W75 star Mary Harada, a frequent voice on this blog, has fessed up. She attributes her back-to-back mile world records to performance-enhancing “nonfat yogurt — (especially) frozen — coffee and chocolate.” But she’s gracious as well as funny. Mary writes: “I have a coach — Cathy Utzschneider, the coach for Liberty Athletic Club — who makes out a schedule for me focusing on my various target races. Cathy deserves a lot of credit for making this work for me. She has been our club coach for the past 4-5 years; when I am not training for specific races, I do whatever the workout is for the week (we have a coached track session once a week) when I am focusing on a goal — she gives me weeks of programs to get ready for the mile, the meet, whatever. This has made a great difference for me.” In a wide-ranging email exchange, Mary also describes her 8:11 and 7:55 mile world records in recent weeks, including last weekend’s Hayward Masters Classic.

Here’s a mash-up of Mary’s comments, replying to my questions this week:

Yes, I had a specific plan for the effort to get the WR in the mile and now I have a program to get ready for nationals and hopefully do well in the 5K and the 1500. I am not going to spell it out as it is specific for me — where I am in my training, my specific strengths and weaknesses, need for recovery, etc. It would not necessarily work for someone else. Cathy is a great coach and I am fortunate to have her as our club coach and my friend.

I take a couple of prescription allergy and asthma meds — only one requires a TUE — and I get a TUE every year that I participate in WMA meets, hither and yon.  If the “purists” think that taking a drug requiring a TUE is cheating, I ask them to try running around the track with a plastic bag tied over their heads.  That is what is feels like when I get an asthma attack and cannot get a deep breath and start wheezing.   Come try my world first before you make such stupid remarks.

What did I expect to run in Eugene? I hoped to run faster than the 8:11.  The 8:11 mile (on her 75th birthday, June 17, in Massachusetts) was one of the most miserable races of my life.  It was cool and rainy – and I started wheezing before I got around the first turn on the track.  The race went south from then on — and had it not been for the fact that my husband,  coach and a number of club members were there and the meet director made the effort to have everything right in case I got the record, I would have stepped off the track and called it off.  Each lap was slower and more painful than the prior one. 

In Eugene it was fairly dry and not especially hot, a bit of wind on the backstretch. When I saw the clock about 1:54 — and the official called out 1:54 at the 400m line — I knew it would be better. No wheeze. The cheers of encouragement all around the track were much appreciated.  I did not have anyone to chase as the other four women in the race were running much faster.

Jeanette (Groesz) led that pack with a 6:04, so I was just running by the clock and trying to maintain even splits.  At Hayward Field there is a clock on the scoreboard that is visible at about 250m and down the home stretch.  It makes it fairly easy to get a sense of where one is in the race.   No pacer this time. I think that if I had someone in front of me to chase, I might get a faster time but that rarely happens for me these days.

(Previous W75 mile record-holder) Suzi (MacLeod) was there and was very gracious in her congratulations.  I was very happy for her when she got an AR in the W75 800 on Sunday.  We both know that records are made to be broken and in fact help in motivating us to train harder.

I have another mile race coming up at the Bay State Games on July 10.  I am not sure if that is a sanctioned meet — and it is likely to be very hot. The race is in the early afternoon and the past several years is has been very hot for that meet.  It will depend upon the heat and humidity.  If the temps are high and it is very humid, I may not run the race.  After that — probably not until next summer as outdoor sanctioned mile races are hard to find.

Hardest WR in my age group? Probably – for me – the 1500 (6:41) and the 3K (14:01). I will not get those. The woman who set the 3K and 5K (24:32), Melitta Czerwenka-Nagel, was the IAAF Masters Woman Athlete of the Year. She set a bunch of indoor and outdoor WRs in 2006 when she was 75.   I had the experience of having her pass me as she set the indoor WR for the 3K in Linz.  She is an amazing athlete and a very nice person.  The woman who set the 1500 WR in 2006 — I have not run against her in any WMA meet in Europe. 
      
No other WR (attempts) this outdoor season for me, but I am looking at the AR in the 1500 and 5K- if possible – and if I can find a sanctioned  3K (my favorite distance) I would love to get that AR as well.  

Media recognition (after the mile records)? No, but around here that happens when I send out something — and I have not done that yet. USATFNE website has a notice about it.  I am thinking about sending something to the local paper, but the last time I did that I did not get a response from the sports reporter.  The Boston Globe weekly regional section reporter did a piece on the Hall of Fame (which the local paper had no interest in). Probably I will email him this week; just been a bit busy since I got back. 

As for my workouts and diet — state secret. Seriously, I am not on “a diet” of any special source, not a vegetarian or vegan. I am married to a Japanese so we eat a lot of white rice along with veggies and some meat or fish but not large portions.  I eat a fair amount of Greek yogurt with fruit. 

Perhaps I should say that I credit it all to  my husband’s multigrain bread-machine bread, which I have for breakfast along with two eggs and Peet’s Kenya AA coffee.  Dark chocolate helps, as does Argentine Malbec or German Riesling or in the warmer weather a nice cold bottle of Otter Creek Copper Ale.