Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 31, 2012

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

Wow! The end comes quickly! I believe I started this blog with 222 days until race day and now it is under 20 days! I am proud of how hard we have worked for the past 200 days and believe that it will keep us strong during the race. I plan to leave for Colorado in my Ford Explorer in the next few days and I know at that time it will feel like 'race time mode'. I have quite a bit to do before I go but am excited for the final phase of the pre-race journey.

John, Charly Erpelding, and Rick

Last night was special. Rick brought ice cream over to the Erpelding family and I had the privilege of meeting Charly - what a beautiful spirit and awesome little girl. I was so impressed with the closeness of Charly's family and extended family. They were so appreciative of us and so upbeat - it was wonderful to be a part of their family love and camaraderie. I would like to think that Rick and I have physically prepared ourselves to do well at Leadville, but I know I received an extra boost of motivation and inspiration last night and when I feel tired, I WILL be able to push harder. The kids also made signs to keep us going - which we will be able to see around mile 20, 40, 60, and 80 - supercool!

Rick Fountain, Todd Hornbuckle, Gordon Staley, Jay Gates, Kevin McCarthy, and Phil Pancrazio

Today was my last day at Bettendorf High School for stairs. 61 sets - good day. It was dark for awhile and quite humid. My friend Kevin McCarthy joined us today - he wanted to work primarily on the track. It was good to see him. Curt Johnston's ankle is still sore from the Bix so I didn't think we'd see him but he walked/jogged down to see us - that was pretty cool. Seeing all these guys working out at this early hour in the morning was inspiring to me and will give me extra motivation at Leadville.

Todd Hornbuckle, John Byrne, Gordon Staley, Jay Gates, Kevin McCarthy, and Phil Pancrazio

I'll do my best to keep posting and hopefully provide some beautiful pics from Colorado over the next couple weeks but if I'm without internet access or get sidetracked with my training, thank you in advance for your forgiveness.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 28, 2012

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

Thomas, Dan, Joe, Michael, Katie, Joan, and John - ready to run the Bix 7!

Dan and one of his roommates from Notre Dame - Tyler Thomas - Tyler rocked the Bix!

Today's training run was the Quad City Bix 7 Mile Run. My wife Joan signed our entire family up to run this race - I haven't officially run it in 15 years. A few times I've run the course the week before or the week after just for fun but this year I was one of 14,000 runners - I enjoyed it a lot - seeing many people during the race and on the roadside cheering us along. Joan, Katie, Dan, and Joe ran the Quick Bix - a 2 mile run. Dan's assignment was to stay with 11 year old Joe - they ran the 2 miles in 13:55 - sub 7 minute mile pace - pretty good!

Michael ran the full Bix on his own, as well as Dan's roommate from Notre Dame (Tyler Thomas), Thomas, and I. Everyone had good races. The weather was good - Bix race days are normally hot and humid - today was warm and a little humid but I would be foolish to complain.

My assignment was to stay with Thomas. I thought he would run a good race as he is on the high school cross country team and has been running several times each week. I thought most of their training runs were 4-5 miles so I thought he might tire a bit toward the end but I'm happy to say that he was a beast today! We ran a 51:30 and I felt like I was spent at the end. I am not sure that I could have run any faster today. In the beginning I think I could have started faster but it may have drained my energy for later. I also violated a cardinal rule of running - not double-tying my shoelaces - no excuses, just stupidity on my part. Around mile 1.5 I had to stop for 20 seconds to retie my shoes and then run extra hard for a few minutes to catch Thomas. I was impressed with Thomas' resolve. There were a couple of times where he was cramping up a bit and wanted to slow the pace but we were still going at a decent pace. I persuaded him to walk a bit on some of the hills, telling him that getting a refresher would help us start back up again stronger. We passed up many of the people who passed us during our brief walk breaks. We finished extremely strong and I felt pretty wiped out!  Great job Thomas!

A number of our friends ran today and people seemed to have a good day at the Bix!

