played at the museums and I took 3 of my boys to see the Bulls defeat the Jazz at the United Center in an exciting game. Should have run up the Sears (Willis) Tower since I was in there but it never really crossed my mind at the time :o)

A relaxing weekend to be honest but I did get a little time in on the Embassy Suites hotel treadmill. Original plan was to go 60 minutes on the treadmill but felt a little pressed for time (and I was tired) so I cut it to 30 minutes :o)

I set the treadmill on Level 4.5 with an incline of 12.5. This was pretty difficult. Less than 5 minutes into the workout I could feel the outer front muscle of my left shin begin to hurt (pain, throb, burn - take your pick). I didn't attribute it to an injury - part of me thought that maybe I hadn't stretched enough ahead of time. I was a bit confused because the outer front muscle on my right shin did not hurt. Another part of me thought that perhaps this was just my muscles working hard at a level/incline they had not been exposed to. After about 20 minutes I started feeling a similar pain in my right leg. I'm not sure I ever figured out the answer. Once I finished it no longer hurt so I ended up attributing this to growing pains associated with taxing my body a little bit more than I had previously.

So I didn't go the entire hour which was a slight setback from what Rick and I have done for the past month or more. On the other hand it was a rigorous power walk workout and I think it was a positive day for my training for Leadville.

Rick is doing some stair running and long running out in San Diego - I'll keep tabs on him during the week. I'm heading to the state of Washington to teach a course for the US Army tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm excited to see the beautiful scenery and it is always an honor to work with the wonderful people who serve our country in the military and as civilians.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 8, 2012

163 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Double rainbow - awesome! Isn't nature beautiful? Rick and I had plans to run outside for an hour today - we were expecting the weather to be as wonderful as yesterday (in the 60's). The thought of running outside in shorts and a long sleeve or short sleeve t-shirt was very appealing given some of the cold weather we had been running in over the last couple of months. However, when I woke up, it seemed colder and more windy than I had predicted so I quickly texted Rick to see if he wanted to forego the outside for the inside treadmill - he chose the treadmill in a New York minute.

By the time we made it to the Y and warmed up, we were a little more pressed for time so we opted for a 45 minute run instead of a 60 minute run. The big question for the day was 'what level do we aim for?' Since I had been able to get 30 minutes in at level 8.5 last week and actually felt like I had a little more in me, I took a chance and aimed for 8.5 for 45 minutes. I wanted to get at least 30 minutes in at this level to match what I did last week but wasn't sure how I would do with 45 minutes. Rick said he felt the same way. Nonetheless we decided to give it a go - and wouldn't you know it?.... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Actually at minute 44 we cranked up the speed to Level 9 and finished really strong. When it was all over I was really feeling like I could have kept going longer.

I would be lying to you if I told you I thought this was going to be easy - I didn't. Actually I was questioning whether I could do it and was a little fearful of failing - not sure why I was afraid of that. If I fail at a workout, so what? At least I know where I'm at and what I need to work on.  I guess I didn't put too much thought into it, we made a quick decision to try it, turned the treadmill on, and off we went!

So today's lesson might be another example of Ken Chlouber's quote that I love so much "You are better than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can". Maybe I just need to have a little more faith in myself, not worry about failure, and push myself as much as I can. The level 10 for 60 minutes that my friend Christian Robbins has done still seems so much like a pipe dream for me but I do feel like I'm getting closer. I'm quite confident that I could have finished 60 minutes at Level 8.5 today if I had taken the time to stay on the treadmill. I'm also confident that I could maintain Level 10 for 20 minutes - it makes me wonder if I could do 25 minutes? 30 minutes? I guess there is only one way to find out and I expect to make that attempt in the future :o)

We finished the day on the bench press with 3 sets of 8 at 180 lbs - Rick's third set was 10 reps instead of 8 - he's extremely strong on the bench press - I don't ever expect to surpass him but if I can stay somewhat close, I'll be very happy with the results.

This weekend my family and I are headed to Chicago for a mini vacation and my wife's continuing education conference for her Physical Therapy license - next week I will be in the state of Washington for a work assignment. I expect to do some running and blogging but if you don't see as frequent of blogs over the next week, that is the reason why.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 7, 2012

164 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run....

prize for 3rd person to show up for stairs this morning at Bettendorf High School football stadium - bummer!

I feel horrible I wasn't able to give away this gift intended for the 3rd person to join us on our venture with the stairs this morning :o) Rick misunderstood - thinking it was for the second person (which was him). Maybe this is another one of those life lessons - sometimes when you don't take advantage of a great opportunity, you may never get a second chance. March 7, 2012's workout is in the books - but you can join us for a future one in a couple of weeks. Don't expect me to bring this much money next time!

