213 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run…
This was the picture I wanted to post the other day. It hangs in my office at work. Lorna Sawyer is a retired school teacher who taught 3 of my sons and is one of the kindest, most loving people you would ever want to meet. It has been a privilege for me and my family to know her. Upon returning from my Leadville run in 2005, much to my surprise, she embroidered this beautiful linen and had it framed for me with my race time on it. There are many material possessions in life we pay a lot of money for but the best things in life usually aren’t the most expensive. Her thoughtfulness and the labor of love she put into this project means so much to me - more than she will ever know. It’s very touching when you believe that you matter to other people and that is the message I received when she took the time and the effort to do this for me.
Tonight was a stadium stairs night. It has been cold the last few days in Iowa so I was expecting this to not be so easy. We did 82 sets of stairs in segments of 10 with a brief rest in between - 12 on the last set - just for fun. We moved our workout to the evening so that Scott Passman could join us. Scott is a recent graduate from St. Ambrose’s Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program. He will be a great PT for sure but he’s already an awesome athlete and great physical trainer. As part of his undergraduate program, I was assigned to be his ‘trainee’ for 12 weeks during his senior year. It was extremely tough but gratifying and dare I say 'fun'? No complaints here but he put me through some workouts that I did not believe I would be able to do – it kept reminding me that we have more in us than we realize. Scott also ran Leadville in 2010 in under 29 hrs. He’s signed up to run in 2012 and is going for a big gold belt buckle.
Unfortunately Rick could not join us tonight as he had to pick his son up from church group. So he did his stairs an hour before Scott and I ran ours. I feel bad we couldn’t be with him but I had basketball practice with my son Joseph beforehand so it just wasn’t going to work out. Small unexpected conflicts arise along the way – good training for Leadville because during the race we will be thrown for some loops for sure!
I also learned that I made it onto the Leadville Race Series' facebook page - I feel honored!
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
2 comments:
I'm curious to know how many steps from bottom to top, and what is the elevation change from bottom to top when you are running those stairs at the stadium....Thanks
Art,
I measured it this morning. There are 72 steps - each step is about 6" high and the distance is about 15" deep. Total distance up is approximately 36 feet and total distance out is about 90 feet out. A typical stair workout of 75 stairs would translate to 2700 feet up and 6750 feet out. I don't know what that translates to in terms of grade. We do get a break every trip, which is much more forgiving than Hope Pass :o) I always thought of Hope Pass as about 3500 feet up and 10600 feet out
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