Run-Down Forums

[Micah Ward]

Hey Guys, It seems like we talk about most things under the sun except for our own racing. I'm rehabbing from a stress fracture that has kept me off the starting line this year but I've been averaging 5-6 races a year for the last 24 years. Dan, Leechboy, Graeme, Shaun and all you other regulars and irregulars...anybody raced lately? How did you do? What is on your schedule and how are you training for it? Brag a little.
Micah

[Dan]

My last race was an all-comer's meet in Eugene, July '97... I had high hopes for that next year, but a string of injuries had other ideas for me.

Dan

[graeme]

I'm 14 and I have been doing school tracjk for about 5 years but I havn't actually joined a club until this year. But since the season just ended I won't be doing much racing at the moment.

My last race was in May, I placed 1st in the 1500m at the North Vancouver Island Championships (in BC) but for some reason my time was never recorded. That was a pretty big boost for me and is the main reason I started training.

[Dan]

Hey Graeme,

I didn't know you're from Nanaimo, cool. I've got relatives there, although I believe the only one living there at the moment is my uncle.

Considering you just finished the track season, and if you will be racing cross country in the fall, it's probably a good thing to not be racing over the summer. The body needs an extended period after racing to fully recover.

Dan

[graeme]

Cool, I've only been here for about 3 weeks.

I'm not going to be racing this summer, just training every second day. I don't do cross country though, so I don't have to worry about that.

[ This Message was edited by: graeme on 2001-08-12 14:02 ]

[Dan]

Sounds like you have a relaxed schedule ahead of you. Are you going into your second year of high school?

Micah, to more specifically answer your question, my last meet I ran the 100, the first lap of an 800, and the 4x400. I was burnt out from a long season that had started with a couple 1500m pr's in February, brought the obligatory assortment of injuries, followed by my two best 800's in late spring, then a few summer meets. I think it had been 2 or 3 weeks since I had done anything resembling a workout, and my friend (a certain "argaines") talked me into going down to Eugene to rabbit him for an attempt at a sub-2, a tall order consider to do so I had to run the first half faster than I had for a 400 that year... The 100 was first, so we ran that sort of as a joke. I was actually winded warming up, not a good sign. We finished in a dead heat in 12.4, both from a standing start. I split 58 on the half, and he finished in a pr of 1:59.33, as I recall. Finally, the two of us and two other Beav's ("cdmclean" and Ryan P.) that were there with us ran the 4x400. I ran first leg in lane 2, with all 8 lanes full and running a 3-turn stagger. At 200m, I was out in front with no one in sight, which was disturbing enough to make me wonder if the race had been called back and everyone heard it but me... Adam had the honor of lapping two teams on the anchor leg, quite a rare feat!

That day was largely what made me realize my sprint potential was much more untapped than I had previously thought. I was always sort of a 'tweener between the long sprints and short mid-distances, and it wasn't until then that I realized I had never truly trained for sprinting, which was why it seemed like I had maxed out my speed. As I look back, it was really quite a profound day -- it shaped much of what I have done in the 4 years since then. After about a month of getting some life back into my body and researching things, I launched my short-lived speed experiment, and the rest is history.

Dan

[Micah Ward]

Dan, I have tried two different posts since you changed the format and they did not go through. Do I have to have a password and if so how do I get it?
Micah Ward

[Dan]

Hi Micah,

Yeah, if you didn't see the post in the announcements forum, you'll need to request a new password be sent to you before logging in. You can do that from the link on the login form.

I had hoped to use the old passwords, but they are in a supposedly un-decryptable format which differs from the format this forum uses. So, I opted to set new passwords randomly for existing users, which means no one knows them, including myself, and another knew one is created when you request it be emailed to your address on record.

Hope that made sense...

Dan

[graeme]

It's kind of hard to say... I used to live in Campbell River, BC and we had middle school there, so I wasn't even in high school yet. But in Nanaimo high school starts at grade 8, and I'm going into grade 10. As far as track is concerned this is my 3rd high school year. In grade 7 I had to compete against grade 8 people too because of middle school complications.

I used to be a sprinter (since grade 4), but I wasn't really successful at that. It wasn't until I finished first in a 3k Terry Fox Run in Campbell River that I realized I had any middle/long distance talent. I then started competing in the 3000m and did much better than I had ever done in the 100m. After 2 years of that I decided to try the 1500m instead and got my first ever 1st place finish at a track meet. All that was before any training, I want to compete seriously now.

[graeme]

Dan, are you currently training? Or running at all?

[Dan]

I'm currently running occassionally, but I definitely wouldn't call it training. It's more of an attempt to regain fitness, mixed with a lot of weights and basketball to keep my body from falling apart (which it tends to do with any activity over extended periods) while I try to get into better shape. Today I played basketball for an hour (high of 94 degrees), then ran on the treadmill for 90 minutes (30 minutes longer than I've run in the past 4 and a half years) while watching the T&F World Champs. I've spent the rest of the day trying to find the energy to move...

I'd like to be in good enough shape to do an occasional workout with the fall track group in a month, but that depends largely on the size of the group (hard to watch over lots of people at the same time you're running).

Changing topics, it sounds like you made some good decisions as to which event(s) is best suited to you.

Dan

[Shaun Fox]

my last race was on the wednesday just gone a 5k i did 17:55 a bit disappointing really as i was hoping to break 17mins but it was windy, im training pretty hard at the mo so hopefully my times should improve.

[Dan]

Hey Shaun, problems getting a new password for your old account? I updated the old one to the password you set up on the new account and moved your profile info over, so you can log in with 'Shaun Fox' like before. Unless of course, you like the '~_~' and want to switch back...

Dan

[Shaun Fox]

Thanx Dan, this new system seems better, what is BBcode and why is HTML off?

[Dan]

Glad you like it. I find it much less clumsy (you should see the old forum in an un-customized state!) and more inviting.

BBcode is a fairly generic term for formatting codes specific to the forum program. Things like bold tags, different hyperlink formats, quoted replies, etc. All of which can be found in the FAQ section of the forum. HTML is turned off because that tends to be easily abused by people trying to render forums un-readable. Of course, given that BBcode typically handles anything you would want to HTMLify, I see no reason to turn HTML on.

Dan