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Marc Bloom Reflects On A Lifetime Of Running And How He Keeps Going

Published by
DyeStat.com   Feb 7th 2022, 4:37pm
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I’m Turning 75. I Run, Race and Thrive

By Marc Bloom/Photos courtesy Marc Bloom

A lifelong runner, I turn 75 on Feb. 14. It’s been quite a ride: I’ve logged some 80,000 miles since my adult running began 50 years ago, in the winter of 1972, with a few laps around a high school track in Brooklyn. By the summer of ’73, while taking breaks from watching the Watergate hearings on television, my running had reached 50 miles a week and I was planning my first marathon.

Before long I ran wherever my travels took me — eventually to almost every state and more than 30 countries — from the Rockies to the Alps, from the California coast to the cliffs of the Algarve, from an Australian forest amid kangaroos in the wild, to a riverbank in eastern Ukraine at a time when the collapse of the Soviet Union was leading to hard-won freedoms in breakaway states.

yiftMy efforts have been punctuated by more than 500 races, from the sprints to the marathon. I ran a 10k in Oslo through a park decorated with sun-tanning young Norwegians leaving little to the imagination, an 8-miler in Rome that finished at the Colosseum, a thrilling mile on the track of the cozy 1920 Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. And the first New York City Marathon through the five boroughs, in 1976. (In the adjacent photo, I'm running behind the Ethiopians, including Olympic champion Miruts Yifter, while they were training for the 1981 at the World Cup in Rome).

Races were not always so glorious. At one New Jersey 10k that started at the town’s police department, I was locked in a bathroom with bars on its windows after taking an emergency nature break moments before the start. At a 10-mile race in a Tennessee town known for its thoroughbreds, a show horse prancing in a parade left quite a mess at the finish just as I arrived and — what else could I do? — I had to run right through it. At a road mile when I was trying break 5 minutes at age 40, the clock showed 4:58 when I finished, only to be “corrected” later to 5:02.

Running is like a canvas of life: the highs and lows, the good fortune and difficult challenges, become speckled in their places as the months and years present the births of children and then grand-children, along with the trauma of caring for aging parents and their passing. Running is both celebration and savior; it touches, at times, every human emotion, spiritual embrace and feeling of empowerment. The way I see it, you can’t do better than run.

Like so many of us, I’ve relied on running to help get me through the pandemic. I’ve focused not only on the joy of movement but also on the goal of running in the USATF Masters Indoor Championships at The Armory in New York, March 18-20.

How did I, a runner so weak on the high school cross country team that I competed in the “scrub” division (a sort of J.V. “B”) at Van Cortlandt Park, emerge, a decade later, with the sense that I could run forever? Now, as the years roll by, it seems fateful that whenever I seem to have a strong workout — as though lifted by teen-age audacity — the selection that comes up most often on my music player is the Dylan classic, “Forever Young.” As the words express with biblical intonation:

May you always know the truth

And see the light surrounding you

May you always be courageous

Stand upright and be strong

May you stay forever young

I am often asked how I have been able to sustain robust running into my 70s. Many people stop running as they age because of injury or perhaps just the vagaries of “getting older.” Here are some answers and hopefully a bit of accumulated wisdom that might benefit older runners, and younger ones too.

Running Frequency: While many runners enjoy running every day, I found long ago that skipping days made me feel fresher for each run. I decided to run four days a week (25 to 30 miles) so I could maintain a brisk pace each time out. I like to engage every run with vigor and sometimes challenge myself with speed work.

Bonus: A mixture of different paces keeps motivation high and stresses different energy systems for optimal fitness. Alternating slow runs with faster runs provides older runners with vital speed to prevent going “stale.” 

Running Surfaces: I do about half my running on the roads, to minimize leg fatigue from impact (and avoid traffic), and use turf fields, dirt trails, a treadmill and, occasionally, a track. 

Bonus: Since my quadriceps muscles don’t spring back to life as they once did, leg-friendly artificial turf, found on most soccer and football fields, is a common go-to for me. In Princeton, N.J. where I live, I also frequent the tree-lined D&R Canal roadway, a dirt-and-crushed gravel path offering multiple running options in addition to protection from wind.

Cross-Training: On off-days, I remain active with swimming, bicycling or weight training. Numerous studies have shown that runners who cross-train can maintain high fitness levels while reducing risk of injury. I’m in the pool twice a week; swimming is the perfect refresher the day after a hard run. I bike in nice weather (spin in winter) and workout with weights weekly. 

