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USATF website

USATF = United States Track & Field.  Everything from our US Olympic Team, US World Team, plus Collegiate, Masters and High School meets, athletes, training, etc., are found here.

Here’s the Home page for the 2009 World Championships – USA Master’s World Team

I’m making final logistical preparations to attend.

My training is slowly getting faster and more intense.  That part really is exciting. 

However, I still can’t shake the left heel pain.   That part isn’t really exciting.

Now, when it’s really difficult, is the time I get the most pressure to find an excuse to give up.

But I can’t give up.  Instead, I rested today.   And spent the work day in Jury Duty.

Keep your head up, as difficult as it may be.   Your health is too important to quit.  Do something healthy and carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

Ever get a perfect health score?

Ever get a perfect health score?

Friday’s strength test and core test proved one thing in particular.

A decade worth of hard work, persistence, determination, goal setting, set backs, failures, successes, sweat, pain, motivation,  lack of confidence, confusion, stress, progress, injuries, rehab, physical therapy, core workouts, speed work, and endurance work.

Plus, stretching, flexibility training, 5k’s, 10k’s, 400 meters, 800 meters, 1,500 meters, obsession, surrender, thinking, smiling, hoping, visioning, praying, playing, involving family, sacrificing family, nutrition, reading, studying, working full time, volunteering, dreaming, sleeping, lying awake, and probably many more – but I better stop now.

The result?

A perfect score!  My physical therapist determined my core was a perfect score of 21 out of 21.  She used a test used on professional athletes to look for imbalances and weaknesses.

The leg strength test showed my right versus left leg was only 2/10ths of a percent apart.

The staff at Florida Hospital Rehab awarded me the “Most Symmetrical Person” they have ever seen there.

What all of this means is that the efforts have yielded extra-ordinary results.

Life is like that.  You reap what you sow.

I’ll try to not forget that simple truth.  Even though I’m easily distracted.  “Oh look, a bird”!

Make today a day to at least consider your physical health and ask yourself, “Am I investing in my health”?   Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

Good new, bad news?

Good news, bad news?

Bad news is I still have left heel pain, intermittently.

Good news is the staff at Florida Hospital rehab center said I’m the most symmetrical person they’ve ever seen.  🙂

What else would they say?  It’s their job to make people feel good about themselves.   Let me tell you, it sure worked yesterday.  🙂

The goal was to test my core.   Why?

After three consecutive years of season-ending injuries, it’s time to start a season with a good, honest look at weak spots and opportunities.

While I still have work to do, overall, my core and symmetry is excellent.

Gotta go run five miles.  I’m praying for a pain-free run, plus world peace, an end to hunger and poverty, and a wish that everyone will be blessed beyond measure today.  Carpe diem, jeff  🙂

Couple quick updates

Received an email confirmation yesterday that my hotel request has been accepted.  Due to the volume of requests, it took the Lahti Travel agency a few weeks to sort it all out, on a first-come, first served basis.

The dream is alive.  It almost doesn’t feel real.   This is ten years in the making.   You might even say it’s been 50 years in the making.

The thing that brings me back to reality is the other update.

In a few minutes, I’ll be heading to the hospital, to the physical therapy/rehab center, getting a strength test to see how well balanced my body is.  

Are the quads and hamstrings proportional?    Lower legs and upper legs proportional?   Is my core strong enough?

All this to determine the chance of injury.

As a Master athlete, competing on a National and World level, a 50-year old man can very easily be tempted to exercise like they are still 18.   Let me tell you first hand, it doesn’t work that way.

Whatever you’ve been working on, whether it’s been 50 years or ten, make it a great day, and find all the reasons you need, to not give up.  Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

Five Dollar Footlong?

Have you seen the Subway commercial and heard their catchy song, “Five Dollar Foot-long”?

No worries if you didn’t.  And if you did, the reason I mention it is because five is a catchy number.

Do you know your big five health numbers?

Cholesterol?   Blood pressure?   Body Mass Index?   Resting heart rate?   Triglycerides?

I never paid much attention to these because either I didn’t want to know, or, I didn’t know how to know.

Now I know both.

Certainly, I’m not in a place to tell you what to do, however, I do strive to Gandhi’s ideal – “You must become the change you wish to see in the world“.

If all I can do is lead by example, then that’s what I’ll accept.   What do you feel comfortable accepting?

Carpe diem and “high five”, jeff noel  🙂