Monday, April 1, 2019

Time to get to work / WR erased

Just 'normal' exercise isn't going to be enough to get back into shape.  Even after riding my bike 20+ miles this weekend and doing some hiking, my weight is a problem, still at 154 lbs  ... after some late night practicing (music) and snacking.   By 'normal' standards, I exercise and eat healthy, but 'normal' isn't going to cut it.

Yes, time to get to work. Tired of being fat. I snacked on bananas and nuts last night.   I have to exercise 2x a day and eat less than 1000 calories. No more late night snacking.   No more cafeteria.   Going to bike today and gym tonight.   It starts now.   I pledge to lose 6+ lbs by the end of the month.   When I put my tights on to run in June, I want to be back to 145.    Maybe this will help the nearly debilitating swelling and numbness that has gotten worse with my left hand.

No longer a WR holder - France sets M55 4x200m WR

As I expected might happen, our 'official' 4x200m world record by the '16 Team USA was broken by France, their 1:39.40 bested our 1:40.22.   However, our 1:37.88 that was nullified due to an officials mistake is still far ahead of the 'official' WR.

That 2016 season's Indoor Nationals in Albuquerque - where that relay debacle occurred - was an awesome meet for me with some fast times.  I won the 400m in 55.22 and Bronze in the 200m in 24.65, just 0.01 behind Don and 0.21 behind Alan, both World Champions.  That 24.65 was my fastest indoor and 4th fastest as a masters.   If we had Alan on that relay team (who ran 24.44), our WR time would have been even faster, but we got Ben from the M60 age group to come down.  To revisit that relay debacle and why that record was legit, read the blog post for the full story.  In a nutshell, our record was nullified because the officials failed to mark the stagger for the first handoff zone, but that didn't affect us because we were in lane 2 and our hand off occurred exactly where it should have, there is video to prove it.   The 2nd leg break was correctly marked.  Quoting from the blog post which I showed with diagrams and photos why the first hand off was legal:

...The track wasn't marked properly for a 3 turn stagger and all the leadoff runners handed the first handoff at the same line - which was wrong.  BUT... since we were in lane two, the stagger in our lane was only a few meters and the video PROVES that the handoff from Don to Jim occurred exactly in the center of the zone, even though it wasn't marked (until the next day).  Here is the leadoff handoff from Don to Jim.  It occurred in lane 2 about 2 meters at most beyond the finish line.  As the diagram below shows, they nailed it ... the handoff was legal. 

They should have shut the meet down for 45 min and just marked the track, but no!   Our second attempt at the relay record, even though we got it by .22,  wasn't nearly as good.  We were tired, handoffs were lame, and we just didn't have the edge we had on day 2.   We averaged 25.05 a leg compared with 24.47 the day before.  Too bad, the first record might have stood for decades.

2 comments:

  1. Hi William:
    I hope your recovery turns out to be 100%. I'm M58 and am a 400/800 guy. I'm about 12 pounds heavier than I was for 2016 Masters Nationals in Grand Rapids. In my Master's rebirth since 2016 I've worked from a long to short approach. In 2019 I will try short to long and see if that makes a difference. The last 4 months I have done dead lifts, hip thrusts and tempo work on the treadmill. Today I got outside for the first time in 2019 and just did some 100 meter strides in the 45 degree weather. I'll hope to get to some 40 meter fly's soon. I go over your workouts from the past years all of the time and am struck by the low volume but extremely high intensity. I ran a 2:25 800M in 2016. A 65.0 indoor 400M in 2018. 51.0 400M back in 1979. In high School my training was short to long. I hope to run my age in the 400M when I'm 60. Would be thrilled to go sub 60. I'll try some 100M at local meets and see what I can clock. Be Well and be patient with your knee! Those 70 and 80 year-olds looked might studly in Poland! Theron Gjersvik

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  2. Hey man, good to hear from you. I'm on the long track to Nationals in '20 wher I move up to M60. I have plenty of time and hope to return to shape by then. 15 months seems like a long time but it's really not. I don't have to be doing anything fast until the end of the year. I do believe in the long to short for a sprinter, that is the approach world class masters I know generally take. World record holders like Bill Collins, Roland Groger take that approach. I'd like to do more volume but my feet won't allow it. I haven't run a mile in one interval in a long long time. 800s I'll do. Foundation stuff like 800 repeats are always hard for me. Of course the most brutal are the limited rest 400s,300s, 200s. 4x300 w/ 2 min rest is my most common workout. Wont be doing that anytime soon. Maybe this fall.

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