Tomorrow I take Dan back to school at Notre Dame - he has a football manager meeting at 7 pm tomorrow night.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 27, 2012

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

Today I met Rick and his wife Jeanie at their house at 5:30 am and we had a nice 45 minute walk around the neighborhood and golf course - a great tune up for the Bix tomorrow. I am excited for Rick and Curt and think they will post an incredible time tomorrow. I will be running alongside my son Thomas and hope that we will have a good run as well. Thomas will be a sophomore cross country runner in a few weeks and has been running quite a bit with his teammates this year. He's used to running more 4-5 mile distances so we'll see how this goes.

Since I missed going up and down the Exterminator yesterday I thought I would catch it on my way back from Rick's. I had about 30-35 minutes so I thought I'd see what I could get in. This time I decided to run up and down the Exterminator - running is a lot harder than hiking. The runs up were pulling at my quads but it felt good. I did 30 sets in all - ran 10, walked 5, ran 5, walked 5, and ran 5 for a total of 20 runs and 15 walks up Exterminator and 30 runs down Exterminator. I felt challenged aerobically as well so it was a good work out for me. We'll see if I pay for it tomorrow at the Bix. Either way, I'm glad I did it.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 26, 2012

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



Rick and I had a good run from his house down to the river into LeClaire. We ran for 59 minutes and had a negative split on the back half of our run, which was uphill. Rick is running the Bix this Saturday so he's taking a couple days off so he can go sub 50 on the difficult, hilly 7 mile run. Run started off with nice cool weather and the humidity set in as we progressed into the run but it was never that bad. Rick asked a question about how long I was in aid stations in Leadville 2005 - that was his mistake. I answered his question and then started another 30 minute continuation of my first Leadville experience. It's kind of crazy but my energy level rises and my tiredness disappears whenever I start talking about this race!

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 24, 2012

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

Front - Paxton and Cheech   Back - Curt, John, Todd, Gordon, and Rick

This camera is ticking me off! The cell phone is brand new - I have to figure out what is going on - looks kind of blurry :o( 

Cheech's neighbor Paxton joined us this morning for our weekly Bett High School stadium steps - always love having new people join us. Paxton did great, especially for the first time. Today's plan was to knock out 61 sets of stairs and that is just what we did. It was dark when we started and light soon after. Humidity reigned - the shirt came off right away and only back on for the picture :o) Some did some track work, some did a combo of stairs and track runs - Rick, Cheech, and I focused on stair work today. The Bix 7 Mile Race is coming up this Saturday - Rick and Curt are going to run it fast this year - I predict they will both go sub 50 minutes. I'm running the Bix for the first time in 15 years! Joan signed up our entire family. My assignment is to run with Thomas, our high school sophomore who is on the cross country team :o) I'm predicting we will go mid 50's but whatever time Thomas wants to go for, I'll try to keep pace with him.

In addtion, there were a few other guys working out on the track - Phil Pancrazio, Jake Beck, and Jake's running partner - they were making fast time around the track getting ready for the Bix! Three younger women wandered onto the varsity soccer field, sat out in the middle of the field, and sat down. Not sure what they were doing - they actually looked like they were just enjoying the sunrise. While they had workout clothes on, it didn't seem like they were stretching, running, or doing calisthenics. After about 30 minutes they left in a good mood so whatever they were doing, it got their day off to a great start :o)

I would need to review this blog to determine the exact date but it seems like we've been at it a while with this big group doing stairs on Tuesday mornings. I'm impressed at the level of commitment and enthusiasm these guys/gals are demonstrating at 5 am in the morning - it is inspiring to me!

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 22, 2012

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

It's Sunday - I'll summarize Friday and Saturday's workouts. I thought I might play basketball tonight but that didn't happen so today was a pretty easy day :o)

Friday morning Rick and I met Gordon and Todd at "The Exterminator" at 5 a.m. It looked really dark down the hill but you could always see at least 15-20 feet in front and we knew where we were going so we weren't worried. We did 50 hikes up and 50 runs down the Exterminator. It felt really good. I was encouraged that #45 really didn't feel any different than #15 - I hope that is an indication that we are getting our bodies in condition for mountain climbing at Leadville.

