Running with Purpose

In my last post I talked about specificity of training. Just so you know I wasn't blowing smoke, I wanted to let you in on a bit of my training. And, related to that, I need to make an announcement.

First, I'm in Leadville Colorado. I have been training for the Leadville 100. My training hasn't been all that I wanted because of a few obstacles: I work too much, life gets in the way sometimes, and it's hard to train in Oklahoma for a 100 mile run in the Rocky Mountains. But I've been doing as much running, plyometric training, weight lifting, and finger-crossing as my life allows. Tomorrow morning at 6a I'm going to run a 50-mile foot race that starts in Leadville. After that I am going to climb a couple 14ers and probably pedal my mountain bike in a few places that make me giggle. I planned to do this because it's as specific a training stimulus as I could think of. The 100-mile race is 4 weeks after the 50, so I know I'll be healthy again by then. And stronger.
There is a lot of mental torment that comes with racing. Especially races this long. And I'd like to talk about the mental side of things in a future post.

I have decided this year to raise money for a charity called Coffee Kids. They help coffee farming families, which is a cause that is very close to my heart. I am taking pledges for Coffee Kids based on the number of miles I run at the Leadville 100. So if you pledge $1 per mile and I finish the race, you will donate $100 to Coffee Kids. It's a great cause. If you are interested in reading more about this effort or pledging, go to the plege page at CoffeeIlluminati.com. You can keep up with my efforts and struggles on the Coffee Illuminati blog.

We have also decided to make Coffee Kids the beneficiary of the DoubleShot Duathlon and 5k Trail Run this year. A portion of the proceeds from the race will be doated to Coffee Kids, making your race more purposeful too.