OLS can wreck your training

Vetus Leo Syndrome: an affliction most prevalent in males over age 30, with severe outbreak and symptoms becoming prevalent after age 35. Commonly referred to by it's English name, Old Lion Syndrome or the initials OLS. The most common and pronounced affliction of this disease is the desire to be recognized as still maintaining alpha male traits by young females of the same species.

In posting a more personal thought on Saturday night, I now realize I may have failed many of my male readers by not passing along a very important warning concerning training after age 30.

As I've admitted before, I am prone to flair ups of OLS. Saturday was nearly one of those days. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I started my long run from the YMCA's parking lot. I didn't go inside with Jina before heading out. I did, however, go into the building to look for Jina after my run. She had already finished her workout and was changing in the locker room by the time I got back. Since the "Y" has policies which prevented me from going in and talking to her while she got ready, I opted to walk a 1/2 mile as a cool down from my run.

My usual workout time means that the predominant make up of the "Pride" (That's a group of lions, if you were wondering) consists mainly of those lions and lionesses who have long since lost the ability to run down all but the feabilist of prey. Mid-day Saturday was a whole different story. Most of the lionesses present were mere cubs when I was in my prime. Here they were, a prime audience for an impressive high intensity workout to prove I still have it. So what did I do. I set the treadmills incline on 2.0 and held down the speed control button until I reached a blistering pace of 3.7 mph. Ouch, I might as well have had a Geritol advertisement imprinted on the back of my shirt, but more importantly my decision to run outside saved me from potential disaster.

Walking into that environment prior to my long run would likely have caused a major flair up in my OLS, prompting me to demonstrate my Alpha status by running faster, farther,and harder than is prudent this close to my date with 26.2 miles. Thankfully, the long run had suppressed the disease and the arrival of my wife prevented any further flair up, thus averting a potentially disasterous and race ending workout.