Getting Through the Suck

My track season started in February. April and May is when it got hectic, two to three meets a week, nearly every Saturday. I'm not complaining, it is fun, but also tiring and interrupts my workouts. I'm still working, so I have that responsibility as well. What suffers are my workouts. They become irregular, missing several days of running and body workouts. 

This season has been a special one. I was a starter for my first collegiate meet which was a conference championship, was a marshal at the Big Ten Championship meet at Hayward Field, was an official at both the indoor and outdoor championships for the Rocky Mtn Athletic Conference, and I may be on the infield for the Prefontaine Classic in a couple of weeks (update: I was). Those were the highlights of what was a busy season of officiating high jumps and starting of local college and high school meets. 

As my Uncle Larry would have said, "That's a long way from Geneva, Indiana." 

I also have a track and field meet to run. Earlier this year, I became the Youth Chair for USATF Oregon. Which among other responsibilities, I'm the meet director for a 4-day meet for kids ages 8-18. I've organized road races and small triathlons, but this is much more. I've had help but still, the logistics of this are way beyond what I've done before. And the information I need to do the job isn't written down but in the heads of about 4-5 others who share that information only when I ask specifically for it, rather than providing me with the information. So I'm operating on a "I don't know what I don't know" status most of the time. It's been frustrating, but I'm gradually getting a grasp of what I need to do and hopefully will get it organized before the meet takes place the end of June. Wish me luck.

So all of that has effected my efforts of getting back to running. It's been a Spring of starts, missed workouts, starting over, missing more workouts...

Frustrating is an understatement. I'm on a startup currently, but my body is sore and achy. I know it's from the inconsistency, but it doesn't help the motivation to know the morning run won't be as comfortable as I'd like it to be or the stretching and strength workouts will feel stiff and awkward. Consistency and repetition will go a long way in making it all feel more comfortable and encouraging for challenging myself to work harder. It's much more motivating to run or do strength training when your body has acclimated to the work. Before that, it just sucks. Breaking through the suck is the mental challenge. 

It will come, but it sucks. 

 This works for all of us.

 

 

My first "professional" meet

Tonight I was the starter at the Portland Twilight meet at Lewis & Clark College. This meet is a mix of college, unattached and "B" level pro runners. Nike, Brooks, Adidas were represented. In past meets there have be world class runners, Lauren Fleshman, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Kate Grace among others.

This was quite a step up from my previous starting gigs over the last five years. Those gigs have been high school meets, with district meets being the highest level. I enjoy these meets. In the early high school season, it's a teaching opportunity to inform the runners on the rules for their respective races. 

Tonight's meet, these athletes knew the rules. The meet was professionally organized and with an experienced clerk it went off like clockwork. My role was to make sure the races started on time and a fair start was held. There were no false starts, but I did have to give the "stand up" command due to some fidgeting and off balances stances. 

I was impressed by how well things ran. At high school meets you start a race when timers, finish line personnel and runners are ready. Tonight it ran on a schedule, and it was a well created schedule. I didn't have to hurry up to get a race started. On the contrary, I had to slow things down a bit so we didn't start a race before it was scheduled. This was important because of the caliber of runners and their timing their warmup to the publish start time of their race. Going too fast, they wouldn't be adequately warmed up. Going too slow, they would be cooling down too much.

In many ways this was a much easier meet to start than high school meets. I had one job, start the race on time and fairly. At high school meets, I'm often waiting for timers and runners to get ready. I'm helping move starting blocks or setting up hurdles. Getting runners into their correct lances. High school meets require much more involvement in the production of the meet. Tonight's meet had all of that taken care of.

 

 

High School Track Meet

I was officiating a high school track meet tonight. I was the starter for the running events. During the 3000 there was a girl whose running strides looked so relaxed and fluid. She wasn't the fastest of the girls running, but her gait was impressive, knees coming thru her stride, back kick high. She looked light on her feet as her feet during her turnover. 

As I watched her, my thought was she will get faster. But even if she doesn't that running form will allow her to run as many miles as she wants. I hope she has good coaching.

What I have observed during my time as a track and field official is that more track coaches have actually been track athletes and have knowledge about coaching runners, throwers and jumpers. When I was in high school, my distance running coach was an English teacher who had never run before. His coaching was running a series of 70 second quarter mile repeats, with the thinking we should race that way to achieve a 4:40 mile. At the time, it sounded logical. In reality, it doesn't work like that. At least it didn't for me. 

I needed more mileage to build up endurance. Then fine tune with pace and speed. Even in college, repeat 440's were the standard speed workout. As a steeplechaser very little, as in none, work on hurdling the barriers or water jump technique. I am in awe of the current few steeplechasers who actually hurdle the water jump! 

I don't blame my coaches. They were a product of the time and the training philosophy at that time. Distance runners ran. We didn't life weights, we stretched a bit. Flexibility? We could touch our toes and touch our nose to our knees when doing hurdle stretches. Running made you fast and fitter.

I'm glad today's athletes are getting more quality coaching than I received. Or maybe I should say more knowledgeable coaching. For the most part, the training I did was what most training programs followed.

But it was also the beginning of the scientific approach to running training. Coaches like Bill Bowerman, Jack Bacheler at Florida State (Frank Shorter's coach), Jack Daniels, exercise physiologist, who experimented with what we now call "tempo runs."  There have been so much more progress on the science of running training and these coaches and others were the experimenters during that time.

So, where is this thread heading. Who knows? But I do know that I'm finally receiving the benefit of all that science related to training, body functions, etc. I won't be as fast as I once was, but hopefully I'll be running for years to come.

 

 

The First 40 Were Easy, the Last 10 Enlightening

My first 40 years of running I didn't have a significant injury. I had times when I needed to take a few or several days off then return to running. I had times when running wasn't a priority due to life and I took months off. But I always came back to it and built up my mileage.

Something happened when I turned 50. My body protested all the years of not stretching, not working on strengthening my core, abductor muscles, resulting in a gradual change in my gait that resulted in a couple of significant injuries, the last one stopped me from running for over a year. Since then it's been a mental and physical learning experience. 

For years, decades actually, I ran without much thought to stretching, strength work, flexibility. I ran. It worked. I enjoyed it and found success and satisfaction in it. It has taken me a long while to accept that I need to change my training mind set...just ask my trainer. Getting a trainer was a first step. Believing in her was the next one. It has been a secondary journey to continue the primary journey. 

I first thought I just needed time and a few sessions to heal my body and get back to the running level I was accustom to. That's not how it works for an aging body that has put in ten's of thousands of miles. (I have a friend, 3 years older than me, who celebrated his 100,000th running mile. So I know I've done 10's of thousands over last 52 years.) This current state requires more non-running work. Work I have to make myself do. It's not fun. It's not motivating. It's necessary. As necessary as the blood pressure meds I dislike taking. My trainer calls it eating my vegetables. But I like vegetables so it's not a good metaphor. It's more like flossing my teeth so my hygienist doesn't try and guilt me.

But the results, when I'm consistent with doing the work, are there. Running feels better. The everyday tasks are easier and more importantly, I can play "you're it" with my grandkids without hurting.

I'm fortunate that my body has held up all these years. I have family whose body's have not been as kind. I can't imagine what my mental and physical state would be if I were not able to remain active. I am able to chase my grandkids around the park, it has allowed me to give back to my sport by officiating hours long track meets. Yes, I my body is tired, but I'm able to stand, bend, carry items, reach, run, lift in order to do the job.  

It's been 52 years since I started running. It's the longest relationship I've had and it is one of the most rewarding, even if these past several years have been challenging. 

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