Today we ran 76 sets of stairs altogether (4 sets of 15, 1 set of 16). Not much to report - feeling great after yesterday's workout and really enjoyed the 55 degree weather at 5:30 a.m. I ran this one in shorts and wasn't the least bit cold! Some of the sets went faster than the others, primarily due to distraction from talking to each other. We get into some very tough topic life issues which makes the morning doubly good.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 6, 2012

165 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Sauna room at the Bettendorf YMCA

I always like entering this room, not because it is 100 + degrees, rather because it signifies we have completed our workout for the day. It also feels good to sweat and stretch out in the hot sauna.

It is interesting how our attitudes are shaped by the events and experiences surrounding them. Even today, unpleasant feelings enter my head when I hear the song from Captain and Tenille "Do that to me one more time" because it always seemed to be the first song that went off on my alarm clock radio at 5:30 a.m. the winter we had 6:00 a.m. basketball practices when I was a freshman in high school.

Today was a bit different than normal. When I was talking to my friend Christian Robbins about treadmill workouts, he suggested that a good one to try was 60 minutes on the treadmill at incline of 6 and level 6. I had been wanting to try it and Rick said he was up for it, so we decided to give it a shot. Going into it I was wondering how long I'd be able to go. While the 6 incline wasn't too intimidating given that we had been working at inclines of 12-15, the thought of moving at a 10 minute mile pace at this incline for an hour straight seemed like a great challenge.

About 10 minutes into the workout, I began to feel more tired than when I had started and the leg muscles were feeling slightly challenged. Much to my surprise, the feeling stayed the same (didn't get any worse) for the remainder of the workout. We were contemplating how we might shift to something different at 30 minutes but as we approached the midpoint, we decided to just keep going. I believe our long weekend runs and hill training was great preparation for today's workout. For the last minute, we cranked up the speed to 7.0 and that didn't seem difficult at all. Actually we both commented that we felt like we could have continued at this pace for a while longer.

We finished the day with 2 sets of 8 at 180 lbs on the benchpress.

To say that today was easy would not be an accurate statement - our shirts were drenched in sweat and we did work hard; however, we had more energy remaining inside of us than we normally do at the end of our workouts. It was a good day!

For anyone interested we will be running stadium stairs at the Bettendorf High School football stadium at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning - we'd love to see you there. We usually run for close to an hour but feel free to come and go as you please.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 3, 2012

168 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...




Indiana Ave - 1/4 mile north of I-80 and Middle Rd - Bettendorf, IA
from left to right - Phil Pancrazio, Chad Uhde, John O'Brien, Brian Tritt, Katie Gaffney, Aaron Maurer, Rick Fountain, and Curt Johnston - John Byrne (photographer)



Just north of the I-80 and Middle Rd exit. Group debating on the Big Question - whether to run to Chicago or Des Moines?  from left to right...Brian Tritt, Curt Johnston, Rick Fountain, Katie Gaffney, John O'Brien, Aaron Maurer, Chad Uhde, Phil Pancrazio - John Byrne (photographer)


18.2 miles in 2 hrs 52 minutes - total distance and running time for Saturday morning.

Our first 90 minute leg started at 4:32 am - we had five runners, more than I was expecting today. Aaron Maurer, Katie Gaffney, Chad Uhde, Rick Fountain, and myself. I was under the impression that a few of these people had prior commitments and wouldn't be able to make it so it was a pleasant surprise when the additional cars pulled up to my house.

I'm not sure how many people find much joy in getting up at 4 a.m. followed by running many miles but this group of people makes it fun. Five minutes into the run I am always so glad to be on the road with this bunch. Parts of the path were a bit icy but not too bad. We always start off a little slow - it takes the body a little distance before it gets warmed up. Once we get moving, we pick up the pace quite nicely and usually finish with a negative split on the trip back. The first leg of the run was a a 9 mile run through parts of Bettendorf and on the bike path.

At 5:58 am we arrived back at my house expecting to find two more people who said they planned to be there. Given the snow Friday and the relatively cold weather I wouldn't have been surprised if people had changed my mind. Little did I know that there would be 4 people awaiting our arrival - WOW! This has never happened before. Since we didn't lose any runners for the second leg, we actually had 9 runners leaving my house at 6 am. The street looked like I had an overnight party with all the cars parked out front of my house. The five who started chose to continue on and we picked up four new runners (Brian Tritt, Curt Johnston, Phil Pancrazio, and John O'Brien). This 9.2 mile leg took us out through northeast Bettendorf and north past Interstate 80. In the past we had made it within about 1/4 mile of reaching an east-west street called Indiana Avenue. I've always wanted to show this to Aaron Maurer since he was raised in this state. Today was the day. For some reason when we took off from my house we were running at a faster pace than normal and were able to reach Indiana Ave - and in less time than we normally run in that direction. We reached Indiana Ave in 42 minutes - surprising to me since we haven't reached it in the past running for 45 minutes. Part of the reason might have been due to the wind that seemed to be at our backs on the way out. This was the same wind hitting us in the face on the way back :o)

I must say that I've enjoyed running in groups of 2-6 but there is something powerful that occurs as the group grows in size. We have never run in a group of 9 before - it was awesome!

