Week 30: Burning River for Ben - It's Gonna Be a Party!

Burning River is going to be a party! Two more Coloradans, Jeff Mulder and Matt Larson, signed up so we will be taking on this adventure together. I never dreamed that this would happen!

Jeff Mulder will be joining the Adventure!

We will be running in honor of Ben O’Daniel, a very young man that, along with his doctor, family, hospital staff, and volunteers, has been bravely battling Childhood Leukemia ALL type B for over 2 ½ years. As I’ve mentioned before, I watched from a distance in amazement at how Ben, his mother, his brother Alex, their neighbors, friends, teachers, and the incredible staff and volunteers in the Children’s Cancer Center faced this disease with such positivity, hope and love. I find it truly an honor to be honoring them in this run.

Just a year before Ben was diagnosed and began his chemo treatments I had a small taste of what those treatments are like when I experienced several months of Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin treatments for Hepatitis C. It was an incredibly brutal experience that took everything I had to get through, but it was just a small taste of what Ben and these kids go through. It took me a long time to recover from the treatment both psychologically and physically. Aside from honoring Ben and the kids that have to go through this Hell, I want to show them that there is life after treatment. Ben will be finishing up his chemo treatments this year. He is currently doing cross fit and preparing for the last mile of the Burning River 100 even as he is still in treatment; an incredible young man.

In coming weeks I will be documenting Ben’s journey as well as the heroes that are in the trenches at the children’s cancer centers. The more I learn about what they do the more humbled I am.

Training has been going very well. I’m still just working on overall fitness, keeping the mileage at about 50 miles a week with no speed work. It is very important to build a good base and teach the body to become very efficient at burning fat for fuel, especially for longer races, and some would consider 100 miles a longer race.

It got interesting this week as we had a cold front come in that brought temperatures in the minus ranges. On New Year’s Eve when I got up for my 4:30 am run before work, my IPhone said it was -15F with a chill factor of -33F. I thought that was way too cold for Max (although we ran in -8F the day before) so I ran barefoot in the basement on the treadmill. After about two miles Max had all he could stand and jumped on the treadmill with me. He flew off, tripping me in the process, and we both ended up thrown against the wall and on the floor. In the end I gave in, bundled up and we ran outdoors. Max was fine. In fact he was probably the happiest dog on the planet. For some reason there were a lot of rabbits about so he had even more fun chasing rabbits throughout the run. My eyelashes were freezing shut toward the end.

I've heard of heat waves but cold waves?

On New Year’s Day Roswitha and I started 2015 off on the right foot by running the Rescue Run 5 & 10K in Palmer Park. It was very cold with the temperature right around zero at the start. Even with the cold temps over 700 people finished the combined races raising over $10,000 for El Paso County Search and Rescue. I felt incredibly good, better than I have felt in 20 years in a 10k and somehow won the old fart’s age group and finished 20th overall. A really nice start to the New Year and definitely a good sign that training is going well.

Roswitha and myself before start of the Rescue Run

New snow added a little adventure to our 18 mile CRUD run. 18 miles on trails covered in snow make for some hard but fun work. All in all it was a great workout and a great week.

Team CRUD on a snowy Trail Run

This Week’s Training:

Mon:

·         AM: Ride to Work (8.7 Miles)

·         PM: Ride Home from Work (7.3 Miles), Gym Workout

Tue:

·         AM: Run (10.6 Miles)

·         PM: Bike (Tempo Intervals on Trainer) (35 Miles)

Wed:

·         AM: Run (6Miles)

·         PM: Bike (Trainer) (18 Miles)

Thu:

·         AM: Run Rescue Run 10K (6.2 miles) + 2 mile warm-up.

·         PM: Bike (Trainer) (24 Miles)

Fri:

·         AM: Trainer Ride (20 Miles)

Sat:

·         AM: Run (18 Miles)

·         PM: Gym Workout, Trainer Ride (22.4 Miles)

Sun:

·         AM: run (11 Miles), Trainer Ride (30 Miles)

Total: 219 Miles (Bike 165, Run 54)