Meet Todd Straka, threat to beat Nolan Shaheed’s M50 mile WR

Dave Albo photo of Todd at Music City Distance Carnival.

Buried in the open mile results of the Music City Distance Carnival nearly two weeks ago is a fifth-place 4:26.39 by Todd Straka. The Nashville results don’t reveal two key things: Todd is 50, and his time is less than 2 seconds off Nolan Shaheed’s listed world record of 4:25.04 from 2001. So yowza! I had to learn more. Recently I connected with Todd, and was stunned to learn something else: He didn’t run in high school or college, “although I did run about 6:02 for the mile in junior high for the President’s Fitness Test and 12:02 for the 2-mile in a college time trial for a jogging class.” What kept him from becoming a middle-distance star? He played that sport with a strange-looking ball on a field with horizontal stripes. “Yeah, I played football for my first two years,” he wrote. “Since we had to run for football and it was usually part of training or punishment, I didn’t really think much about it after that. I may have even thought to myself as I noticed friends in cross country, why would they want to go through that punishment?”

He says he started running for fitness in college since he was taking a singing class and his teacher relayed a story about an opera singer who’d run 5 miles a day to increase his lung capacity.

“Being the ‘80s — and I wanted to be a rock star — I took it up,” Todd said. “The running lasted much longer than my singing career.”

Todd also found a great coach in his home of Boulder, Colorado — Ric Rojas.

Masterstrack.com: What are your all-time track bests? Where did you run in school or college?

Todd Straka: My all-time bests on the track are my recent results from this year (2017) as these are the first time I have raced the two shorter distances and the mile on the track at sea level:

57 400m Indoor
2:03 800m Outdoor
4:33 Mile Indoor Track – New Balance Grand Prix, Boston
4:26 Mile Outdoor – MCDC
Never have run a 3k, 5k (paced a friend once) or 10k on the track

Before that I only ran road miles, or “C” races on the track in Colorado

Todd during his 4:26 mile in Nashville at age 50. Photo by Dave Albo

Are you permanently in Boulder or still spend time in Santa Barbara?

Lived in Boulder for the last 24 years. Grew up in Santa Barbara, which is why I have a few results from there.

Have splits for your 4:26? Did time surprise you, shock you or disappoint?

I felt like my training was right on pace to run better than 4:24 and aimed to pace it accordingly with a few seconds to spare for tenths of a seconds or race strategy. I was really surprised to see the first three laps as consistent as they were after looking at the splits.

I felt I was in a good place with the first two laps and knew I had to put in an effort on the third to slow down, and knew it would be close with the bell lap, but though I would be able to close it down a bit more at the end.

So in that respect I was slightly disappointed with not being able to lean in for that last second I needed. I knew this was a big audacious goal, so running the best of my ability was my number one goal and that day I felt like I did.

Although looking back, there are always places I imagine I could have moved sooner. But you never know. I had no regrets for this race. It was just fun being a part of the event and chatting with everyone before and afterwards.

This is still a new distance for me in many regards. I’ve raced the mile on the roads for many years (mostly during marathon training) and understand how to run our local race, dealing with altitude and turns and such. But being laser-focused on the track, especially at sea level, is a slightly different story and I still feel I have a lot to learn about how my body responds at sea level.

Mile splits: 1:06.73 – 1:06.78 – 1:06.38 – 48.02 (300m?) – 18.50 (100m?)

Todd during an 800-meter run against the kiddies. Photo by Dave Albo

Will you take any more shots at Nolan’s M50 WR? If so, when and where?

I hope to. I need to find another track meet with the requirements needed, fast field, sea level, FAT timing, etc. I am starting to look around now. Otherwise, I have a few road miles in mind, including the Fifth Avenue Mile.

How do you train — and how often a week?

As of last December, I changed up my approach to the distance – improve my 200-400-800m speed as compared to a 5K strength perspective.

I started working with Ric Rojas, who works with HS kids and masters runners. His approach integrates living at elevation and my lifestyle right now. Meaning not a ton of miles, run hard when needed, specific speed work, be athletic, and modify the rest and repeats according to altitude.

I can’t go out and crush 28-second 200s with only 30 seconds rest. First off, I’ve only run 28 for the 200 for the first time since working with him. But we need more rest here. So I may start at 38s, then step it down from there.

The whole set may average at race pace, but we work into it. This works as well being older. And since I haven’t trained so specifically before, it’s nice because my body can still warm into the set vs. just trying to get out and kill it from the get-go.

We do three days of quality work and the rest is easy with usually at least one day off.

I still love getting out on the trails for easy runs, taking in some views and enjoying the time on my feet.

Still work as a web/IT guy?

I work for Finish Line as a user experience designer on our e-commerce platforms – website, mobile app.

When did you turn 50?

Just turned 50 at the end of April

Anything else my readers should know about your mile and training?

This has been a really fun project for me over the last 2+ years. When I was 47, Brad Barton ran his 4:17 at 48 years old, and I was inspired to take on a new challenge after being a bit burned out on marathon training.

After that, I started adding in mile-specific workouts that I gathered from local coaches and mile standouts like Jay Johnson, Brad Hudson, Dan Reese, Stephen Pifer and Alan Culpepper (not a miler but one of three Americans to run both sub-4 and 2:10 for the marathon).

The challenge is adapting those workouts to what works for me as an individual and being here at elevation. It’s where I was first introduced to the odd distances like 300s and 150s to run at race pace.

I’ve also finally embraced the concept that easy days are EASY and hard days are hard. You have to do what you can as a masters runner, right?!

Print Friendly

June 22, 2017

2 Responses

  1. Matt McCubbins - June 23, 2017

    Thank you for this great story, Ken. It’s one of those cool “out of the woodwork” moments that are so intriguing about our sport.

    Good luck to you Todd!!

  2. .tOnY yOuNg - June 25, 2017

    Hey – didn’t Sean Wade run a 4:20 at 50? If not – sorry.

    Good luck Todd

Leave a Reply