Wednesday, September 17, 2014

"Older, Slower, Lower"

Hidekichi "Golden Bolt" Miyazaki, 103
Alternating ice and heat packs twice a day, wearing the knee brace, taking ibuprofen and applying a healing ointment, a few stretches for flexibility, and an easy walk— the past couple of days I’ve been good to my knee, and my knee’s getting better for me. I’ll take it easy today, too, which is not my habit. What I used to do in this situation was as soon as I got to feeling a little bit better I’d push myself too soon. Not good. Learned my lesson. Knock on wood.

During this recovery, I’ve begun researching how to train for sprints, factoring in age. There’s a site called masterstrack.com I’ve begun reading that's subtitled “Older, Slower, Lower: …for adult age-group track and field”. I'm seeing recommendations for, first, strength training to build quads and hamstrings, followed by something called plyometric exercises to build speed and power. 

There also seems to be a seasonal order to train during the winter, adding more fast-twitch running as competition nears in the warmer months. 

It sounds like the challenge is balancing all this work with my body’s capacity so that I don’t overload and get hurt. In the meantime, I’ll try to recover from my knee injury and get back slowly into a good training regime. My aim is to match Golden Bolt's form myself, as a centenarian. 

Onward and Amen!

No comments:

Post a Comment