Week 3 - Still going strong...

Monday Sept 14th - 5 miles - Billie, Emily, John

Tuesday Sept 15th - BHS track - 3 sets consisting of stairs, running, squats and lunges, and running
1st set - 30,  1/2 mile, 25 and 20, 1/2 mile
2nd set - 30,  1/2 mile, 25 and 20, 1/2 mile
3rd set - 30,  1/4 mile, 25 and 20   - Curt, Billie, John

Wednesday Sept 16th - 6 miles - Aaron, Jay, Rick, Billie, John

Thursday Sept 17th - stairs at BHS 5 sets of 8 = 40 - Mike, Jeremy, Rick, Billie, Lindsay, Cheech, John

Saturday Sept 19th - 2 1/2 hr run in the am - 15 miles - Rick, Curt, Billie, John O, Jay, Emily, John
                                  2 1/2 hr run in the evening - 17 miles - solo run

Haven't had time to lift weights and I'm not happy about it but running is the priority. Still manage to play basketball a couple times each week - which I love!

Feeling much more comfortable getting up in the early morning and believe my body is adapting to the long mileage - I'm remembering how I was feeling 4 years ago when last training for Leadville and it is feeling very similar and very good. Muscles fatigue seems to disappear rather quickly after long runs.

Slightly irritated with a bruised knee from a basketball game but I know that will pass. A little more concerned about a sore/bruised bone directly above my right outside ankle. I can't figure out what happened. A logical conclusion would be that I was kicked during a basketball game but I don't recall it happening. It is slowly getting better but I'm probably not doing it any favors with continuous training. We'll see how it progresses.

Optimism is at an all time high and enjoying the beautiful temperatures we have been having - perfect running weather!

As Ken Chlouber, the founder of the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run says, "Make friends with 'pain' and you will never be lonely at Leadville."

One of the things I really appreciate about Ken is that he understands the value in challenging yourself to do something that seems incredibly hard and not apologizing for its difficulty. He knows the size of the reward positively correlates to the size of the struggle. That sums up Leadville pretty well - find out what you are made of. If you don't finish the race, you actually learn that you are still quite incredible for even attempting it and completing whatever portion you can. If you do finish the race you feel almost invincible.

Dig Deep!