All in all, a very good day - another one to feel good about. Playing basketball tomorrow so I'll be taking Monday off.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - March 2, 2012

169 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

pretty cool picture, don't you think?  keep persevering!

YES! Another one of those GREAT workouts. I seem to have many of those when I"m around others - maybe there is a lot of wisdom in that. I took yesterday off - had a wondeful opportunity to speak to a local Rotary International Group about Leadville at 7 a.m. so I didn't want to risk being late from a workout. I had plans to take either Thursday or Friday off so on Wednesday I decided that day would be Thursday.

So I planned on this morning being a treadmill day - just wasn't sure what to do. We have been doing a couple different types of workouts.

The first type of workout is to run for 60 consecutive minutes at as fast a pace as we think we can sustain without any rest. The last time we did this workout was at level 8.3 (approximately a 7:20 minute mile).

The second type of workout is running at level 10 (6:00 minute mile pace) for 60 minutes with rest interspersed throughout. The last time we did this workout we did 2 minute/1 minute run/rest intervals for 20 sets (equal to 1 hr), except ran the last 1 minute rest period to end up with 41 minutes of running and 19 minutes of resting at the 6:00 minute mile pace.

The ultimate goal is to get to where my friend Christian Robbins from Denver, CO has been - running 60 consecutive minutes at level 10. It seems so far away sometimes yet we keep ratcheting it up, getting closer than where we were before.

I always feel good afterwards but it is intimidating to think about beforehand because both workouts are very hard and I know I"m going to be tired early into the workout. So, as I've done in the past, I avoid responsibility and pawn off the tough decisions on Rick. I was leaning toward trying to do an 8.5 level run for 60 minutes and was rueing the fatigue I thought I'd be going through but I didn't say anything. Instead, when I asked him what he thought we should do, he responded, "Let's try a combination workout where we do a little of each." Hmm - that sounded interesting. On the one hand, 30 minutes of each sounded less intimidating that 60 minutes of either. On the other hand, we would have the blessing of getting kicked in the tail two different ways - how fun! But since I asked him what he thought I also felt like I should try what he recommended. Staying true to my 'no whining' policy, I said, "Sure, let's do it."

So for the first 30 minutes, I set the treadmill to level 8.5 and took off.  Psychologically it felt good because we only had to run 30 minutes without resting instead of 60 minutes without resting. It wasn't easy but it went fairly well. The good news is that this was an increase from last time's level of 8.3 to today's level of 8.5. I was happy to complete it and felt proud to realize the improvement. A far cry from the 6 minute mile pace we are striving for but we're making progress :o)

It was my call to take a 5 minute break in between this segment and the next segment. I suppose we could have gone right into phase two but I convinced myself that the reward for an improved run was deserving of a 5 minute rest. Maybe it was a poor decision but did it ever feel good!

So on to phase two... the plan here was to do 10 segments at level 10 of 2:10 run / :50 rest. Each segment totaled 3 minutes and the total time was 30 minutes. I did it! Run time totaled 21:40 and rest time totaled 8:20. The most recent performance on this workout was doing a 2:00 run / 1:00 rest for 60 minutes. A few weeks prior I had done 2:10 run / :50 rest for 10 sets, backed off to 2:00 run / 1:00 rest for 4 sets, and 1:50 run / 1:10 rest for 6 sets. The part I'm pleased with is that I was able to achieve the 2:10 / :50 split following 30 minutes of running at 7:00 mile pace albeit I did have the 5 minute rest.

So, yes, I'm pretty excited that while both of these were 1/2 workouts so to speak, there was a noticeable improvement on each half. As we keep working hard, good things will continue to happen!

Following this challenging treadmill workout, we headed over to the benchpress, an area where Rick shines, as well as my buddies Erol Melik and Doug Himmelman. I'm a bench press wannabee and will keep working at it. Rick placates me by doing whatever I want on the bench but I strongly suspect he can usually do more than what I propose.

Today we were working toward 3 sets of 10 at 175 lbs. Rick knocked them out - 10, 10, 10 - no surprise.
John did 10, 10, 9 and almost 10 :o( - I just could not push out that last one - DARN! Oh well, it's good to be humbled and I'll keep working at it. Locking out that 10th rep would have made it a perfect workout :o) 

Tomorrow we start at 4:30 am for a quick 3 hr run - looping back at the house at 6:00 am for a quick refuel - join us if you like. Text me if you need directions....563-343-3909.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!