Done ... for a while

Photo:  injured guy being assisted off the track who fell into my lane on the turn.  

I'm definitely done competing this year on the track.  This last race was a bust, I didn't get a good time mostly because I was interfered with.  At yesterday's all ages meet in ATL, they combined masters and open and I was by far the oldest and slowest in my heat, although I had a good lane (#5) in my 200m race.  The guy in lane 4 took a lead into the turn, easily making up the stagger on me in 50m.  He then pulled a hamstring on the turn, fell into my lane causing me to break stride and go into the outer lane to avoid stepping on him.  I probably cost me at least half a second and I finished in a miserable 27.4.  

I was feeling ok before the race, a normal aches and pains but afterward and by this morning, a definite pain in my left knee.  I had felt that this week after workouts but it went away in 2 days.  Today it was worse, so a definite sign to wrap it up for the year.   This was my 4th of 7 days on track doing high intensity sprints, and it's taken a bit of a toll.  I probably shouldn't have raced Saturday.  It was mid 80's and I had to wait hours before racing.  

It was cool to be in the race though, and was happy to race with fellow masters Sean B., an elite 43 yr old masters sprinter.  He ran great, 22.91, probably about the most I was capable at my peak in college.  All lanes full, I was the only white guy in the race, the rest were 19-22 yr olds, running 21-22.  Sean was right there with them.  I'm really envious of those kids speed and physiques.  So lean, light, and muscular. 

Moving forward, I'm going to stop running altogether for while.  This break is long in coming.  The last bit of training showed me that doing high intensity (98%+) all the time is risky and hard on the body, maybe even more so than doing 85% intensive tempo.  

I'm a decent weight, probably raced about 142.  Was 143.5 this morning after a large meal last night, so my objectives in the near future are to work on strength, maintain flexibility, get back on the bike and rowing machine to maintain some semblance of V02 max, work on core and upper body, and most of all ... heal up.  I also want to remain under 145 lbs.   And, I certainly don't want to make this knee issue worse.  It's recoverable now and I want to be able to hike in the Alps this summer if we can arrange it.  Perhaps in a month or 2, I can start again by running again once a week, low impact, turf or some hills / bleachers.  Not running is going to be quite an adjustment since I've been on the track pretty much 3X a week for the last 7+ months.  I can see why the pros do so few meets.  I did 11 meets this year.  More than most pros.

So, a few weeks away from M64, I'm looking ahead to M65.