Putting Myself First, Part I
by Steve McGill
Putting myself first is not something that comes naturally to me. But since my return to daily life after my hospitalization last April, it’s something I’ve been learning to do. During a follow-up visit with my doctor in late November, I discovered that I had lost 30 pounds in the past six months — from 242 down to 212. Though excited and happy to have made so much progress, I also realized that I had another 30 pounds to lose if I wanted to get down to my college weight. The plan is to make that happen.
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One of the ways I’ve been losing weight, and putting myself first, is by hurdling. During my Sunday sessions with Raelle Brown—the girl I’m coaching in my private coaching—I get there a little early, warm up, and then do some reps over my little 24-inch banana hurdles. When Raelle shows up, I have her film me, and we gradually transition into focusing just on her. The first time, in mid-November, I spaced the hurdles 4.5 meters apart; then I increased it to 4.6; then 5.0, and I’m currently up to 5.3. Incrementally adding new challenges is how I like to go about things. I also added in cycling the lead arm in my most recent session, as well as improving my forward lean. My warmup consisted of A-marching, A-skipping, a few side walk-overs, a few reps of mimicking the hurdle action over cones, and a few 30-meter hurdle-free sprints. All the weight I’ve lost has made a difference. The landing doesn’t hurt my back so much. The speed between the hurdles is faster than it ever was when I dabbled in hurdling last year. My legs are cycling without me needing to cue either one specifically. I was out there doing the one thing in this world I live above all else, and it felt magical. It connected me to who I was when I was 17, and continues a story thread that began all those years ago.
It’s funny how I hear different responses from different people. Some people see my Instagram posts and comment “You still got it!” while others tell me I need to raise the hurdles to 27 or 30 inches, and still others warn me to “be careful” because “we’re not young like we used to be!” The masters hurdlers in the crowd encourage me to train for competition, and the idea did sound intriguing.
I looked it up and the hurdles for the 60-65 age group (I’ll be 60 on my next birthday in September) are the same as the open women’s — 33 inches high, 8.5 meters apart. I’ve been practicing at 24 inches, 5.3 meters apart. That’s with taking a 6-step approach to the first hurdle. If I want to get near race spacing by this time next year, I’ll first need to gradually increase the spacing between my hurdles, and take a faster approach to the first hurdle. I think I can go up to 6.0 meters between the hurdles with no problem. After that, I’ll have to see. I had stress fractures in both tibias back in my early 30s (one diagnosed, one undiagnosed; the pain was the same in both legs). And to this day, any type of sprinting that requires a significant amount of impact hurts. If I were to space the hurdles 6 meters apart, I’m sure I would start feeling it in my shins. Which is why 8.5 meters seems like it would way too far apart for my shins to endure. Add the prospect of raising the hurdles 9 inches from where I have them now, and it’s like, what’s the point? In my most recent session I got about 8 reps in, with the last three being over five hurdles. I did start feeling some lower leg pain, though not a lot. But that tells me that making it all the way to race spacing isn’t likely. The faster I run on the balls of my feet, the more pain I’ll feel. Whereas, if I forget about trying to compete, I can just enjoy hurdling whenever I get a chance to, and use my personal sessions to improve my coaching.
I’m finding that I need to get more flexible if I want to continue to progress. Having lost a lot of weight has helped a lot, but I don’t have the range of motion or ease of motion I’d like to have and that I’d like to feel. My forward lean is more of a duck-down lean. I’m trying to lean forward but my body isn’t able to do it, so I end up just ducking down from the neck. I’m landing heavy sometimes, which is causing a jolt in my lower back on the lead leg side. Trail leg is delayed a bit. All of these are flexibility issues. I need to stretch away from the track. Need to stretch as a separate workout. Get them groins right. Get that lower back right. Get those hip flexors right. I’m not going fast enough yet for the hamstrings to matter, but they’ll eventually need to get more flexible too. Looking at Raelle, she gets real low in her stance before she takes off to the first hurdle. That really helps her to drive out. I need to start doing that. Or at least an old-man version of that. I really need to do ab work, but I hate doing ab work. I’m still in the process of figuring out how serious I want to be about this. Hurdling at all is a miracle, based on where I was this past April. I might create my own “race” that consists of ten hurdles at 24 inches spaced, say, 6 meters apart. Present myself with my own challenge. I don’t really need to race against other people. Don’t really need to risk breaking bones trying to run over 33s.
Getting some work in over the 24s a few weeks ago.
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