Mid Life Celebration 2009, Finland

Do you celebrate milestones from your life, other than the traditional ones?

There’s something about milestones that help us to keep moving forward, to become the type of person we dream of becoming.

What’s a personal, nontraditional milestone that you celebrate, that you’d like to share?

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Is That An Eight (8)?

Why do I feel like most people look at regular exercise and reasonably healthy eating habits as a chore?

Or worse yet, people look at this common sense approach as an impossibility.

Can someone please explain this to me, or am I wasting my time?

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Hotel Sokos in Lahti, Finland 2009

Are you  ready and willing to compromise? I mean, literally, every single day?

And if you are ready, what allows you to be ready? Have you always been like this?

Or have years of practice led you to the place where you are today?

Yesterday, it was pick one:

• Workout after teaching all day
• Go home and get to bed early, to get 8 hours sleep

Rest is a critical part of our overall health, and sometimes doing nothing (sleeping) is more important than exercise.

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No Predicting What Lies Ahead

Do you have a big goal you want to accomplish by this time next year?

What’s it going to take?

We contemplate what we believe we can do. You know, we take what we’ve done and think about what we’ll be able to do when we get the next chance to try again.

It’s kind of like being an armchair quarterback.

Sitting in the comfort of our living room, watching the game, or World Cup, we comment like we know what we’re talking about.

Nothing will ever replace the preparation, wisdom, courage and guts of “game day”.

There is one prediction. July 2011. Masters Track & Field World Championships in Sacramento.

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Slowest Runner Gets Lane 8

The 2010 US Master’s Track & Field National Championships concluded yesterday. Wish I could have been healthy enough to compete.

During the Championships, many of the world’s best athletes ages 30-96 demonstrated speed, power, skill and endurance, showing that age is no barrier to lifetime fitness and competition. The Spanos Sports Complex was the site of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials – Track & Field, and will play host to the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships, July 6-17.

World Championships in 2011?  Are you kidding me?

No.

At 51, it’s still my vision to make it to Lane 8, the worst lane in track & field.

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2009 World Championships In Finland

Yesterday at the United States of America Track & Field Master’s National Championships, a world age-group record was set in the women’s hammer throw.

If I had been there like planned, you know I would have found her, and with pocket camera rolling, asked, “What motivates you? And, What does it feel like to be a world-record holder? And finally, Any advice to the viewers out there?“

Will you be exercising today?

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Night Resting Foot Splints (every night)

Today, the USA Masters Track and Field Championships begin in Sacramento, California with one of the biggest fields ever. Over 1400 athletes have signed up to compete in the four day competition. As reported on the USATF website twelve Olympians and 113 reigning world champions are in the field. The athletes range from 30 to 96 years in age. There is both individual and team competition as well individual and relay events.

Unfortunately, while I scheduled vacation time back in January, to compete this week, it’s not in the cards this year.

Patience is a virtue.

And so is staying motivated.

National & World Championships are just one way.

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Lane 8 & Jack Will Miss This Year's Nationals

Do you ever think back to the times, as an innocent child, when you dreamt impossible dreams. Oh, they didn’t seem impossible then. That only happened as you got older.

Like many children, I  wanted to be a famous athlete. Maybe the next Jim Brown of the Chicago Bears. Or become the world’s fastest human. I was, after all, the fastest ten year old on my street.

Next Thursday through Sunday will be the 2010 USA Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California. If you are at the meet, make sure you stop by the National Masters News booth and say hello to Randy Sturgeon, publisher of National Master News. He’ll be competing in the Pentathlon on Thursday, hopefully. He’s been nursing an injury, but will be there all the rest of the time. He hopes to see you there.

For good measure, and in the spirit of wishing to be there, I ran a 2:32 800 meters this morning.

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But they do it so slowly.

Deceptively slowly.

Painfully slowly.

In either case.

This is why lifelong success is so elusive. We don’t see results fast enough.

And why health wake-up calls are so painful. We never see it coming.

Ultimately, our choices make us.

Which Would You Pick?

Health Blog

Ok, so Lane 8 is a health blog that just so happens to also be a running blog – that’s what works for me. You’ve got your own thing.

Motivation. How many times does that show up?

Passion. Fire. Burning desire. Steve Prefontaine.

He said, “There may be someone who can beat me, but they’ll have to bleed to do it.”

I’d classify myself as a sprinter, not a distance runner. I (hate) prefer not to run 5k’s, and 10k’s. They make my heart and lungs want to explode.

But I do them anyway, to burn, to bleed, to push the limits of the human heart and to have fun.

Sunday’s goal was to run 20:30. Mile splits of 6:40 + 6:40 + 6:35 + :35 landed this:

Does This Make Me An Expert?