While Rick and I hiked up and ran down, Gordon and Todd ran up the hills and walked down. I think they had the harder workout but our training is more appropriate for Leadville so we did what we needed to do. Todd and Gordon have come SO far since their first days training with us in terms of speed and stamina - it is SO cool to witness the transformation they are going through. We took a couple of pictures with Gordon's camera but I don't have them yet to post. - NOW POSTED :o)

Gordon, Todd, and John

Rick, Todd, and John

Saturday morning's run was great too! We started off with three at 4:30 a.m. - Rick, John O'Brien, and myself. We decided to take off in a different direction today for a change of pace and had some great conversation with John O about his upcoming 24 hour run in Boston next Friday. He has done an outstanding job of training and he will knock out the goals he has set. #1 - he is going to run 54 miles in honor of his mom who passed away at 54 years old - he is working on getting his dad and brothers to run that mile with him - isn't that AWESOME?  #2 - he will run 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) because he can. John has already run north of marathon mileage (33 and 44 miles) so these are the next records to fall. Best of luck to you John - you have worked hard and earned it.

Brent, John O, Curt, Rick, Phil, John B - photographer Len Hawbaker - new camera, better than old one but I'm hoping this was just a bad picture and not indicative of future pics (seems blurry)

When we arrived back at Crow Creek Park at 6 am we had 3 others waiting for us - Phil Pancrazio, Curt Johnston, Len Hawbaker and Brent (a colleague of John O's at John Deere). On this leg we ran north and east of Bettendorf. We had a very good run, moving faster than I thought we were. I was loosely contemplating a 3rd leg at 7:30 a.m. but decided against it. I had some chores to do at home before heading off to a Fellowship of Christian Athlete's Father Son Basketball camp with my 4 sons at noon and my legs were feeling pretty worked over. I think the 50 trips up and down Exterminator Hill took more of a toll on my legs than I thought.

I also learned that I was successful in my audition to give a motivational speech in September for John Deere's Forestry and Construction Division. I am very excited about another opportunity to speak to a large group of important clients for John Deere and hope that it will lead to other speaking opportunities inside and outside of the John Deere organization.

The Fellowship of Christian Athlete's Father Son Basketball Camp was a 22 hour camp that took place at St. Ambrose University from noon Saturday - 10 a.m. Sunday. It was a great time to be with my boys, staying overnight in a college dorm room, eating pizza, and playing games. We had two coaches (and friends) of mine who came to the camp to teach the boys some basketball skills and also to share some of their philosophies on success on and off the field.

A few messages that came through clearly were...

1. Support your child in athletics, regardless of their performance. Don't love them less when they don't perform as well - don't let them think your love is based in any way on their ability to perform on the field.

2. Let your child handle disappointment that may come when they don't get the starting role, the preferred position, or more playing time. Not everyone is a great athlete and not everybody has what they might want to have. Support their desire to excel if they want to work toward it but it is important for them to learn how to put the team above themselves, how to play a role that may not be a star role, and how to accept whatever happens.

3. As a parent, do not tear down teammates, competitors, or officials to make your child feel better, make them believe that they 'deserve' better but are getting the short end of the stick, or promote disdain for their teammates or the competition. Everyone out on the field is someone's son and they have the same goals as you. We are all God's children and we need to stop viewing anyone who gets in the way of our children's achievements or success as evil, undesirable, cheating, or lucky individuals.

