The key to Ironman training is focus and telling your inner self to shut up.  Today was a perfect example of such an effort.

I left the house at 6a.m. and drove to Las Vegas for a conference that starts on Monday.  However, it was long run day.  The inner self would say, “Well, you are traveling and you will be tired after driving to Las Vegas so there’s no way you will run today.  Ha! I say to my inner self!

Instead of driving to my hotel, I drove straight to my long run destination.  A destination I have checked out before, but never found the time to do it.  Well, we checked the box today folks.

My destination was the Lake Mead Visitors Center for an epic run through the tunnels built in the 30’s for the rail line that ran from Boulder City to Hoover Dam to deliver materials and equipment to build the dam.  Five tunnels in total.

After 5 hours of driving, I arrived at my destination.  I did a quick change in the car and then proceeded to lay down a big towel on a sidewalk where I foam rolled and stretched my body that had compacted itself over the last 5 hours.  Quite a nice view of Lake Mead as I was taking care loosening up as well.

Following much sunscreening, and loading up my waist pack with food and sports drink for the endeavor, I hit the trail.

The weather was perfect in the low 70’s.  In no time I came to the first tunnel on a busy trail filled with families, cyclists, and a lot of dogs.  This is a very popular trail I was to find out.  However, I did not encounter any other runners during my day.

After clearing the last tunnel, I came to potentially the end of the trail and quite a bit of fencing.  However, I noticed that most people were continuing through a break in the fence on a clearly labeled trail.  “Could this trail go all the way to Hoover Dam?” I asked myself?  The further I ran, the more apparent that the answer was likely yes.

In fact, it was yes.  It went all the way to Hoover Dam.  Needless to say, I had to go all the way across the dam to make it official.  This wasn’t the easiest thing to do as it was quite busy today with hoards of people walking along the dam sidewalks on both sides.  Navigating all the selfie-taking by the tourists was the most difficult.  I might have ended up in quite a few photographic memories today.  However, I did achieve this goal with a little stop and go running.

In my excitement to go all the way to Hoover Dam (only about 4.5 miles one way by the way in case you ever want to do it), I had descended quite a bit to get down there.  What goes down must come up of course.  So, I had about a 2 mile climb back up to the tunnels, but it wasn’t crazy steep as this again was where the rail line had been.

The view of Lake Mead on the way back was quite spectacular.

Upon my arrival back where I started, that only added up to about 8.5 miles.  So, I headed out onto this amazing trail they have there.  It is 32 miles long and completely protected from traffic.  I turned right and headed down the trail closer to Lake Mead.  Even though this trail was in incredible shape, there was virtually no one on it.  Every now and then I would see a cyclist, but the rest of the time I was pretty much alone in the desert with Lake Mead to my right.

After running 4 miles I noticed that the sun was getting ready to dip below the mountain on my left-hand side.  I was running out of daylight and after a little while longer I turned around.  I was not interested in running in the cold dark in the desert.

In total, I ended up the day with 17 miles under my feet and a 1125ft of vertical climbing.  This was a good match to 80 miles and 5700ft vertical feet of climbing I did on the bike on Friday.  Quality work with the race two weeks from today!

Very cool run if you ever get to Las Vegas with a combination of dirt and paved protected trail terrain.

Again, this is what you do when you train for an Ironman.  You make it work no matter where you are.

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Please join me in my efforts to support the Challenged Athletes Foundation as I take on my own challenge to complete my second Ironman race.

At my own cost, I will attempt to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles on November, 24th, 2019 in Tempe, Arizona to bring awareness and funding support to the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the needs of their clients. This challenge race is intended to raise at least $5,000 in funds to make those dreams come true for challenged athletes everywhere. Please click on the donate button and give what you can to help CAF athletes overcome physical disabilities and be able to afford the cost of equipment such as sports wheelchairs, handcycles, mono-skis and sports prosthetics, and resources for training and competition expenses.

The Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) raises money to help people with physical challenges pursue an active lifestyle through physical fitness and athletics. CAF’s mission is clear: give those with the desire to live active, competitive lifestyles every opportunity to compete in the sports they love.

Thank you for any donation you can make to this cause at the following link http://bit.ly/2lIDEI4 or just click on the CAF button below.