Sprinting At 60

Saturday, August 30, 2025 One week from today I am competing in the New Jersey Senior Games meet in Woodbridge, NJ. I registered for the 200, 400, and 800, just because I was not sure which race or races I'd want to run. I definitely will run the 800 . . . and possibly the 200, depending on whether it is after the 800 and how much time is between them. I will be competing against myself in the 800--I will wear my finger timer and see if I can hit that 600 in 1:45 or less so that I might improve my PR of 2:23 by a few seconds.   Last Sunday I had a good practice with the team. I did an 800 (goal 2:40) with a minute rest, then a 400 (goal 1:20), 5 minute rest and then 3 x 200 with 45 second rests (goal high 30s). I did 2:41, 1:16, then 31, 35, 31.  Monday I had Pilates mat and then went to the gym. I did leg exercises (which made my glutes really sore for a few days). Tuesday I ran to and from Pilates reformer lesson, then went to the gym for chest exercises. Wednesday I ha...

Friday, August 22, 2025 It has been a good training week. It has been cooler here in Philadelphia, which has made running a little easier. I had Pilates Reformer lessons with Megan on Tuesday and Thursday, and both went well. I worked out regularly at the gym, doing leg strengthening exercises on Monday and Thursday. Wednesday I went to Franklin Field track at U Penn and did 4 x 1k intervals with 2 minute rests between. Averaged a 4:45 pace. I finished with three 200 meters at 36, 39, 38 seconds.  Today, Friday, I went back to the track and ran "broken" 800s: 600 (goal 1:47, first 400 at like 72), one minute rest and then a 200 (goal 42 seconds). 4 minute rest and repeat. Here is how I did: 1:50; 36 and 1:54; 36.   So, both of my 600s were a little slow. The goal was to do 1:12 in the first 400 meters, and then finish with a 35 second 200 meters. I think I hit the first 400 at 1:16, so my last 200 was I need to work harder on this so that I can reach my goal of running th...

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 Last Friday I did a tempo run along the river trail. I went out about 3:00 p.m.  It was really hot and humid. The plan was to run 1 K, rest 2 minutes, run another, for a total of 4-6. When I set up this custom run on my Apple Watch, I forgot to set it to kilometers, so I ended up running miles, which always confuses me a bit--it makes it seem I am running slower than I actually am. Anyway, this was a tough workout, due to the heat and humidity, as well as to the fact that my aerobic strength (that I need to build to compete in the 800 meters) isn't great (yet). According to my Strava record, I ran a total of 8.54 km (this includes my slow warmup jog to the trail, maybe a kilometer and a half-ish?) with an average pace of 6:23 (so I met my goal of 6:40 or better per km). It was a total of 4 separate miles at tempo pace. After, I ran a cool-down jog back home of 2 km at 8 minutes each.  Sunday I made it to track practice with my team. It was great to wor...

Videos of my races at Nationals Not sure of the quality of these on this blog site, but I will post anyway. First is my 400 meter prelim on Thursday. I was in lane 3. Fastest guy (David Jones) was in lane 2. I needed to place first or second to go on to the final on Friday.  Second vid is of the 400 meter final on Friday. I am again in lane 3, but the fastest guy is in lane 4 this time around. I placed second! I was proud of my accomplishment--going from 5th place at last summer's outdoor Nationals in Sacramento at 1:01, to Silver this year at 58.93.  Finally, the last vid is of my 800 meter heat (the slow heat). I easily won, but I don't possess the skill or experience yet in the 800 to pace myself--I went out great first 400 meters (like I did the first time I ran it in June at the Eliot Denman race in New Jersey--when I finished at 2:23), but without anyone to push me, I ran too slowly the second lap, and I placed 7th overall--at 2:28 (behind all the winners who ran in the ...

Friday, August 15th, 2025 Track Workouts  from past two weeks:  Wednesday, August 6th at Pequot Lakes HS track--10 x 300 meters with 90 second rests. Goal was do do each at 60 seconds. I ran 8 of these under 60 (58-59 seconds) and 2 at 60.  Drove home from lake that weekend (9th and 10th) . . .  Back to Penn track on Wednesday, August 13th. At mid-day did a tough workout in the heat and humidity. Was happy I made it through, though my second 800 was a flop--way too slow! 2 sets of 400, 800, 300 with 2.5 minutes between (and gave myself 5 min between the sets): 1:25, 2:56, 52.  And then 1:21, 3:10, 56.  Alison suggested that my second 800 (and maybe the first?) should have been closer to 2:50 . . . so, I have a lot of work to do!   Today, Friday the 15th, I plan on doing a tempo run of 1Ks, with 2 min rests between, at a fast pace, of 6:40 or better. It is 90 ish and humid again today, so I think I will wait until late afternoon.  Sunday I go...

Monday, August 4, 2025 A Couple of Recent Track Workouts Last Tuesday (July 29) I completed a track workout (first after Nationals) at the Pequot Lakes High School track. 2 sets of: 300m, 500m, 400m, with negative splits--last 100 meters of each repetition ran at a faster pace. Was supposed to look like this: 300=37+18 to finish at 55 seconds 500=80+18 to finish at 1:38 400=57+18 to finish at 75 seconds 3 minutes between reps, and a 1,200 meter jog between the sets. Here is how I did: First set-- 300 in 58; 500 in 1:41; 400 in 1:17 Second set-- 300 in 52; 500 in 1:41; 400 in 1:17 So both of my 500s were 3 seconds slow. However, I was managing to make the last split a negative in almost all of the reps, which was the point of this workout.   Yesterday, Sunday (August 3) I completed another workout on the track (I had to wait 5 days for the Canadian wildfire smoke to clear out!). This workout went well, especially since I did the same workout in June with Alison and Lorraine o...