This is the AGE!

"You've reached the age in which you don't back down from a challenge. This is the age of knowing how to make things happen. So why would you let something like...This is the age of taking action." Ah man, I love Viagra commercials! Seriously, a cowboy gets his truck stuck in the mud and spinning his tires, he pulls out the horses, and gets the job done. Yeah, nothing suggestive about pulling out the horses! As an aging runner, I can't help but feel like that cowboy stuck in the mud. Every time I go to a race, especially local ones, and I watch from behind some guy 20 years younger than me win at a time much slower than I used to run at his age, I feel stuck in mud. What happened to me? Why can't I rise to the challenge? I should have whipped that young whipper-snapper's tail and let my horses run wild on him. Instead they are trapped in the trailer. Unfortunately, there is no little blue pill that can solve this problem. Besides, I really don't want a run to last more than 4 hours. So how do I rise and not back down from the challenge of slowing down?

As I begin my quest of a sub 36:00 10,000 meter on the track this summer, the first step is simply being realistic about my limitations. One thing that I have learned over the past couple of years is that my body just cannot handle the volume of miles I used to be able to run. The days of hitting 90-100 miles per week are gone. They were fun while they lasted, but, this old body just can't handle that much of a beating. Rest days are no longer just an easy 7-10 miles. A rest day means that I do not lace up and head out the door. And, some days, without warning, like yesterday when my right knee ballooned up and ached all day, parts of my body will revolt and hurt for no apparent reason. Then 24 hours later, like today, everything is fine. But as the commercial states, this is the age of knowing how to make things happen.

Fortunately, at least I hope, with age has come wisdom and knowledge about the sport. My training has become more about quality over quantity, even though I still run between 65-70 miles per week, the focus is on the quality of those miles. Am I practicing good form? Am I stretching and doing drills? Am I working on my core? Are my work-outs geared towards steady improvement based on effort and duration? These questions guide my steps as I carefully plot out my races to help me reach my goal. Performance-wise, I can no longer race every weekend. Family, career, and other responsibilities come before racing, and besides, again, the old body just can't race at a high level as often as it used to. Quality over quantity. I know I only have so many good races in the tank, so I carefully pick high quality events in which I know I have better odds of performing well.

And of course, one must have understanding partners of your plight. One of the things that really helps me cope with this dilemma knowing that I am not alone. Playing with friends your own age with the same, yet varying degrees of symptoms, helps ease the pain and helps us rise to the challenge and take action. Running, like sex, is best done with partners. Even though we can go at it alone, to have others to joke around with, talk about life, and just share in the experience makes it that much more satisfying. Here is the one area that is so much better than when I was younger, the conversations and sharing of the experience is much deeper and richer than before. So maybe the challenge is not how do I keep from slowing down, but how do I keep the passion alive for my first true love? I think the answer is simply sharing it with others. I have been blessed with a great group of running buddies throughout my 30 plus years of putting one Nike in front of the other and it is without a doubt, the number one factor in helping me rise to the challenges I set for myself as an athlete and that is much better than having to take a little blue pill!

So, it is that time once again, to lace up, head out the door, and put some miles in for the day. As always, stay healthy, keep running, and let your horses out of the trailer!

Quest 2013

Most of 2012 I spent learning how to be a runner again after my heart attack. With all the physical and emotional ups and downs, adjusting to meds, paranoia of whether or not I was going to drop dead on a training run, having to carry a phone like a JOGGER, I was just happy with the fact that I was out in the great wide open putting one foot in front of the other and really did not have any grand goals for the year. But...now that is over. It is 2013 and I am starting on my first quest of the year; a sub 36 10,000 meters on the track. Most of my running buddies started their training for the Boston Marathon today. Over the course of the next four months they have carefully laid out a plan in which they hope will carry them to a successful Boston Marathon experience. There are fartleks, track work outs, and long runs inked on paper to guide their steps. They will carefully plot out each build up race and mark milestones along their journey. Each morning run will bring them one step closer to achieving their goal. Myself on the other hand, really do not have any plans on running a marathon again until I am 50. Instead, I want to focus my energy on becoming the best masters track runner that I can be. After stepping onto the track at Hayward Field this past June and running those four beautiful, symmetrical ovals, I have been aching with a desire to return to my first true love...the track. Some may ask, why not just run some road 10ks? Simply put, it is not the same. The track is brutal. There is no hiding in the mid pack, there is no guess work if the course was short or long, it is raw, pure, and simple racing. The track requires of you to show up having done your homework and ready to be tested. There is a reason why many runners are intimidated by the track, she is completely honest with you and you cannot give her excuses, she does not lie to you. If I run 36:01 and miss the All American standard for my age group, then I missed the time and cannot cry that the course was a few seconds off. I like that in a woman, brutal honesty. (Ummm, just don't tell my wife!) So here we go 2013, today is the first day of my quest to once again be an All American athlete. Even though I am much older, hopefully a little wiser than when I first accomplished this goal my senior year in college, with a well planned training schedule, the help of my running buddies, the Visalia Runners, and a little luck, come June 19 in San Diego, I will circle the Mesa College track 25 times in under 36:00 and once again earn the title of All American. Starting today, my focus for the next six weeks is simply building up my mileage. My goal over this period is build up to 70 miles per week. No hard track sessions. No killer fartleks. No brutal 2 hour runs. Just easy miles with a couple of tempo runs and a 12 mile long run. Let the quest begin! Time to lace up the Nikes, head out the door and begin the first week of phase one of my training, a six week base mileage build up. As always, stay healthy, keep running and set yourself some running goals for 2013.

What a Year: Drum roll please...

I have been blessed and honored to have ran countless miles with so many extraordinary people over the past 31, soon to be 32 years, since taking up this sport. I have meet almost everyone that I admire and look up to as running heroes. I have ran with Olympians, World Team members, record holders, fast, slow, mid-pack, young, old and graying runners from across the United States. Each new run typically brings another day that I get to share the journey with someone else you loves to lace up their Nikes and see how fast and far they can make those little rubber soles fly. However, there is one group of guys who stand out above all others, my Sonoma State University Teammates, or as we are known at the Valley Ford Relays, The Last of the Cossacks. It is rather surreal that it was over 24 years ago that I met those guys in the picture for the first time. We, even our coach, Danny Aldridge, or Aldge as we like to call him, were young, scrawny, dreamy eyed boys looking to cover ground like hungry wolves stalking prey. Before us lay only the possibility of greatness and nothing else mattered. We were out to conquer the world, or at least Annadel State Park! To misquote Dickens, "it was the best of times and it was the best of times!" Every run, work-out, and race was an adventure, mainly due to these four guys. Back in February when we got together to run the Valley Ford Relays in God's Country, Sonoma County, it was amazing how even with all the gray hair, loss of hair, and six pack abs rounded into soft rounds of love, we could pick up where we had last left off and keep each other in stitches the whole night through. Beer, pizza, coffee, pancakes, cheap burritos, more beer, oh yeah, and plenty of running with these guys was just what the doctor ordered and it reminded me just how lucky and blessed I am to still be here above dirt. Running can be a demanding sport on those of us who dream of running fast, even in our advancing years, but when you get to share in the struggle with these guys, it makes it all worthwhile. I could go on and on, but without a doubt, the best running moment of 2012 was my weekend with The Last of the Cossacks tearing up a long run in Annadel State Park and then claiming the Master's victory at the Valley Ford Relays. Yup, I can't wait until the weekend of February 18, 2013 when we saddle up again and let the Cossacks run wild. As always, stay healthy, keep running, and Aldge, I still have your gloves! I wear them almost every morning, so you are not getting them back...sorry.