Monday, September 13, 2004

Meetings, meetings, more meetings

I have been asked to chair a university committee (I’ve sat on this committee for a number of years now). I have never been asked to be chair of a university-wide committee before. I will be leading the group into making important decisions affecting dozens of students and costing the university hundreds of thousands of dollars each year (judging by the age of the retiring chair, this job is FOR LIFE!). I was expecting to be flown out for a retreat and training session – perhaps to Colorado? Don’t universities do that for people who will be making very important decisions affecting the lives and budgets of so many? I have looked daily in my campus mail, but no such invitation has been forthcoming. Only my schedule of committee meetings. Tomorrow afternoon I begin my official duties. I am thinking that my first action as chair should be to upgrade the snacks and food provided for the afternoon. The beverages in Styrofoam cups have to go! And no more packaged cookies either. Let's set some standards here. We are not just a rinky-dink school; we are part of a world-class university. We need to start learning how to display our worth!

Running from running

I’d fallen into the habit of saying “I no longer run. You know, it’s not very good for you, especially once you’re past your twenties and thirties.” Walking briskly? Yes, I can get fanatically committed to a daily trek around town. But rare is the day that I run, even though less than a year ago, I would enjoy the runner’s high as much as the next young marathoner out there.

Today I no longer can justify my running abstinence. The papers are reporting the findings of a Yale study (for example here) that whips my excuse right out the door. It appears that older runners (past 50 – I qualify!) are even more likely to improve their running performance during training than younger runners (take THAT you baby sprinters!). The researchers are concluding that whatever innards you have that are conducive to running (the article uses more medically precise words, such as musculature, oxygen absorption, etc etc) do not deteriorate or atrophy as a result of aging. They wilt and wither because people do not use them. In simple words: we get lazy.

One researcher notes:
“You can maintain a very high performance standard into the sixth or seventh decade of life.”

At least this gives me an excuse to put off training for a few more months or even years. What’s the rush? I can still improve my running time a quarter of a century from now.