Journey to Leadville - Byrne - April 22, 2012

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


  My phone camera - I don't think it is as good (little blurry, less bright) - maybe I should solicit a sponsor to provide me with a higher quality camera? LOL

John Byrne, Curt Johnston, Rick Fountain after an 18 miler - Jeannie Fountain's camera - I think hers is better!

  


 you can ignore this picture - duplicate :o)

Another great day for a run! I have to admit, my legs were feeling a little tired from yesterday's 19 mile run but runs like today are necessary in order to properly prepare for Leadville. I picked up Mr. Johnston at 5:40 a.m. so we would be on time for a 6 a.m. departure from Rick's house. We actually did not depart on the first leg until 6:04 a.m. but close enough, right? First route went down to the river to run by much of south and west LeClaire. After a while the legs started to loosen up and it felt pretty good. The company was great and we proved to ourselves once again that our legs can take the pounding on the pavement.

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/85850207/?new_route=1     9.6 miles - 1 hr 28 minutes

After a brief refueling, we set out again for a run north of Rick's house out into the country. The best part of this run was a stop at a farmhouse about 4 miles to the north. We were getting to the bottom of the bottle of Gatorade mix Rick had been carrying and I was wondering about being dehydrated on the way back as there wasn't much liquid left. Rick spied a pump in the yard of the farmhouse. I filled up the bottle with 'well water' - man did that taste good! I suppose 9 out of 10 people would gag at the thought of having hard water but I absolutely love it! Some people say there are impurities in well water but I don't mind. It feels natural and I prefer it to anything coming out of the tap or the bottled water that I cannot bring myself to buy in the store. I still don't understand why people want to pay money for water, I'm not sure I ever will. While I've always loved water from the well, what made this really wonderful were the special thoughts it sparked about my days as a boy on my brother's farm. We had a pumphouse with an old rusty tin cup that I used to drink water from in between chores when I didn't want to go back into the farmhouse. It's amazing how our senses can so vividly spark our memories. I could instantly place myself back on the farm and smell the musty old pumphouse where I used to drink water out of a hose or out of that rusty old tin cup! 

Rick and Curt said they liked the water too - they might have been saying it to make me feel good or because they were so thirsty that anything would have tasted good. The second leg of this run is listed below.

  

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/85853091/?new_route=1     9.0 miles 1 hr 28 minutes

This was Curt's first back to back day of long runs - he did great! He has made amazing progress in a short amount of time.

Finished up with 26.2 push ups - a marathon of push ups!

We also talked today about trying to set up a schedule of workouts a week in advance to help others who might care to join us on some of our workouts. It has been kind of fun having some different people join us already on some of our stair workouts. 

Looking ahead, here is what is planned for this coming week. If you think you want to join us, why don't you send me a text 563-343-3909 just in case we have a last minute change.

Tuesday, April 24th - 5:15 a.m. - Bettendorf High School football stadium - running stairs - feel free to come do whatever you want (stairs/track, combination) - Rick and I will plan to run stairs for about an hour

Wednesday, April 25th - 5:00 a.m. - Jumer's Tower - running stairs. These are a little tougher as it takes closer to 50 seconds to make a climb as opposed to 20 seconds at the football stadium. Rick and I will plan to run these for about an hour as well.

Saturday, April 27th - 4:30 a.m. - Crow Creek Park - running long. We will loop back at 6:00 a.m. to pick up others who want to start later. Unsure of whether there will be a 7:30 a.m. loop yet - not sure yet if I will be needed at home before 9 a.m.

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