Name Dropping with Old Guys

Something from the dog days of summer couple years ago. A note to one of the few Americans to run a sub-four mile and a sub-2:10 marathon, a unicorn who survived cancer. The man chemoed on an Exercycle. – JDW

Name Dropping with Old Guys: Ken Martin, Charlie Spedding, Keith Brantly, Keith Richards and me.

Dear Ken….

Intensities might be an old guy issue, too. I haven’t missed a day since my birthday. But yesterday I cut my workout in half.

Six miles a day seemed to be wearing on me. Four miles much better, almost fun, ’cause I got to stop… so soon, it seemed.

Yeah, I’m bad at math.

Have you read Charlie Spedding’s book? He talks about changing his vocabulary.

If the key to getting better is training “hard”, then it stands to reason, to improve, one would have to train harder and then still harder.
Harder & harder. And where does that lead? Pain and injury and lassitude and missed opportunities.

Charlie decided to change the words he told himself, he wanted to train “optimally” or “perfectly.”

Keith Brantly agrees with me.

Back in the day, he knew to cut back, but he couldn’t. Back in the pack, I knew to cut back, but couldn’t.
We knew better but we were young, we just couldn’t do better.

Finally, I think cutting back is a tactic I shall take at this late stage. Which is about time. Finally.

When you are young, you think ‘I’ll run through it,’ ‘it’ll go away.’ When you are old, you think ‘This might not go away.
‘Oh, no, this could be permanent.’

Seems strange, when I was young, I was in a hurry.
Now I am old and see the wisdom finally of taking my time.

Headed out to do six miles in the Florida August, listening to Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life.

It’s a kick.