Masters! What it takes to compete despite being older.

At 37 years old, Simon Whitfield's competitors considered him far past his prime.  But at the 2008 Beijing Olympics he sprinted to a silver.  Now he is our flag bearer!!  Go Simon.

From my experience training with him in 1999/2000 on the Gold Coast of Australia, I found his playful attitude a relief from the pressure of being a professional athlete.  I returned home to research how endurance performance is influenced by nutrition, and he sprinted to a gold medal overtaking Germany's Vukovic backdropped with the infamous opera house.

12 years pass and I am training and racing well, despite working full time, being married and building a house.  It is the experience of a masters athlete (>35 years) and emotional intelligence that allows outstanding performance.  When great nutrition, reduced travel, increased rest after races, taking a half day off (as the baby keeps you up at night), is combined with RELENTLESS drive, endurance athletes get stronger and faster (over long distances) when they age.  The constant attention to detail (technical skills, race prep and anxiety management) pays off over the long run.

Clara Hughes and David Ford in addition to our flag bearer are detailed in a recent CBC documentary below:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/thenational/video/#id=2240139819

Personally, I am deeply inspired by these athletes.  I empathize with their challenges and constantly embrace similar thoughts while training myself.  However, different then these Olympic idols, I chose a different life to fulfill me.  Because I want to experience all parts of life at a high level, I have gone on a different path, the one far less travelled to become a competitor.

My training is unorthodox.  People can't believe how I use weight training (functional, moderate loads, prehab and plyometrics) and sprints to finish well in an Ironman and trail ultramarathon.  Don't get me wrong, my main workout weekly is very specific to the demands of training required for my goal race.  I ran 35k on a mix of London trails and the thames valley parkway (bike path) alone with big beat music timing and powering each plyometric-pulsed stride (12 days prior to the 50k event). 

But it is the weight training and plymetrics that gives me an effortless and powerful stride, especially up 20% incline muddy grades (sometimes with a rope pull on the side of the trail) and last 30% of the race I never trained; when intense fatigue pulls runners down (hip flexors and arm swing) I gear in with intense imagery, pre-programmed self-talk (affirmations) and a peppy stride only sustained through the constant attention to the small details.  Don't ever think those push-ups, jumping lunges and long meal preps are a waste of time; these are the details that make you a competitor!