The talk these guys gave was a wonderful reminder of how we need to approach athletics.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 19, 2012

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

Rick and Curt

Rick and John

Thursday morning run with Curt and Rick. None of us felt like getting out of bed but we knew that feeling would change once we started into our run. Typically when we do our Thursday runs, there are about 3 hills on the way out where we take walk breaks and 1-2 where we take breaks on the way back. It's all Rick and Curt's fault - they started asking me about my talk yesterday and my meeting on Wednesday, I never shut up, and before you know it, we were within a mile of the finish and had passed all of the places where we normally walk. Someone said, "Hey, we didn't even walk today." The run seemed to go by really fast because we (i.e. I) were talking the entire time. I've noticed the runs that seem to go the best and the fastest are those where we talk a lot.Close to the end we passed a lady walking, said 'hello' to her, and she said, "Are you the guys running Leadville?" - she had seen the article in last week's Bettendorf News. She mentioned that her nephew ran Leadville last year, had completed the Western States ultramarathon recently, and was going to pace a runner at Leadville this year. We had about 2/3 of a mile left but I HAD to talk to this person. I told Rick and Curt to go on ahead and I would catch up. So we visited a bit and I'm going to try to connect with him in Colorado - what a small world. I visited a little longer than I originally thought and when I took off running again, I was not optimistic about catching up with my buddies. I took off on as fast a run as I thought I could muster for the remaining 1/2 mile. I had not run that fast for that long for quite some time. My lungs were searing a bit and when I came to the end, Rick and Curt were waiting there already. It was kind of different and fun to do that again. We walked a bit, sipped some water and gatorade, did 2 sets of 20 push ups and parted ways for the day. 

Tomorrow we plan to do Exterminator hills at 5 a.m. and on Saturday do a long run beginning at 4:30 a.m. at Crow Creek Park with a loop back to the park at 6 am, and maybe another loop at 7:30 am - am not committing to a 3rd loop at this point.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 18, 2012

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

Awesome day! I had the privilege of being the motivational speaker at the Western Fraternal Life Association meeting in Riverside, IA this morning. The audience, while I could tell was anxious to get on the golf course, was really great! I believe my talks usually go well and I think I hit the mark today. Following the talk I was approached by one of representatives from Michigan who is interested in having me speak there in the future - AWESOME!

One of the subjects I spoke about was determining your own 'definition of success' and how it is different for each of us. About 8 years ago a coach asked me to answer the question "What fires my jets?" in an attempt to learn what I am passionate about. I took a week to answer the question because I wanted to answer it to the best of my ability. I identified a few of my jets to be.....

Todd, John, Cheech, Curt, and Gordon (Rick photographer)

1. Running the Leadville 100 Mile Run
2. Raising children who have integrity, who are generous, and who exhibit compassion toward others
3. Teaching my students how to succeed in business 'the right way' - being profitable, honest AND ethical
4. Speaking to groups on success, leadership, goal setting, motivation, and working through adversity

Yesterday was a different story. I had what you might call 'an interview' for a speaking engagement this fall. The people I presented to were kind, fair, professional, and I would even add generous. In my opinion, I was horrible! I'm not sure why. I need to stop analyzing it too much and just accept I had a rough day. Fortunately I think they still want to work with me so I'll reload and re-polish and I am confident I'll have a day with them like I had this morning! God has been good to me!

Rick, John, Cheech, Curt, Gordon (Todd photographer)

Knocked out 62 sets of stairs - we felt the humidity! Starting to notice that it is getting darker earlier than in June. Bummer - was liking the earlier sunlight. We also saw a few runners on the track including Phil Pancrazio - Phil is as steady as the sunrise - seems like he is always around exercising - biking, running, taking pictures :o) - it's always good to see him.

We also saw Jake Beck, Tom Beck's son. I miss seeing Tom - he is the early morning front desk guy at the Y - always super positive and a joy to be around. Jake was doing some quick laps around the track - I assume he was training for the Bix. I see some of Tom's positive traits in his son. Another great job of parenting! At the end of the workout we did one set of 15 push ups. I had hoped that this number would entice everyone in the group but we only had 4 acceptances and 2 rejections :o)

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 16, 2012

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

Sunlight, Moonlight, and Starlight Chase  :o)

Saturday morning my son Joe had a baseball game at 8 a.m. in Clinton, IA so a morning run was not going to work very well. Rick and decided to try to work in a run later in the day. It worked out perfectly for us to go for a long run to Eldridge on Saturday evening. We had a number of friends who were running the Moonlight Chase - an awesome 4 mile run through the city of Eldridge at 9 p.m.  Our good friend


