Sprinting At 60

Tuesday, February 27, 2024                                        Great day on the track! Today was a beautiful day for running. I ran to the Pilates studio for a session with Megan. We did a lot of stretching exercises. It felt really good to get in there and really loosen up my quads, glutes, etc. Afterwards I headed to Franklin Field. It was sunny and about 55 degrees when I arrived. No one was on the track for the first half of my workout, which felt like a real gift. Today's workout was the prescribed Week 3 track workout in Collins's book.  (Side note: I have realized that I need to either compress the weekly workouts in Collins's book [e.g., combine the track workouts from two consecutive weeks into double workouts for one week], and/or, I will need to "skip ahead" at some point so that I can start doing more short sprint workouts. His book gives 52 weeks of workouts that begi...

 Friday, February 23, 2024 Today I went back to the track to finish the week 2 workout I did on Tuesday (which I couldn't finish due to a lacrosse game). Today was a little warmer, 47 degrees. It rained last night (it was still misty and cloudy at noon when I arrived at the track), and there were puddles in lanes 1-4 (at the beginning of the second turn). Before I report my performance for today's workout, I should give an update on what I found out about the track at Franklin Field since Tuesday: Turns out (info found on YouTube) that lane 4 is the true 400 meter lane there. Lanes 1, 2, and 3 were added when they expanded the track (they couldn't add lanes on the outer side due to the stadium walls). Lucky for me, today I came across a young guy who came to run on the track. I have been confused by the markings/lack of markings on the track. I asked if he knew where the 300 meter mark was--and he did! I think I understood that he used to run track at UPenn. He explained th...

 Tuesday, February 20, 2024                                        After today's track workout Today I was going to follow and complete the Week 2 track workout from Bill Collins's book. The workout was supposed to be 15 x 300 meter dashes, with 2 minutes rest in between. I ended up only being able to do 8 of them, but not because I was too tired. The field was being prepped for a home lacrosse game, so there was a lot of action on the field and, consequently, on the track, as little carts were circling around delivering coolers and equipment. The last straw for me was a couple of giant blowers that were employed to blow the plastic black bits from the track onto the field . . . or maybe it was the opposite, IDK what was happening.  They were warming up the scoreboard, blasting music (not a deal killer, some songs were cool). The track was kind of a hot mess ...

 Thursday, February 15, 2024 Completed my first "official" track workout today. I am following the weekly training guide laid out in Bill Collins's book The Ageless Athletic Spirit  (for now, anyway). Pilates (core work) and weight training have already been a fairly regular part of my life for two and half years at this point, so I feel pretty confident that I should be able to follow the track workouts described in his book (even though he is an ex-Olympian, and even though he was, I believe, a couple or a few years younger than I am now when he wrote the book/laid out the workouts).  Today was cold! 34 degrees with 57% humidity, a slight wind. I was a bit apprehensive before the workout, as I thought running in the cold would be brutal.  However, once I got into it, I was fine (especially with my running pants on, a couple of layers on top). I wore my new Hoka Rocket X2 shoes (recommended by Bill Yelverton on his blog Sprint Forever ). The shoes were great! Super ...

 Sunday, February 11, 2024: Just an update on how I felt the day after my first track workout on Thursday. In one word: awesome! Really I had no pain or soreness from the 4 x 400 meters I ran. I feel pretty good about that. Also I wanted to note that yesterday and today I devoured the book The Ageless Athletic Spirit by Bill Collins (which is mentioned in an interview with Bill Yelverton conducted by "Autumn Athletes . . . Not Done Yet" that is posted on YouTube). The book is amazing. Clear and direct, positive and affirming. Also, there are easy-to-follow weekly workout plans (for a whole year!)  that incorporate what Collins calls the three basics of training: core strengthening, running workouts (milage [treadmill or outdoors] and sprinting on the track), and weight training.  So the good news is, now I have a training plan. Now I am trying to run 3 miles a day, 5 or 6 times a week, in under 30 minutes. I can start to push myself to get my weekly average of these runs ...

  Sprinting At 60 Thursday, February 8, 2024: Today, after a good forty years, I completed a track workout. Last fall, I had an epiphany: I loved running track in high school and for a year in college .   My last track and field meet was in 1983! At the end of that season,  I altered my path in life,  choosing a direction that led away from track teams and meets. But after a particularly serene meditation last October, I realized that (especially now that I am retired and free to do pretty much what I like) I could still run track. I started poking around on the web, and I discovered information about Masters Track and Field--teams and meets for adults all across the country (and even the world!).  I got really inspired when I found William Yelverton's blog (Sprint Forever: The Ageless Athletic Spirit: Masters Track training and lifestyle of a 60+ sprinter). I made a decision that I would apply myself and train. I'm 59 years old (I'll be 60 in May!), and I ...