USA Track & Field Minnesota Masters and Mid-America Open Track & Field Outdoor Championships

We had the USATF MN Association Open and Masters meet this past weekend up in the Twin Cities. It seems like it is early in the track season to hold the State Championship meet, but the always run it the day after the Minnesota High School Track and Field Championships at the same venue. They also run a regional meet called the Mid-America Open.

The way it works is that if you are from Minnesota you are competing in both meets. If you are not, you are running in the Mid-America meet. The Minnesota meet is broken up into age groups, so the open division is 19-29 and Masters is five-year increments after that. My current age group is 35-39. So it's possible for a Minnesota resident to place twice in one event. For example, I placed first in my age group in the 400 Meters for Minnesota and third in the Mid-America Region Open. They used to have different age categories for the Regional meet, which meant that for age groups like mine without a lot of participation, I would come home with a lot of medals. I like this way of doing it better because it adds more value to being able to place in the Region.

As far as my times from this past weekend, I was pretty happy with my performances. Based on the weather conditions at the meet, my limited training so far this year, and my times I was hitting in practice, I was expecting to hit about 54 seconds in the 400 meters. I ended up running 53.28 which is quite a bit faster than I ran last year at this time. It at least gives me a small amount of hope that I might be able to get under the All-American Standard time of 52.5 seconds. With my shortened season I only have one more chance to hit that this year at the end of this month. And you never know what the weather will be like on that day.

Speaking of weather, we had some pretty rainy conditions this past weekend. It was pretty cool and was sprinkling a little bit for the 400 meters, which wasn't too bad. There was a pretty strong wind on the home stretch, but it wasn't terrible. By the time we got to our 200 meter race it was raining pretty hard. They were having some issues with the timing system so we were standing out in the rain for quite a while before our race. There's always a concern about staying warm and not straining any muscles when it gets colder out so the longer we were standing there, the more nervous I got. I went out a little tentative in the 200, but at the same time I really wanted to get to the finish line to get it done. I thought I ran a pretty good race considering the conditions.

Unfortunately, the timing system that they used for the meet had some issues with the rain and did not register the starting gun. They brought us all into a tent at the end of the meet and explained that they did not have our times. It was disappointing, but at the same time it probably doesn't really matter all that much. I don't think my 200 time would have been all that exceptional anyway. It would just be nice to know where I'm at even if the conditions were poor.

As I have mentioned a few times before, I am kind of a fairweather person when it comes to training outside on the track. I figure at my age it might as well be a nice day if I am going to run around outside. Otherwise I can just do my workouts in the comfort of my home. I might need to reconsider that a little bit and just go off of what my training schedule says I should do.

So with that, here is the quote for this post -

There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.
-Bill Bowerman 

The Masters Championships Dilemma

I was soooo looking forward to the USA Track and Field Masters Championships this year. I feel like I had a pretty good showing last year, placing 3rd in the 400 meters and 4th in the 200 meters. I was also just over a tenth of a second away from hitting the All-American mark in the 400 meters.

This year the National Championships are going to be held in Olathe, KS. When I asked my best man, who lives in Kansas City how far it is from him, he said it's only minutes away from his home. "Perfect", I though. A good excuse to see my friend and run in the meet all over one long weekend. Maybe we can even get a masters relay team together. They have had the date up on the website for the past year and it just so happens it was scheduled for my birthday weekend. I would actually be running the 400 meter finals on my birthday. This is great. I cleared my schedule for the weekend and a couple of days before and after. I was so excited.

Then they opened up the website for registration...

"That's not the right date" I thought to myself as I clicked the link for the webpage. They moved the date up by a weekend. How can this be? They have had the other date on their website for the past eight months. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that we had something else going on that weekend. I walked upstairs to check our master calendar and sure enough, we have a family trip scheduled to go to Wisconsin Dells. My wife's sister is coming over from Taiwan with her kids and her entire family has blocked off the time to be there.

I tried to figure out any good way that I could make it work and I can't come up with anything. So it looks like I will be missing the National Championships this year. I'm still training, but for a much shorter season. It's also harder for me to get motivated to get out and train hard without having as much at stake. But it might be a good opportunity to try some different things with my training.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.  - Sri Ram

USATF Minnesota Indoor Championships

The Minnesota Indoor Championships were last weekend at the University of Minnesota. After my little bout with illness over the past couple of weeks it was up in the air if I was going to run or not. I really didn't make the decision until that morning, but I decided it was best if I didn't run. It was tough to be there watching the Masters races. Actually, it was much tougher than I thought it would be. I put so much into getting ready for this meet that it was disappointing to not be able to see what I could do.

It was good to see some familiar faces at the meet. This meet was better attended than many of the Charities Challenge meets so it was fun to catch up with some folks that I haven't seen in a while.

The afternoon was the youth meet and we had a pretty good showing from the La Crosse area. Many youth from the La Crosse Track Club were there and put on a good showing of the track athletes from our area. My son and his friend competed in the 60, 200, and 400 meter races. Even though I was disappointed to not run myself, I have found that I almost get more happiness from watching my son compete and have fun.