Doug Himmelman decided to join us for the evening. He started out on the bike, carrying water and gatorade for us. After a while he ran a bit with us in exchange for giving us a break from running to ride the bike. We took off a little after 7:30 and made it out to Eldridge around 9:15, just in time to see the fastest runners finishing up. The winner finished with a per minute mile pace of 5:10 - WOW! Our wonderful friend Jen Paul was the first female finisher (she usually is), and broke the course record with a 5:43 per mile pace. I learned she was running another race the next day - incredible!


We recognized a number of friends and runners from the LiveUncommon group - always good to see this bunch of people. Katie Gaffney, Chad Uhde, John O'Brien, Josiah Campbell and I know there were others that we didn't see. It is a great race and it seems to draw a ton of entrants. So after watching our friends finish the race and visiting for a bit, it was time to head back to Bettendorf for the second half of our own version of the Sunlight, Moonlight, and Starlight Chase - a 22 mile trek to and from Eldridge! We saw both daylight and nightlight - a beautiful evening for a run! The race path is below.....

We had about a 45 minute stay over in Eldridge before heading back home around 10 p.m. It felt like at times we were moving at a pretty good clip and I could feel it in my quads and hamstrings. Nonetheless, it was good to push the pace a bit. My legs were a bit sore and tired Saturday night and part of the day on Sunday but back to normal by the end of the afternoon.

Sunday night Rick, Gordon Staley, and I played some competitive basketball. Rick was outstanding as usual. I had fun. Took Monday off - back at the stairs on Tuesday morning!

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 13, 2012

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

Today was an Exterminator Day! Gordon, Rick and I met at the hill at 5:15 a.m.  We were wondering why Todd didn't meet us there, only to find out later he was there at 5 a.m. and left around 5:10 a.m. when we hadn't shown up :o(

Our plan was to tackle at least 40 Exterminators. We had completed 30 Exterminators the previous Friday along with running 5 Exasperators and 5 Incinerators. Today we only did Exterminators and completed 45 in about 50 minutes. It went well. It is good to practice running downhill, figuring out how to minimize the pounding on the quadriceps and taking advantage of the down hill run. Gordon shot a video of us running down and hiking part way back up the Exterminator - thanks Gordon!

The following pictures are of us posing by the sign and running down Exterminator.  As the clock moved forward the light on the course increased. There was some dew on the grass but not enough to cause us to slip.

Rick and Gordon

Rick and John

John and Rick running down Exterminator

My friend and college, Matt Carroll, produced a really nice video of us doing our 24 hour run a couple of weeks ago. Thank you for doing this Matt - the video can be seen below.




In addition, our local newspaper, the Bettendorf News, wrote an  article about Rick and I preparing to run Leadville and our efforts to attempt to raise money for Charly Erpelding's family. The link to the article can be found below.


http://www.thebettendorfnews.com/news/doc4ffdf5de6733a421832403.txt  

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 11, 2012

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

This little darling is 8 year old Charly Erpelding. She is the daughter of a friend of ours and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments for Stage 4 Ewing's Sarcoma.


http://www.cheerinforcharly.com/default.html

Please check out this link. Rick came up with the idea about a month ago that we should run for Charly and donations are already flowing in - WOW!

It is interesting how situations like this put life into perspective. For those times where I think that our training is tiring and difficult, it doesn't seem so bad when I compare it to what Charly is going through. May God continue to bless Charly and her family.

It had been a long time since we have run down to the river - today was a good day to do it. It was really nice and cool to start out this morning. We knocked out about 7 miles in just under an hour. The map below shows a little more distance than we ran.

Best of luck to those traveling to Racine, WI this weekend to compete in the Wisconsin 1/2 Ironman - Aaron Maurer, Jay Gates, and Jeff Paul. They have trained hard and will do great!

