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Photo by Diane Wilkes. David Wilkes, proud Geezer Jock, standing under his pull-up bar and "Sweat Lodge", weight room, formerly a kids' playhouse.
David Wilkes, 63, Dunwoody, Ga., Masters track.
What motivates you to exercise?
The feeling of being fit! I remember the lethargy in the evenings when I wasn't working out. In 2011 (when I was 52), my daughter started running cross-country as a high school freshman, and I decided then to start exercising again so that I could run with her. I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life and had an "inner tube" forming around my waist, so it was a good decision to start then. I could only do 10 minutes on an exercise bike when I first started and now I work out almost every day of the week. It just feels good!
Do you have any training tips that are not typical?
I do a bootcamp style full-body workout several times a week with a group called F3 (see F3Nation.com). It has given me an amazing base level of fitness that I never had before I started doing it. Incorporating that type of workout in addition to my running and biking has given me a much better overall fitness level compared to running alone. It usually is a 45-minute to hour long workout that is never the same twice because it is led by peers in the group who trade off developing and leading it.
What is on your bucket list of things athletically, physically?
One of my goals is to run at the World Masters Athletics Championships. I have competed at the USATF Nationals many times, but I do want to test myself against the best in the world in my age group. I'm keeping a look-out for when it is going to be held in a part of the world that I've never been to so that I can include a vacation trip afterwards!
What was your worst training injury and what helped you recover?
I had a recurring hamstring pull one winter (injured it 3 times in training and the 4th time at the Indoor National Championships in the 400 m), and I finally decided to go to a physical therapist to have a professional help me get over it. It took three months of work following their instructions to the letter, but after that, I was back to racing speed again with no recurrence. It taught me that it is better to go ahead and bite the bullet and stop training so that you can get to full recovery quicker than trying to do it on your own.
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