Humbled and Amazed at the same time

Reading Yahoo sports a day or so ago I ran across a story about Willie Gault. If you're a football fan you will know the name. Gault was one of these guys that was a lightening fast track runner that decided to give football a try. He played college ball at Tennessee and played for 13 years with the Chicago Bears. He was their "go to" receiver when they won the Super Bowl in 1985. He also has a Gold Medal from the 1984 Olympics in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

Today Willie Gault is 48 years old. He does lot's of things to stay busy and competes in Master's (for the old guys!) track and field meets. His 10.80 clocking at Mt. SAC a couple weeks ago – not bad for his first 100 of the season – was only seven tenths of a second slower than his personal best nearly 30 years ago.

Read that again - was only seven tenths of a second slower than his personal best nearly 30 years ago. And he was WORLD CLASS then.

Are you kidding me?

No, no I'm not. So how does Gault defy age? Clearly he has genetics working for him, but I will NOT cheapen this accomplishment with that as a reason. Try this reason first:

Gault weighs the same 176 to 178 pounds he did 25 years ago (how many people in ANY field can say THIS). He eats sparingly, loves his vegetables and organic foods, and eschews meat. “If a fish walked I wouldn’t eat it,” he said.

How about this one second:

He said he abstains from the popular vices: “No drugs, no drinking, no smoking.”

And last but in my opinion the most important reason:

Gault doesn’t lift as much weight as younger sprinters, but he still benches 225 pounds 10 times for three sets, and squats nearly 200 pounds during his four 90-minute sessions per week.

My only beef with this is doing 10 reps. But remember, Gault is training to be a sprinter, so massive bulk is a negative. But still, he benches 50 lbs more than his body weight for 30 reps.

So let's see, eat right, watch your weight, a clean and healthy life style. Oh and weight train 90 minutes 4 times a week.

Sounds like a good anti-aging fitness plan to me.