“I’ve got a schoolboy’s heart.”
+70 RUNNER is the name of a blog that I am starting to chronicle my experiences as an old guy training to get into shape, and enter and eventually compete in distance races. Today, March 14, here in Old St. Augustine, Florida, late at night, alone, trying to avoid watching coverage of the primary election races on tv, I have figured out how to create a document on my notebook. And so I begin this long threatened adventure. Don’t know where this will take me, but I do feel that there is a story to tell. My wife, Arlene, my son, Rob, and daughter, Kristen, and good friend, Coach Rich Refi, have urged me to begin such an effort for quite a while. I have never felt worthy of such an enterprise and wondered if I was capable. I guess that I have decided that I am worthy, and I will leave it to others to decide whether I am capable.
Beginning to run again is without a doubt the best decision I have made in the last 15 years!
I have chosen to share my experiences in the hope that readers might enjoy or even take some inspiration from the story. I had been a moderately successful runner in high school and college, but had not run for more than 40 years as I taught and coached high school runners. I weighed 177 pounds when I began. Today I weigh 153 pounds.
It has been a life changing experience for me.
Maybe a sedentary 1960’s high school athlete like I was will decide to take the plunge.
Maybe some current +70RUNNERS will find it helpful to read about the trials and tribulations and triumphs of a fellow road warrior.
Maybe running fans of all ages will get a kick out reading the ramblings of an old coach trying to coach himself.
This is my story and my journal going forward.
March 15, 2016 64* and sunny
Good morning reader,
Just finished probably the most exhilarating run of my +70RUNNER experience! So many things have come together to make that remarkable 7am morning workout on the beach possible. I am a lucky man! I intend to describe in detail the workout and the circumstances that led to it as I sit here with an ice pack on my left Achilles tendon. Achilles has been tender for a while, but not preventing me from training. So it gets iced just to be careful. Since returning from the beach run I have had chocolate milk, a shower, coffee and oat cookies.
So the workout:
Total of 6.96 miles, 90 minutes, both the longest in 4 years of training, with 12 pickups of 50 to 150 strides. Pickup pace drops from 7:50 to 6:30 as run proceeds. Sequence; walk 10 minutes north, jog 10 minutes south, strip off sweats, continue south with 10 pickups of increasing length and speed, turn back for 2 more pickups and long easy jog/walk home.
Only stopped for fear of injury, not fatigued! Great workout!
Now the circumstances:
1- Did not run yesterday because of both legit and weak reasons. Legs always feel better after a day off. Monday was 86* and very windy. I could not face the heat after sleeping till 11:30. Also last few days have been shorter runs because of less bouncy legs after my 5k race PR on March 5th. (Details of that race to follow.)
2- Have been pretty pumped up to try to take my training to a new level since running a 1:20 PR 10 days ago. Waiting for a breakthrough workout to signal that move.
3- Starting my new blog last night lit a bit of a spark. Made a plan to set alarm for 7am.
4- Actually got up motivated at 7am and went to beach to start workout before sunrise.
5- Most wonderful were the environmental conditions on the beach. A perfect runner’s paradise! The pre- sunrise temperature was 64* with a cool southern wind. The beach was as flat as an airport runway and the sand was firm yet forgiving. I watched the sun rise as I walked my warmup and took pictures. After I stripped off my sweats the rising sun warmed my body while the gentle breeze kept me cool. It was pretty extraordinary, and as I have said, it felt like I could have run at a solid pace for a long time. But forced myself to stop to allow myself to run another day without injury. That is something that I had to learn over the past 4 years. Numerous injuries and setbacks over that period (most of which I will no doubt regale the reader with at some point) have made me smarter and, hopefully, wiser.
That is all for now.
March 16, Wednesday – 67* cloudy
100% humidity!
Can’t remember ever doing a workout in 100% humidity. Isn’t that just water?
Icing Achilles tendon again after a 7:30 a.m. long slog on the beach. Two days in a row awake at 7 a.m. is unprecedented. Today’s workout was slow and tedious. I covered 5 miles in about 85 minutes. My legs were quite sore and my achilles tendon was tender and annoying. Began the effort with a 20 minute walk and concluded with 60 Minutes of very slow jogging. This was not surprising after yesterday, which included the longest and most demanding workout and an evening of learning some cool new West Coast Swing moves at the weekly Mardi Gras’s session with Adam and Janine.
Despite all of that I was happy to get 5 miles in today and surprised that my body held up.
My run today was consumed with thoughts about what sort of things to write about on this blog and in what sequence. So many things come to mind about running, training, coaching, fellow coaches and athletes present and past. So much fun and heartache, learning and preparing, friendships, triumphs (really big wins!) and disappointment, remarkably diverse experiences and mostly more fun with a gallery of amazing and unforgetable coaches and athletes. Plus I had the joy along the way of coaching both my son and daughter. I