Bonus: Staying off your feet even one day a week can work wonders for recovery. Plus, you build up other muscle groups cross-training, achieving more well-rounded fitness. 

trackSpeed Work: Essentially, “speed work” is any pace faster than average, which for me is about 9 minutes per mile. I like the challenge of pushing myself with an occasional run of 20 to 40 minutes about a minute per mile faster than average (often referred to as a “tempo” run); or with brisk circuits around a turf field; or on a track doing repetitions of 300 meters at my 5k goal pace. (I do a warm-up jog before speed runs and stretch after.) The feeling of running fast is exalting — you’re flying in the face of age, and showing that older folks can indeed stay in touch with their inner Usain Bolt.

Bonus: With these efforts, I can race at will and keep up with many runners half my age. My times have slowed but I’m hanging in there. At 65, I could run a 5k at 6:30 per mile; my current goal is 7:30 pace. Likewise, I could race a mile in 6 minutes at 65; now, it’s closer to 6:40. 

Hill Running: Running hills can be a gateway to speed work. On a steep grade you can’t help but push close to your limit while keeping form erect and “efficient.” I tackle hills that take me 30 seconds, one minute and two minutes, jogging down for recovery. 

Bonus: On hills the upper legs are stressed as though you’re doing weighted squats, and your aerobic capacity is tested to the max. Cresting a hill when your legs are screaming is, to me, a beautiful thing.

Nourishment: I adhere to the latest research that finds recovery is aided by a nutritious snack of carbohydrate and protein ingested within about a half-hour of completing a run. After every run (or other exercise), I have an orange and slice of whole wheat bread with natural peanut butter (only ingredient: peanuts). I also have a cup of coffee and drink at least 24 ounces of water to start, and another 16 ounces or more within an hour.

Bonus: At 145 pounds (I’m 5’9”), my peanut butter snack provides about 10 grams of protein, about a sixth of what I need daily. Since I have more peanut butter through the day, it’s easy for me to use other foods like beans, eggs, almonds, oatmeal, Greek yogurt, broccoli and fish (I’m “mostly” vegetarian) to fill my requirement.

Attitude/Gratitude: I pay no attention to biological age, only to “physiological” age, which helps me ignore the limitations we hear all the time about getting older. I also recite mantras of gratitude for being able to run at this age and derive so much pleasure from it.

Bonus: Most of us should probably meditate more for inner peace, especially in these difficult times. I often end a run humming the lyrics to a favorite tune as a restorative. Lately, Sinatra’s, “It Was a Very Good Year,” has served me well.

Inspiration: If I feel down after a sluggish run and need an inspiring wellspring, I think of 73-year-old Gene Dykes of the Philadelphia area, who’s broken three hours for the marathon a number of times since turning 70. Or 76-year-old Gary Patton of Iowa, who can still run a 5:45 mile. 

Bonus: For inspiration closer to home, there’s 66-year-old Nora Cary of Morristown, N.J, whose recent national 65-69 records include a 51:09 12k (7.45 miles), a remarkable pace of 6:52 per mile. I’ve run many races in Cary’s midst — well, only at the start since she runs far ahead of me every time. 

Mind-Body: Most runners acknowledge the mind-body connection but, like the public at-large, know little about the mind’s profound role in everyday health. I had a transformative experience many years ago that mirrors The New York Times science story in November by Juno DeMelo, who said her persistent low back pain was cured by reading a 30-year-old best-selling book, “Healing Back Pain,” by the revolutionary mind-body physician John E. Sarno of the Rusk Institute For Rehabilitation Medicine at NYU Medical Center. When the book came out in the early ‘90s, I was in the throes of severe low back pain. After reading the book, I got somewhat better. Then I became a patient of Dr. Sarno, who helped me understand that my pain was the result of my emotional state, and within weeks using his program of addressing threatening emotions —not repressing them — my pain went away.

Bonus: Since then, I have been able to determine when a particular discomfort is based on emotion and not an “injury,” and by using Dr. Sarno’s later and most advanced work, “The Divided Mind,” rid the pain, sometimes in a manner of minutes. I apply what I learned from Dr. Sarno in many aspects of life and feel a more enlightened person for it.

Sometimes, the young can provide the most lucid running enlightenment. I recall an interview I did with a teen-ager after she sped to a top placing in a national race. I asked her, “Do you think you reached your potential today?” Looking puzzled, she replied, “How would I know that?”

On my 75th, I’m going to toast myself with a glass or two of fine red, but not before going out and running 75 minutes as fast as I can. #

Marc Bloom has been writing about track and field, cross-country and running in general since the 1960s. His latest book, “Amazing Racers: The Story of America’s Greatest Running Team and Its Revolutionary Coach,” about the Fayetteville-Manlius dynasty, was named 2019 Book of the Year by the Track Writers Association of America.



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1 comment(s)
emwins65
Lots of good inspiration in this article.
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