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 10, 2012

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

Tuesday morning workout - stairs at Bettendorf High School.  61 sets. Decent temperatures - still warm by the time we finished :o)

Todd, Gordon, Rick, Cheech, Lindsay

John, Gordon, Rick, Cheech, Lindsay

Ok, this is weird - both of these pictures were taken horizontally with the camera and they are both saved horizontally on my desktop. Why the one on the left will only post vertical is beyond my digital abilities! Sorry Todd, you are standing sideways. You can get a good look at the everyone else on the right.

 

Some friendly advice - READ this book! Whatever I might say cannot do justice to the incredible spirit of Louie Zamperini - a world class miler who served in the US Air Force as a bombardier, survived 46 days in shark infested waters in the South Pacific on a raft, and then endured several years in Japanese war camps where we was brutally beaten, starved, and treated most inhumanely. The human spirit is TRULY amazing - Louie is a living example of what a person is capable of handling.

One of our football players at St. Ambrose, Patrick Schmedeke, recommended I read this book and I'm disappointed in myself that it took me several months to finally read it but am I glad I did. I am so grateful to the men and women who defend and have defended our country - some of what they have endured is unspeakable.

In terms of my Leadville training, Louie's story has humbled me and has made me realize that whatever difficult training I have engaged in is literally nothing compared to what this man went through. My life will never be the same after having read this book. I will draw on Louie's experience to keep me grounded and help me work hard whenever I feel like I want to give up. Thank you Louie.

Below is a recent video of Louie being interviewed for a class at USC, his alma mater. It is preceded by a CBS special documenting highlights of his life. The video is over 2 hours long but well worth the view. Louie is 95 years old and he still has the energy of a man many years younger. The book shows a picture of Louie skateboarding down the street at 81 years old. Too many people use age as an excuse as to why they can't or won't do something - too young to start a business, too old to attempt a physical feat. Your 'mental' age is a reflection of your attitude - your physical age is much less important.

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 9, 2012

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

Friday morning I played basketball at the high school at 5:45 am - good time. Hot and humid but hey, it's July in Iowa.

At 9:30, Rick and I decided to try a different type of workout - the "Exterminator". My wife Joan went with us and did some hills, running, and exercises. She introduced us to the "Incinerator" and the "Exasperator" - two hills in Crow Creek Park that are fairly close together. Rick and I decided to run each of these hills 5 times - they were good hills but not too steep so we ran up and down both of them. The Exasperator hill was longer, less steep, and had sprinklers running which felt good on this very hot, humid day.

Following this, we headed back to the Exterminator, a steep hill that is dreaded by many in our community - which is exactly why wanted to tackle it. Rick recommended that we get some practice on this hill and I was in full agreement. We decided to work this hill for about an hour.

I'm not exactly sure how long the hill us but I am guessing that it is 60 yards. We had no intentions of running this hill - hiking it uphill was difficult enough. There were two reasons why we wanted to do this.

#1 - climbing one of the steepest hills (if not the steepest) in the Quad Cities on natural ground, best simulating the mountain trails we will be running in August.

#2 - getting practice running down steep hills - something we have not practiced but is very important at Leadville. Running too fast and hard down the steep mountains can result in trashing the quadriceps, causing pain in the hips and knee joints, and creating blisters on the toes due to the feet slamming into the front part of the running shoes.

With the two dimensional pictures it is difficult to capture the steepness of the hill but this hill is difficult to climb even once. We scaled the Exterminator 30 times. It was a great workout! We certainly could feel the fatigue on our muscles as we increased the number of trips up but we kept pressing on and completed our hour long workout.

We decided to trade in our Wednesday morning Jumer's Tower workouts for 'Exterminator' workouts for the next several weeks. We'll continue to run stadium stairs on Tuesdays, continuing the regimen we started last fall. 