Here is his 400 meter race. He is starting in lane five and his friend is in lane six.



There was a post that Shaun T made on his Facebook page today that I really liked and thought I would share with you today.

Not everyone is good at math but its time for you (and me) to create and solve our daily equations.

I want you to come up with three equations. 3 equations that you create. And by solving these equations you are producing answers that you will LIVE by for today.

My three equations are:
... 1. Workout + eating well= a healthier day.

2. Speaking my mind + keeping others feelings and interpretation in mind= positive results

3. Doing one thing that makes me happy + doing one thing that makes someone else happy= a better relationship.

Write these equations on a post-it note and look at them once an hour. Hopefully this will help you have a more productive day! A day that is filled with goodness that YOU created.

- Shaun T.

Charities Challenge - First Indoor Meet

We had the Charities Challenge indoor track this weekend up in the Twin Cities. I'm not sure whether to call it the first indoor meet of 2013 or the last one of 2012. I think as far as USA Track & Field is concerned, it is considered the 2013 Indoor Season so I'll call it the first meet of the year.

My training for this meet consisted of starting up Insanity: The Asylum Volume 2. I was only a week and a half into the program, but I can tell that this is going to be a great workout for my training. When I started the Championship workout, the first thing we do is a simulated 400 meters. If there was any question about whether or not this was the workout for me, it was answered right there.

I went up with another Master's sprinter and we took along three youth. Two of them were our kids and the other one was a friend of my son's. One of my goals has been to try to get greater participation at the meets so I try to invite anyone I can. If we can get people to experience the meets and how much fun it can be, hopefully they will come back and invite others.

It was the first track meet for one of the boys. The three were technically in different age groups even though my son and his friend are in the same grade. It was great to see the boys enjoying themselves while showing a lot of effort in the races. Since they were all different ages, they were each able to have first-place finishes in their races while racing against each other. There were also meet records set by all of the boys. In fact, the youngest boy also set the Minnesota state record for each of his events in his age group. Pretty good for his first meet ever.

My races were a little better than I did at this point last year, but not quite where I thought I should be. I made a tactical mistake in my 400 and I think it cost me some time. I gave up the inside lane when we made the break at the 160 mark. (Actually the break line was incorrect so we can't technically turn in our times for the meet.) I ended up running out in lane two around the third corner and was never able to gain back any ground. I was running against all high-school boys so time-wise I was with a good group. My time was 55.24 so it was about two seconds slower than my Indoor National time from last year.

Gives me something to work on for next time.


"The pride you gain is worth the pain."  -Dennis Ogilvie

All Will Be Well

There are times when life can get you down. You feel overwhelmed with everything going on and just plain beat up. I guess this is one of those times for me right now.

It probably happens to everyone and the best thing to do is find ways to cope. I find that having a focus for my training and finding things to do that I enjoy are important. There are some upcoming indoor track meets that I will take part in so now is the time to start preparing for those through my training and nutrition. I'll also be working in some new Asylum Volume 2 workouts.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I should probably think of what I am thankful for. I am thankful for my health and my family's health most of all.

I'm also thankful that when I broke out my winter coat, there was $25 cash in the pocket from last year. Score.

Instead of just a quote this week, I thought I would put the lyrics to a song that I like to play to remind myself that everything will be alright. I've been playing it a lot this week. It's a song that I first heard from Tonic Sol Fa during their holiday concert. It's probably better known from the Gabe Dixon Band, although I prefer the Tonic Sol Fa version.

All Will Be Well 

The new day dawnsAnd I am practicing my purpose once againIt is fresh and it is fruitful if I winBut if I lose
Ooh, I don't knowI'll be tired but I will turn and I will goOnly guessing till I get there then I'll knowOh, I will know
And all the children walking home past the factoriesCan see the light that's shining in my window as I write this song to youAnd all the cars running fast along the interstateCan feel that love that radiates, illuminating what I know is true 

All will be wellEven after all the promises you've broken to yourselfAll will be wellYou can ask me how but only time will tell 

The winter's coldBut the snow still lightly settles on the treesAnd a mess is still a moment I can seizeUntil I know 

That all will be wellEven though sometimes this is hard to tellAnd the fight is just as frustrating as hellAll will be well 

And all the children walking home past the factoriesCan see the light that's shining in my window as I write this song to youAll the cars running fast along the interstateCan feel that love that radiates, illuminating what I know is true 

All will be wellEven after all the promises you've broken to yourselfAll will be wellYou can ask me how but only time will tell 

You got to keep it up and don't give upAnd chase your dreams and you will findAll in time 

That all will be wellEven after all the promises you've broken to yourselfAll will be wellYou can ask me how but only time will tell
All will be wellEven after all the promises you've broken to yourselfAll will be wellYou can ask me how but only time will tellYou can ask me how but only time will tell