St. Patrick’s Day, 3/17/18

Let’s toast with green wine. Layne Witherell and Don, friends since Navy boot camp, were born in Los Angeles on 3/20/45, and toasted each other on our 21st birthday with GI gin (codeine-laced cough medicine). …Enjoy Wine Maniacs

For my birthday I’d like this. Nestled in the orchard on our back forty.

Wait a sec, Alex. Caffeine Might Not Make You Faster?

Why Can’t Everyone Do the ‘Asian Squat’? …You might recall that Colleen Milliman, my 91 year old friend, oldest female to record a track mile, does 75 squats each day. Ida Keeling, 102 and world record holder, does even more. I’m just sayin’…

NYT on on running more, avoiding added sugar, living longer

Friday, 3/16/18

Signal on Foothill track & field. …Canyon v. Valencia results.

Matthew Nali, Founder and President of SCV Hurdles and SCV Sprints, is back!!! Here.

New/Best Running Books and Media

Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness: Peak Performance updates

Semi-Rad: Friday Inspiration

How much basketball will you watch over the next two weeks? The Brits like track & field more than any other sport. Details here.

Must Read: Is Chris Zablocki the Best Extreme Marathoner?

Outside has a story on Lauren Fleshman. Says she lives in Portland. No, she lives in Bend, about 175 miles from Portland.

Thursday, 3/15/18

Dear NCAA Coaches. Ditto for all coaches.

Reminds me of Joe Newton. He cared about everyone on the team, and proved it daily.

Bob Huggins Is March’s Author-in-Residence. Note reference to John McPhee’s first book about Bill Bradley. It’s good. But I liked McPhee’s second, The Headmaster, even more. Every kid was important.

The Case for the “Self-Driven Child”

How Exercise Can Keep Aging Muscles and Immune Systems ‘Young’

Why humans are optimised for endurance running, not speed

Semi-Rad: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Strava

Video: The ‘Most Elusive’ Man in North America

Yesterday we were in the back forty pruning grapes. I looked up and saw a turkey vulture. She (who must be obeyed) looked up and saw four bald eagles flying in circles, about as high as a human can just barely see them. Almost certainly they were looking for fish in the Willamette, and being so high is not a problem, having eyes like an eagle as they do.

Megan Petronelli is Colleen Milliman’s personal coach. For more on Megan, see here and here.

Wednesday, 3/14/18

No shoes. No problem. Watch 76 year-old William Rhoad kick ass.

The Week That Was

Alex Hutchinson: How Strength Training Makes You Faster

When Jerry Schumacher Speaks, Listen

Vin Lananna’s Training Principles for Middle Distance and DistanceRead.

Haruki Murakami: Learning how to go the distance.

Training for a world-class cross country skier

Viedo: Sabrina Southerland, are you kidding me?

Tuesday, 3/13/18

the morning shakeout

Jim Ryun on Roger Bannister: Finishing the Race. …Again, I urge you to read Twin Tracks. It’s on my Kindle and, while on the treadmill, will start reading it randomly.

The Highs and Low of Cycling Massive California Vertical. I love Death Valley. 28 years ago I did the inaugural Death Valley Trail Marathon. At the end of March (now scheduled in December). Cool at the start, but over 100 degrees at the finish. A few finishers got an IV along with the usual finisher’s medal. I was second. First place guy got on the cover of Ultrarunning magazine.

Foothill League track & field starts on Thursday. Best wishes to all. We left Santa Clarita six years ago.

Monday, 3/12/18

More on Bannister. The First Four-Minute Mile, In One Pain-Wracked Photo

Big Sugar Versus Your Body. …References to Big Sugar, Big Oil, et al. are annoying. Anyone ever stick a gun to our heads and forced us to to wolf down candy, ice cream, soda, alcohol? How many times did your parents, teachers, and dentist advise against candy?

How to Kick Your Sugar Addiction. You can’t outrun a bad diet. The proof is in the results of our fasting blood test.

In a recent article in U.S. News & World Report, California ranked dead last in quality of life in a survey ranking the best states in the country. ~The Signal editorial

Running From the Pain

Podium Girls Survive

We liked On Trails.More Moor

Weekend, 3/10-11/18

Edward Cheserek update: “Why Don’t We Go For Sub-3:50?”

NYT: Remember When Athletes Didn’t Have to Specialize? These Hall of Famers Do

Brad Stulberg: When a Stress Expert Battles Mental Illness

The rise and fall of Team Sky

Remembering Sir Roger Bannister – A Chat with David Epstein. There’s a transcript.

NYT: When You Can’t Run, and lots more

Semi-Rad links

Michael Norman, USC soph, owns indoor 400 world record. Video, etc.More

Malcolm Gladwell and Stephen Curry want to be your coach

We hiked in the Thurston Natural Area. It has a cool and free set up for the mountain bikers. Photo. No that’s not Don.

Q&A with Colleen Milliman

Colleen Milliman, born 8/21/26, 5 feet, 1/2 inch, 105 pounds, is the first woman over 90 to record a time for the track mile (indoors or out) at the 2017 Hayward Masters Classic, clocking 13:26.46. (Please pause and reflect on that historic, astonishing accomplishment.) That was also a personal record for the mile, having started her track career in 2017. Born and raised at altitude (6000′) in Utah, Colleen moved to Oregon in 1950. Raised two sons, Greg and Roger, Greg now living in Oregon and Roger in Washington. When 75, Colleen decided she needed more exercise and joined the Obsidian walking club, and loved the hiking, in town and in the Cascades. But what is life if not continuing to improve, master new challenges, have more fun…?

