Skip to main content

Smelling the Roses

I traveled to North Carolina this week and usually travel via Interstate 40.   Coming back I took a short cut thru the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  It is shorter as the crow flies, but time wise it is a couple hours more.  I decided that sometimes you need to smell the roses or they will die and you will miss them.   The roses up on top of the Smokies smell and look pretty good.  What a view!  Next week I will be out West and may get a chance to visit the Grand Canyon.  Even though it is the prime tourist season, I may try to hike a bit.  The elevation is around 7000 feet, and I will have ,to wait and see how I adjust to the thin air.  If I adjust well, I will do some hiking, otherwise just smell the roses with some site seeing.

I finally got out on the track today and ran some sprints.  I worked on running 400 and 300 meters with the same time for the first section as the last.  I also experimented with a new parachute to get tired for the first section and then drop it off for the section and maintain the speed.  I liked the parachute option and will continue to work with that combination.  My left leg did hurt some, but for whatever reason, my work out was not hampered, it just hurt.

A shout out the local speedsters.  William Yelverton ran a 55.29 second 400 m at the USATF Masters meet in Jacksonville  last week. He was the US champ in the 55 to 59 class and will go to Lyon, France to run the World Championships!   William lives just North of Chattanooga, TN.  Go get'em.
David Schmanski of Nashville won the 800 m at the same meet in the 60 to 64 class. He also was involved with a gold medal  4 x 400 relay and world record 4 x 800 relay!!   Pretty good results for the local talent.

Tennessee is quickly becoming the a real hotbed for seniors running talent.  Hopefully we can continue the exceptional level of excellence.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Setbacks

Setbacks are part of life and we generally have no choice but to accept them in style.  I was in Wisconsin this week presenting some material to a large group of tissue makers.  Normally, you are subjected to hotel food and eating in groups.    I try as much as I can to be strict on my diet due to my garlic allergy and restrictions from gout when traveling.  I must have either goofed up or had something slip by, but I got a major case of food poisoning Monday night.  As I get older, the food poisoning symptoms and reaction becomes more severe and lingers much longer.   I got sick--the messy part- Monday night late and was finished with that deal by Tuesday morning.  But all day Tuesday and into Wednesday my body was trashed.  Tuesday was stay in bed basically all day.  I did leave the hotel twice for visits to the local store for some food and liquids.  Getting out of bed and to the car was a major task and quite le...

District Qualifier

Last Saturday the Greater Nashville Senior Games District Qualifier was ran at Brentwood High School Track.  I ran in the 4 sprints and took three gold and a silver medal.  Overall it was great event for me.  I ran in a new class, the 60 to 64 year old class.  I am actually 58, but in Olympian years I am 59 and next year, when they run the state meet for which we qualified, I will be 60 in Olympian years--confused, that is OK.  Kinda messy to figure your Olympian age.   I wore pinks sleeves the first three races because I was chilly after I got sweaty warming up around 8:30 AM.  I also wore the pink sleeves to celebrate those who have battled breast cancer and won.  Breast cancer has got to be an absolutely horrible way to be tortured by cancer.  I posted the picture of my sleeve and medals on Facebook and one of my high school class mates responded that she had been a 10 year survivor--- I nearly cried.  ...

Race Day Again

Finally, we get to race again! As many of you know, I was injured last April 4, 2024. I had a disk at L4 vertebra collapse and pinch a nerve in my back that caused over half of my lower leg strenth to disappear. I had a lot of atrophy in my right leg quad and I have been recovering ever since. I am close to 100% on strength and the right leg looks like it is very close to normal size again, but it has been a battle. I have been working in the gym, doing pilates again and also running. All of these things must be done in balance so you can get the proper rest and recover. I still do full body massages every two weeks and I also have been working with a Cox Technique Chiro since the injury on a weekly or biweekly basis. The chiro has gotten me stretched back out and the pressure off the nerve, that treatment has been the real source of healing in my opinion. MY normal doctor was not any help, but this is not what normal doctors do--naturally healing. The first meet of 202...