Senior Olympian Sprinter

A couple weeks ago I scheduled a little racing in Racine, Wisconsin at Carthage University field house.  Wisconsin USATF was having an all comers meet and I wanted a final tune up before the USATF Nationals in early March to test my training and get in some live racing.  Linda and I were originally going to fly into Milwaukee on Friday and race on Sunday and fly home on the Monday morning direct flight.   On Saturday we would visit our grand daughter  and on Sunday watch the Super Bowl with the newlyweds in Milwaukee.   A few days before we were going to leave, Linda had an opportunity to baby sit our grand daughter for the following  week and she decided to take Betty and Linsi up on that offer to watch June all week.    We changed our plans around and drove to Milwaukee instead and Linda would have a vehicle all week to get around.  When we left Nashville it was a nice winter day of 50 degrees and pleasant and just a few hours N...

A couple of weeks ago I had a 3 day business meeting in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. The area is on the Atlantic side about half way between Daytona and Fort Lauderdale and we had access to Jenson Beach with a 15 minute drive!   I love running on the beach.  I get to look at the stride length and see how well my stride is doing and check  evenness  from side to side.  Some may think this is anal retentive--it is-but it is helpful to gain some knowledge on your body reacts to the running motion and uneven surfaces...sand.    I worked on some starts to see how my step length was changing and it does take about 15 meters to get completely stretched out and full stride.   I did four starts in a 50 meters stretch of hard sand and in each attempt the steps were identical.   The last one was a little different, but I was getting tired and it showed with a half step shorter at the end.  The body lets you know how much...

Linda and I traveled to Chicago for Christmas and visited our oldest and his girlfriend and after two nights in the windy City we got to visit our wonderful grand daughter --June. We dined on Beef Wellington on Christmas- a first for me and enjoyed it thoroughly.   The highlight of the trip was visiting June at her house.   She had been at Grandma's for a couple of days and had been through  a lot of Christmas already.   But, she rose the occasion and helped us celebrate it one more time.    Linda and I gave the family a karaoke machine for a present and that was a cool gift.  After loading several Disney songs and some of Betty and Linda's favorites on the machine, off they went.   June was just mesmerized by the entire scene and was right up front watching the show.    She loves music and eventually will be putting on her own show in a year or two.   I have a picture on my phone of Ju...

It is time to mark dates on the calendar for next season.  The next race on the calendar is an indoor meet in Winston-Salem on January 20. I have started my prep work with weights and some indoor running.  My soreness level has definitely increased after taking off several months from  racing and running.  I have been doing pilates to stay flexible, running about on a week or two on a tread mill, but little else.  I did in the meantime finish the bathroom redo and it looks marvelous.  That is part of our attempt to start running a bed n breakfast here in Brentwood, TN.  We are going to connect this bathroom with a bedroom for a nice little suite. Linda does the cooking and feeds them and we hope it can work out.   With the hard work done and living in transition and dust, we will move into the government phase of the project where we get the permits and other paperwork squared away.  Even if we cannot get ...

I ran in my annual--you are a sprinter stupid- reminder race on Thanksgiving morning at the Cool Springs mall area.   My gym--Prairie Life Fitness was one of the sponsors this year and it started from their facility.  This change was a huge improvement. I could warm up inside on their track and leave my stuff in a locker and not have to worry.  I travel heavy and with the parking situation--I parked three blocks away--a locker made life much simpler.   Race morning was clear and frosty and about 3000 runners showed up for the annual fundraiser put on by Grace Works Ministries.  They make a lot on money on this event and they are glad to see you.  The Grace Works staff is very gracious and do say thanks many times during the event.  I am actually glad to help them out.   Organization was very good and this year they added a 10 K event, so a 5K and 10 K were ongoing on slightly different trails at the same time.  The finish lin...

I had a chance to give a 30 minute presentation to the residents of a local senior center today and to talk about my travels in the USATF Masters and Senior Games.  That was an interesting experience and like any other presentation that I have given to a larger group.  You had some dialed in to you and others that feel asleep--   I had some PowerPoint slides and a couple of videos of my experiences the last 9 years of competition.   The prep was interesting, as I assembled pictures and researched the names and ages of the runners, I would remember other people to include and it was an eclectic mix of people that had come through chemo, stroke, heart attacks, knee operations, major surgeries, obesity....  I also included Orville Rogers as the shining example of a late bloomer.  He is 100 now and still competes in USATF meets and started when he was 80 years old.  At 95 and 100 he has broken a lot of world records for his track accomplishm...

I am still kicking, just way busy on non racing stuff to keep everyone up on the latest.  I started remodeling a bathroom that we will eventually use as part of a bed n breakfast we are working on.  Remodeling is basically keeping the toilet, but in a new location, and replacing an old stone floor with tile, updating the lighting and ventilation and a new shower and sink.  Sounds simple, but nothing in this house is square or level and every thing has to be custom fitted and attached.  It is time hog and it would be incredibly expensive to hire done due the time required.  It will get done. I am about half way and if we are finished by Thanksgiving that will be cool.  This weekend,  I am racing in Fort Collins ,CO in USATF regional meet.  I wanted to get another meet in this season and this one is altitude.  If I struggle with 5000 foot elevation, then Albuquerque is off the table next summer.  THE senior Games will do their out...