1. Can you walk (or run) us through the experiences and thought process that got you racing at age 90?

Always active, and loving to walk and hike, my grandson Carl noted I walked faster than most older folks could run. So we checked it out at a high school track in Springfield, and he was right. A few months later I ran the mile at the Hayward Classic. On the last lap I was dead last, and hugely disappointed, embarrassed that I was holding up the meet, until people started clapping…

2. Your second race, a few months later in Portland, is another fascinating story. What happened, and what is your next race?

I ran a world record in the 800, 6:16.55, but it was not accepted because the race was not clocked to a thousandth of second. I will race the 800 again, this time at the Hayward Classic on May 6th.

3. Any other coaches besides Vin Lananna and Ian Dobson at the Sunday morning hour at Hayward Field? Do we need coaching?

My personal coach is Megan Patronelli. I’m also learning a lot from Vin Lananna and Ian Dobson about form, techniques and interval training at the Sunday morning Tracktown sessions at Hayward Field. …We all need coaching, a second opinion.

4. What is your workout schedule? Any diet tips for the younger crowd, that is, the rest of us?

I’m at the In Shape Gym thrice weekly. In addition I ride a stationary bike four times a week, do 75 squats daily, and walk 2-3 mile a day, sometimes with son Greg’s leashed Akita (95lb) dog who tries to run as often I allow her to do so …Eat moderately. No junk.

5. You run on a replaced knee and with a post surgical back. Thoughts and advice on strenuous activity by seniors?

Be careful. Know your body and heed its warnings. Resting and healing as necessary. Icing is good. I take no medications.

6. Future race plans?

400, 800, and the mile. As long as I can. I plan to live to age 125.

7. What are some of the tough choices you’ve made that made you who you are?

Deciding to work through arthritic pain and to always keep moving no matter what.

8. Best decision you’ve made in your running career?

Joining the Tracktown USA community and receiving all the support and enthusiasm.

9. Advice to your younger self at age 75?

You’re never to old to try and pursue new adventures. I started climbing mountains, McLaughlin at 75. Diamond Peak at 77, and the Santos in the Swiss Alps at 80.

10. Quotes you live by, or quote often?

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. Laughing at yourself is therapuetic. Laughing is my medication.

11. What coaching advice/routine you believe in that most would think crazy?

10 minutes every day on the Noblerex K1 whole body vibrator. Used by the Soviet cosmonauts. And works for me. Google it. Or just say I’m crazy.

12. Things that make you grumpy?

Negative thoughts. Negative people.

13. Books on your night table?

Out of Nowhere by Jeff Hollister (first Nike employee, now deceased). Kenny Moore’s Bowerman And The Men of Oregon. By the way, I knew Bowerman. My employer was his personal physician and friend. Bowerman would come in whenever he wanted, without an appointment, and almost always got in quickly to see his friend and otherwise upset the schedule. He was an amazing, very strong personality, and knew how to treat his athletes, with kindness or toughness, whatever it took.

Thursday, 3/8/18

Russia facing permanent athletics ban

Suicides, Drug Addiction and High School Football

Dorm living for professionals in San Francisco

National Geographic’s 2018 Adventurers of the Year

Just finished Life Is A Wheel. Got it because I like stories of people going cross country on foot, bike, car, whatever, and because the author, an obituary writer for the New York Times, must be good. Bought the book at a thrift store on Saturday. 12 hours later, Sunday at Hayward Field, Ian Dobson tells us about Bannister’s death. Later that day I see Weber’s co-authored obit on Bannister in the New York Times. Later I learned Weber took the NYT buyout in 2016. Anyway, it’s a good read.

Should Teachers Be Allowed to Touch Students? …The answer is yes. I was touched plenty of times, as I had (still have) trouble keeping my mouth shut. Also spent time (outs) in the cloakroom. …Cloakroom, you ask?

Reminds me. Back when, Bill Bowerman hazed his new runners by urinating on them in the shower and branding them with a hot set of keys…

Ken Goe writes: IAAF doesn’t seem interested in marketing track to U.S. fans

Jordan Hasay Will Outrun You. While Smiling.

Wednesday, 3/7/18

Russia Faces Track and Field Expulsion Over Doping Denials

New world record in Dubai. Watch

Bannister: Everest on the Track. Watch

Enough with the Podium Girls Already. OK. But most ladies I know spend way-more time than guys to look their very best. And dare I say, most fetching? Burkas anyone?

Steve Magness: Running Mechanics: Are you optimizing for efficiency or power? …Vin Lananna and Ian Dobson (Vin coached Ian at Stanford) on efficiency: Run tall. Butt in. Land on mid foot. Arm swing straight ahead, wrist to waist. Every motion straight ahead. During practice at Stanford, Vin prowled the track, watching like hawk, whispering form admonitions.

Swimmer, 99, ‘breaks world record’ in Australia. Looks great, eh? …Today I’m interviewing Colleen Milliman. Now 91, she started her running and racing career at age 90.

Why Runners Need Strong Arms

It’s official. UO Football Trumps World (and sport of) Track & Field

Today in Facebook.

Five of America’s Great Milers Remember Sir Roger Bannister