Reflections on Nationals, what's next

Enjoying some really nice weather right now while I do some major home projects.   

What's next...

Someone asked me if I was going to take a break from training and shut it down for the season.  Yesterday, my answer would have been yes, since my body felt pretty beat up from 6 races.  But... after one day of recovery, I feel much better.   Also, a couple of motivators.  Roya said the UPS strike may have been averted so she may be free to vacation.  Second, want to try and chalk up a better 200m before season's end.  Still stinging from that 200m final where I won a National title with a very sub par time, embarrassing.  My goal for the season was to run 25.  I did finally achieve my goal for the 400m with a solid mid 57, but I'm left feeling unfulfilled regarding the 200m.  I just haven't run as many 200s this year.  Only one outdoor before Nationals.  Weird that we had the most competitive 400m final in M60 in 11+ yrs and the least competitive M60 200m final in years.  I ran more than a second faster in the '21 M60 final.   

SO....  depending on how my body feels after one more rest day, I'm going to resume training and see how it feels this week.  If we can plan a vacation to Vancouver/Whistler, I may race the Canadian Nationals on Aug 12-13.   

Nationals

Owen and I made the USATF page in this photo from our 200m final.

The conditions at Nationals were really pretty tolerable for a mid summer in the south.  Heat index around 90º isn't too bad, and the only other complaint was the headwind for the 200m final.  

I have a process I go through at every track meet.  It starts with a search for a relatively cool and shady spot not too far from check in, bathroom, and running space.   Often I retreat under the bleachers / stands.  At Nationals I found 2 perfect spots.  The first was at the neighboring softball field dugout, and the second under some trees at the edge of an open field:

I couldn't use the softball field some days because they were using it for the throwing events.  

I like finding spots alone and away from other athletes when possible.  These were perfect.  By the time of the 200m final, I was already feeling a tad sore, especially my foot.  I had a lot of anxiety about the race and worried about failure.  Not good.  I do better if I take an easier more casual approach, (like I did in the 400m).  I was looking at the time every few minutes, wanting to be at check in on time.  

What I learned about myself this meet, the mental thing is huge.  It's not as natural to me as music where I forget about the physical part and just emote and express.  In track, I constantly have to coach and remind myself to run each part of the race properly.  If not, I just go out and 'sprint'.   In order for me to be physically relaxed and efficient, I need to be mentally relaxed and thinking.  Can't just 'run on instinct.'  Every specific race distance needs a plan for each phase, and if I don't think about it, I won't execute.  

Anyway, I had some really good times with my colleagues.  I ran 2 really good gold medal relays.  Getting the baton in the 4x100m almost even up with Val on anchor was epic.  These relays are seldom that close.  It made for an extremely exciting and fun race.  I think Val and I both split somewhere at least 12 flat on our anchors, maybe faster.  It was a very fast track.   I knew it would be a good race with Val if it were close.  My teammates gave me a step, and I held it the whole way.   Val is a many time World Champion 100m sprinter and is a few yrs older (M65), and a former elite back in the day.  (He also served a 2 yr doping suspension about 11 yrs ago).  You can how great his running technique is compared with mine. 
 

Check out the video:

https://youtu.be/En4HnBkfjh0

In the 4x400m relay, I led off and our only competition, SoCal, put their fastest guy against me.   He stayed with me almost 200m but I put 20m+ on him down the stretch and our team remained ahead by 50m+ the rest of the way.  I ran about a 60 split, not bad for the last race of the meet.  

This was the largest USATF National Masters meet in total participants in history.  Over 1500 competitors.  There were so many records and incredible performances.   Allan, fastest man in the world over 60 - even at age 63, said it would be his last meet.  He ran 11.81 which would have broke the American record but the wind was just barely over the limit.  So, he joined Derrick, David, and Kahlid to set the M55 world record in the 4x100m relay.  They ran 45.60, smashed it.  

One of the most amazing performances came from Jeannie R., age 75.   She set world records in the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m.  She obliterated the previous records by huge margins.   For example, her 6:14 1500m shaved 6 seconds off the WR.  If that wasn't enough, she also won the 400m and the 800m in her age group.  Can you imagine?  Racing the 400, 800, 1500, 5k, and 10k ... in the same meet, winning Gold in all and setting 3 WRs?  Incredible. 

W75 Jeannie R.

 

Sue broke her own WR in the W60 400m with a 62.34, along with a slew of WRs she's already set this yr including the 300m hurdles, 800m and 1500m.  At age 60, she would not be out of place in a National Men's final in her age group.  She's run 2:22 in the 800m.   

I bumped into Kay G.   She is an amazing W70 athlete who won 6 Golds and set numerous records in the LG, HJ, TJ, PV, 80mH, and Pentathlon.  She has both hips resurfaced several years ago.  She polevaults over 9', which would have medaled in the men's M70 competition.  

Last photo is our GPTC M60 relay that won 2 Gold in the 4x1 and 4x4 relays, on the way to our first USATF Men's Club Title.  Nice racing with you!   

with W70 Kay

As for the future, I do need track in my life even if I'm not at optimum competitiveness.  I thought I may hang on and do indoor next season, skip outdoor M64, and start again with indoor 2025, getting ready for outdoor M65.  We'll see how it goes.  

Some say if you take too long a break, you may never get it back.  Some say that's completely untrue.  Either way, I don't want to risk it.   I'll keep training, even if it means less running.