Off Season - what next

The Masters National Championship meet has made me start thinking about the future.

(photo: 400m Semifinals - double Gold Medalist Ben James in lane 6 and me in lane 3 - coming down the home stretch well ahead of the field)

Well, I've had my pancakes, peach crisp, potato chips and all the other things I avoided while training. Still doesn't take the sting away from losing that medal. Amazing how empty, unsatisfied and downright depressed I feel about it sometimes. Amazingly, I still weigh less than 143 lbs. I'm seeing a physician about my abdominal injury on Mon. I expect the prescription will simply be rest. I will also be submitting to my first colonoscopy later this month - an 'over 50' routine.

I got a firm invitation to join the Philly Track Club's 4x400 relay team for the Penn Relays next April, and the Milrose Games in January - two of the most historic and well known track meets in the US. It makes me feel as if I've established myself a bit in the Masters track community.

Training Plan

During this month or so off from running, I am still doing upper body stuff, without engaging the sore abs.

The first thing I want to be doing are the dynamic stretches and warmup, along with the high rep resistance work.

Beginning in Sept., I have 2 objectives:

1) Increase strength. Put on muscle. Lift weights.

2) Develop the aerobic system. Gain an aerobic foundation. Train like a 1500m runner. Do distance speed workouts like fast 2 mile repeats, mile and half mile repeats. Maybe even race a 5k or 2. This should keep my weight down and fitness level up.

I think that these 2 goals will help me in both the short and long sprints. As one person said to me, "The older you get, the more aerobic the 400m becomes."

Paramount is staying injury free. One pulled muscle at the wrong time of the season, and it's all over. I should feel lucky I ran 28 races this year without a devastating injury. I do have hip/groin joint soreness, and abs issues, but nothing serious.

I have every facility need that a track athlete could dream of. Less than 2 miles from my house, I have a huge Rec Center with incredible weight room, pool, etc.. And, an indoor 300m track - something that my colleagues in the snowy north would love to have.

Track Meets

I am really hoping that Dean Hayes will continue to cooperate and let me run in MTSU meets, although I have yet to do so, he has scheduled me 3 times. Twice, I withdrew because of injury, once showed up late because of schedule change.

The first meet is usually the MTSU Christmas Invite, around Dec. 10. TSU has 2 meets in Jan. and Sewanee has 2 in Feb. MTSU has 2 more. The USATF Masters Indoor is March 16-18 in Bloomington. That's 8 meets. Well... the World Indoor Championships are in Finland, April 3-8. Flights to Helsinki start at $510... ( I actually looked).