Officiating track meets can be an endurance activity

Today was the 3rd weekend of the last 4 that I officiated a track meet that had me working for over 8 hours. Two of the three I officiated the high jump and pole vault. I'm experienced in high jump officiating, not so much pole vault. The other meet I was the starter for a high school invitational. 

This is not a complaint about the meets. I had fun at each of them. My observation is in comparing my body's response to those meets in relation to the past 2 years when doing similar. Prior to this year, my body was tight and sore during the meet and very sore after. This year, though I have been tired, I have felt more flexible and less sore at the end of the day.

I attribute this to the work I've been doing post ankle surgery. I've been working a lot more on flexibility and rotation to address weaknesses that have caused my recent injuries. This work has made my running feel better, but also has made daily activities feel less tight and easier to accomplish.

 I'll be the first to admit I don't enjoy cross training activities like cycling, swimming, weights, flexibility exercises. The last couple years as I've dealt with ankle surgery/recovery I have not done those workouts as regularly as I should. I like to run. Running rewards me in ways those others do not. But when I run, I'm more likely to do those other exercises because the joy I get from running compensates for drudgery of those others.

Running gives me the confidence to do those other workouts. I don't need mental rewards from other workouts, because I receive them running. Probably doesn't make sense to many, but the difference for me when I'm running verses when I don't is my challenge. 

There's a plus/minus to this. The plus is that when I'm running, I have the confidence to do other forms of workouts. The minus is when I'm not running I don't have the confidence and motivation to do those workouts. That's a me issue, and I recognize my fault.

Getting back to the recent track meet officiating, it feels much better to be back to running and the other workouts and feeling better during and after the meets.

High jump area set up and ready for the competition.

67/52, a birthday reflection

 I started counting when I turned 60. Birth years/running  years. As I've mentioned recently, this past year was a difficult, both in life and in running. I won't go into the detail, they are in previous entries if you want to know more.

The reflection here is optimism and concern. I'm optimist for my personal future. Rachel is retiring, running is slowly returning, grandkids are motivation to keep moving. I'm concerned for our country. We have leaders who don't believe in our Constitution, who have brought back the McCarthy years to an excess. I'm not a political writer so I won't go into details, but just remembering the lessons learned about our government in high school and how those in the current administration reject the concept of Equal Branches of Government and Checks and Balances is disturbing and leaves me concerned for the future that my kids and grandkids are facing.

I don't want to leave a depressing note. It's been a good day. 6.7k run on my 67th birthday, many birthday greetings from friends, birthday pie with the grandkids yesterday, dinner with Rachel tonight. Can't get much better.

I'm adding to this about a week after my 67th birthday. I was the starter for a high school invitational today. A meet that started at 10am and ended around 4:30pm. A very long day. But a fun day. 

Running is the essence of play when we were kids. We could run seemingly forever without getting tired. It was play, it was chasing, it was getting to our best friend's house to share important information. Running then was necessity, joy, fun. 

As I started races today, I saw kids running for multiple reasons. Some were running to win, some to set personal bests (PB), some because their coach told them to run. The personal bests were the most fun. A PB may not win a race, but it validates the work that the runner has done. A PB means you have run faster than you have ever run before. That is an accomplishment to celebrate whether you are a world class athlete or a high school athlete who really did not want to run this race your coach told you to. 

We glamorize football, basketball, baseball but in life what sport are we most likely going to participate in as adults? Running. Because it is a healthy activity that we can pursue in our adult lives. I'm thankful I was able to create a running habit at 14 that has continued into my 60th decade. Forming the habit is the hard part. Once it is formed, it is like an addiction. You need it to feel whole. I'm not whole unless I'm running.

 

 

The Race to Continue, Not to Win

Today was a confidence run day. The plan was to increase my run break to 5:30 and increase it to 4 intervals. It started raining into my walk warm up and I didn't want to spend 50 minutes in the rain. So I decided  to do a continuous run of 2 mile. The longest continuous run in over a year. Confidence days don't come often, in our work life, social life, personal life or exercise life. Take them when they are offered.

We go through our lives with a projectory that we think, is the right path. We exude confidence but in private we question whether it's the right path. Confidence is an illusive concept that can deceive us. Confidence is often more illusion than reality.

Today, I challenged myself. To many, it may not seem like an insurmountable one. But for an old guy who is trying to get back to running consistently, it was important. The run went well. It required me to pace my run, but more importantly trust myself. Trust that I was on the right path. Trust that I could maintain a pace that would allow me to finish feeling confident, not defeated.

My trajectory of recent has been to slowly work up from running a series of run/walk workouts to eventually returning to consistently running. The goal, to run for 3-4 miles without knee/leg pain. I've worked toward that over the past year, post ankle surgery, cautious about the progress. Four minutes of running followed by 5 minutes of walking, repeating it 3 times; increasing the running while decreasing the walking. Enduring the burning pain in my legs in anticipation that it is part of the process of becoming a runner again.

It's been a year long training process. I've been conservative in my approach. Maybe more out of  the fear of aging than the reality of what my body can handle. I want to run again. I don't want to be injured again. 

In some ways that reality has freed me. I'm not self-pressured to make progress too quickly. As I start a workout, if I don't feel comfortable, I change the workout...I walk instead of run. Where once I would have felt guilty, now I look to the wisdom that this process is to keep me moving for today and for years forward. But is it also preventing quicker progress?

Maybe it's maturity, but making progress requires focus, confidence. When we're younger, we often rush to see progress at the expense of learning. In distance running, consistency is important. Banking miles in the early years benefits the older years. It also enables reflection of training, what works for me what doesn't and making adjustments. Similar in life. Reflecting on what works, what doesn't. Making adjustments.

My younger self would accuse me of not working hard enough, sloughing off in my training. My older, wiser self says this is my current reality and it is okay to back off on a training plan because this is a long term plan for the remainder of my life. But challenging yourself is good. Barriers can be over come. Preparation to over come them is essential.

In a different stage of my life, I probably would have rejected that advice. I had goals, commitments, responsibilities. In hindsight, it would have been good advice. Push yourself, evaluate, re-calculate. I'm lucky, I'm able to evaluate and refocus.

I have grandkids to chase, to elude their "freeze" tag. I have a greater race to not win, but to continue.