The "Exterminator"

Looking up near the top of "Exterminator"

Looking down "Exterminator"

John 2/3 of the way down "Exterminator"

Aaron Maurer, Jen Paul, Emily Bucy, John O'Brien, Curt Johnston, Rick Fountain - John Byrne photographer

On Saturday morning, this was the crew that met at 4:30 a.m. to get in a good long run. Emily was sweating more than the rest of us because she had already completed 3 miles before we started!  Our original plan was to run two 90 minute loops. Even at 4:30 a.m. it was hot and humid - the temperature was already in the mid 80's and the humidity was high. We ran for about an hour (nearly 7 miles) before taking a break.

We dropped off Jen Paul after 7 miles and Aaron Maurer after 8 miles. We picked up Phil Pancrazio and Anne Ryerson for the final 5 mile run.

We then ran about a mile for another 10 minutes before taking another break. Our final trip lasted close to an hour, capturing another 5 miles. In the end we ran closer to 2 hrs instead of 3 hrs and knocked out 13 miles instead of the 17 - 19 miles we were anticipating. Part of me was disappointed that we didn't follow through with our original plan. The other part of me didn't mind. We had been working hard the past 4 days in very hot and humid weather and our bodies were wearing down a bit. Rick and I decided to cancel tomorrow's run - hopefully we'll play basketball on Sunday night :o)

Sunday night I played some basketball - had fun!

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

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 5, 2012

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

It's been 7 days since I've been on the blog - WOW! I need to add some entries for some workouts, some photos and some commentary so be patient with me as I complete this entry :o) - COMPLETE!

Where I left off last was the day of leaving for Wisconsin to be with my wife's family for my niece's wedding - weddings are awesome!

Derek and Kathleen Ausman

The kids danced up a storm at the wedding reception and a good time was had by all. It is a great reminder for the rest of us 'old married' people to see the magic of love and hope in the eyes of a newly wed young couple. My 11 year old son Joe dived for the garter tossed by the groom and wrestled it away from his cousin - I don't think he had a clue as to what it means to catch the garter. Come to think of it I would say that a young boy catches the garter almost all of the time anymore. The tradition has remained but I don't think the significance and the meaning are the same in the modern era.

The day before the wedding my brother-in-law Jim Geraghty graciously invited me and my boys to accompany him to his health club, Gold's Gym. Michael racked up a big sweat on the treadmill, I played some basketball with Joe and Thomas, and did get in some weightlifting. It wasn't an intense workout and I didn't record what I lifted - just did a variety of bench presses, squats, lat pull downs, curls and other exercises for about 45 minutes. I miss my weightlifting and look forward to resuming it once Leadville is over.

I did absolutely nothing for exercise on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Part of me felt guilty and part of me said, "Breaks are nice once in a while - let the body recuperate." I guess I listened to the latter.

We spent some time with Joan's family on Sunday. I enjoy being with her siblings, their spouses, and their children - I wish we could see them more often. Unfortunately everyone is busy with their own lives and we don't get together that often. Fortunately we enjoy the time we do have together and I am grateful for these times.

Late Sunday afternoon we traveled west to the Twin Cities to see our good friends John and Maria Slavens. I used to work with John about 20 years ago. He and his family moved away a while back and we don't see each other that often but when we do, it is wonderful. The occasion for this visit was not one that anyone wanted. John and Maria's 19 year old daughter (Sara - pictured below), took her life less than two weeks ago. She was a beautiful person and had been struggling with the accidental death of a very close friend from a few months ago.  Sara was a fun loving, kind young woman who served as a steady rock for many of her friends. John and Maria were delighted to learn at Sara's 'celebration of life' how instrumental she was as a source of friendship and strength for so many others. 

