Running Shorts with Scott Hubbard Also tucked into the front flap is a page of highlights from the log which mentions my first 100mile week, about 10 days before turning 19 in October 1971. I don’t recall setting out to run that many miles; they just came normally and I realized at week’s end I only needed a short run to reach 100. I set off around a nearby Ann Arbor golf course (now soccer and softball fields) for 30 minutes. Higher mileage was just coming into vogue and the training concept was spread by the very few sources of info and word of mouth. My highlights say I averaged 50 miles a week in 1971. What would 1972 yield? There’d be lots of two-a-day running. The log:
Scott Hubbard
TRIVIA:Where were the Summer Olympic Games held in 1976?
DEAR DIARY. Among the stacks and boxes of running-related papers and magazines in my back room closet and 130-plus books on running on shelves in my living room is a 3x6-inch day planner turned training log. It chronicles my running from Dec. 6, 1971, to Dec. 31, 1972, and is the only detailed look I own of my running until I started keeping annual logs in 1983. It covers most of my sophomore year and half of my junior year at Eastern Michigan University. Although it doesn’t cover my most prosperous college years, it zooms me back to a time of growth, higher mileage, a rich mix of experiences and a few challenging moments. Here’s looking at “what was” from 40 years ago and a sport on the verge of seismic change (women in sports, the explosion of running in popularity, etc.). Tucked inside the front flap is a Connecticut AAU card I had to purchase to run in the ‘71 Manchester, Conn., Thanksgiving Day road race. I’d traveled there with EMU teammate Tom Hollanderm, who was from Hamden, because he talked me and another teammate, Brian Williams, into running the popular race. I’d never even seen a road race or field of runners as big as Tom described and Manchester promised both. It snowed overnight, keeping numbers down to about 200, including only about 10 women. Amby Burfoot won, I placed about seventh and chose a clock radio from the merchandise awards. Our EMU team had finished third a week earlier in the NCAA College Division National Cross Country Meet in Wheaton, Ill. I still have an individual team award from the meet.
26
Michigan Runner - July / August 2012
Dec. 6-12, 1971: Monday through Friday was 8 miles in the morning, 7 1/2 in the afternoon. Week total: 105.
March 13-19: Good week with 125 miles. March 20-26: Another good week with 126 miles, a 9:23 2-mile, good for third place in a dual meet with Central Michigan University. Don ran a 1:56.8 half-mile. March 27-April 2: At least 10 miles each morning, biggest week ever with 141 miles. On Friday, bowled a 224 game. April 3-9: Not good enough to travel with the team to a big spring meet, I put in 120 miles. April 10-16: Prepared for my first 3000-meter steeplechase Thursday with 6 x 440 yards over the barriers. On Saturday, I ran a 9:56 debut steeple. I recall thinking, “I like this event!” 20-mile run the next day. Total week: 120 miles.
Dec. 13-19: A week marked by an intrasquad 2-mile in 9:21 and flight with my brothers, Don and Marshall, to visit my father in Delaware. (I learned May 11 this year that my father had died Feb. 13 at age 81.)
April 17-23: On Wednesday did 10 x 440 yards over the barriers. My second steeple was at the Ohio State Relays Saturday. Time was 9:27, which qualified me for the NCAA College Division Nationals. I had no idea what the qualifying standard was before the race. Total week: 117 miles.
Dec. 20-26: One day off, bowled a 193 and ran 14 miles on Christmas Day.
April 24-30: Standard-issue week of 120 miles. No meet.
Dec. 27-Jan. 2, 1972: Was bit by a dog while running along Huron River Drive on Dec. 29, run cut short. Week total: 119.
May 1-7: Ran 31:30 to win a low-key 6-mile at Wayne State University. It was my first track 6-mile and only college race on cinders. Wind was a howler at one end of the track. Total week: 109 miles.
Jan. 3-9: Bad weather all week, still got in 112 miles. Jan. 10-16: Friday, slick roads, 1° Saturday, -8° in morn, 4:24 1-mile race and -6° on evening run. Sunday, -17° wind chill. Week total: 121 miles. Jan. 17-23: Friday, 4:22 1-mile race. Saturday, fell on ice. Week total: 118 miles. Jan. 24-30: Monday, ran three times (would only do this a few more times). Wednesday, fell badly on ice, doing splits which I’m not capable of. Subsequent damage to leg and only able to run on/off until Feb 6. Feb. 7-13: Monday, -2°, Wednesday, 2°. Maybe too many miles right after an injury with 109 for the week. By Friday of the next week I was sick with a cold, which lasted through Feb 25. Feb. 28-March 5: Got new Tiger (now Asics) Cortez and Boston shoes from Dick Pond Sports in Illinois via mail order (pre specialty stores). There are a few DPS stores in Chicagoland now. Total week: 105 miles. March 6-12: My brother, Don, a sophomore at Ann Arbor Huron High School, ran a 4:19 mile on a relay. (Clearly, the boy could run and his prep career was extraordinary.) Week total: 115 miles.
|
michiganrunner.tv
May 8-14: On Monday, ran a 14:32 3-mile in a dual meet with CMU. On Saturday, Don ran a 4:16 mile in his regional. Geesh, he was faster than me and three years younger! May 15-21: 2-mile race Friday in 9:21. Don took third in the state meet mile in a sophomore class record 4:16.1 (which would stand until Dathan Ritzenhein broke it in the mid-1990s). Total week: 103 miles. May 22-28: Rested on Tuesday, hip sore. Drove to Ashland, Ohio, Thursday for the NCAA College Division National T&F meet. Spent all day Friday outside on a hot, sunny day. Train-wreck steeple race on Saturday where I felt ill after 1/2 mile and finished toward the back. Dang. Puked on the way home from heat stress. May 29-July 2: Easy runs with weeks between 47 and 60 miles. July 3-9: Started running a bit more and began as a counselor at Clear Lake Camp in Jackson County. July 10-Aug. 6.: Had to run at 6:30 each morning to get back in time to muck out horse stalls. Got in 60 to 65 miles a week on back country dirt roads (deer flies and all).