Sara Slavens (1993-2012)

While the circumstances were sad, it was SO great to spend time with John and Maria, their other children, and some relatives who were staying at their house. We had the best visit for about 2 1/2 hours and talked a lot about family, communication, struggles our young people face in this day and age, and appreciating all the wonderful blessings in our lives. I was amazed at the positive attitude I witnessed from their family during our visit. John and Maria have been reaching out to Sara's friends and making sure they know the Slavens' home is one where they are always welcome and a safe haven for them to be heard, valued and appreciated. In the midst of a tragic event, they have opted to honor Sara by making a positive difference in the future of others - I'm in awe of their strength, courage, and love. I pray they continue to be blessed in the future - they certainly deserve it.  This Sunday late afternoon visit caused us to arrive home at 3 a.m. on Monday morning but I wouldn't have traded it in for an earlier arrival at home in a million years. I was also very pleased with my children who exhibited the kindness, compassion, and love that all parents dream their children would display. I don't typically make it a habit to brag about my children but I am proud and thrilled to express how very pleased I was with their character and demonstrated behavior on this very difficult visit. If there are days I wonder whether Joan and I have done a good job raising our children, this was a day when I KNOW we have raised them right.

So Monday was my 3rd day of 'no exercise' :o)

Tuesday we were back at it on the stairs at Bettendorf High School football stadium. We had a great group again - Curt, Lindsay, Gordon, Todd, Rick, and I. Everyone had their  own workout agendas but Rick and I settled in on 61 sets of stairs. Not  a whole lot to report - we did what we had set out to do - Mission Accomplished!

Tuesday night my very good friend Peter Witty decided to come visit and he brought his 2nd oldest child, his oldest son, Peter Jr.  along. They drove out after Pete Jr's baseball game and arrived in the Quad Cities around 8:30 pm. Our family was down at the River Bandits baseball game and they met us there to watch the fireworks show afterwards. We stopped by to see the murals Michael had been painting for the last month. We came home visited a bit and set our plan for the morning. We also went to the backyard to show them our basketball court and Pete Jr. started shooting. My conservative estimate is that he made about 45/50 shots from all over the place - what a shooter! We decided we would go for 76 sets of stairs at 6:30 in the morning - seemed like a patriotic # to shoot for - birth of our country in 1776. 

John, Pete Jr., Pete, and Rick

It was a hot morning - as it should be on the 4th of July. My wife Joan joined us but she did her own workout on the track and did some plyometrics. We had been running about 61 sets of stairs over the past few weeks but since Pete and Pete Jr. came all the way out from Northbrook, IL I wanted to make sure we made it worth their while :o)

I wasn't sure how much Pete and Pete Jr. wanted to do - not because they aren't excellent athletes but because stair training is the type of activity that one usually builds up to. I believe we stopped at 30 or 40 the first time Rick and I did a 'stair workout'. We've had a number of friends who have joined us for stair workouts and I can't remember anyone who did more than 30 stairs their first time.

As we started in our sets of 10, Pete and Pete Jr. were looking strong. We reached 20 and then 30. I wondered when they might want to stop. They wanted to keep going and I became really impressed once we hit 40. I had remarked to both of them that they earned the Ironman award - most stairs completed by any of our friends for their first time. Pete Jr. ended  up going for 50 - phenomenal!

Pete, as tough as he is, is a US Army veteran and is still in incredible shape. I wasn't the least bit surprised he went the entire 76 sets. Rick commented that Pete was looking even stronger at 70 than he was at 50. We finished up with a pyramid of 5 push ups (25 push ups).

John, Pete Jr, and Pete

Rick, Pete Jr., and Pete

I was extremely humbled that my good friend was willing to drive for 6 hrs for a 75 minute workout. While I don't see him as much as I would like, I'm quickly reminded why I value his friendship and respect him so much every time I see him.

Pete Jr and Dad

Leadville symbolizes many important things in life to me and I know Pete recognized this, thus his desire to make to take the time and effort to come work out with us.

I love this picture to the left! Pete wanted one last photo where he was taller than his son! I have really only known Pete Jr through annual Christmas letters but it didn't take me long to learn that he is a remarkable young man. Pete Jr is respectful, polite, hard working, and athletic - he is going to be successful in whatever he chooses to do. He has fantastic parents as role models. Some people are worried about the future of this country. I'm not when I know there are young men like Pete Jr. in our future.

The next day Rick Fountain, Curt Johnston, and I ran 6.5 miles at 6 am. It was a bit humid but the run went well after the two days of stairs and we finished up with 36 pushups.

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