MASTERS
DAY After DAY
BY BRETT LARNER rest days.” As a corollary, Hosaka believes
it’s important to let your body use its natural healing processes to overcome injuries.
He’s against both the massage and acupunc-
ture treatments popular among Japanese
marathoners, and painkillers and medicines,
saying, “Animals don’t get massages or use
medicine but they’re strong. We should be
YOSHIHISA HOSAKA’S ZEST FOR LIFE is clear the second you like animals.” Instead, he uses weightlifting
talk to him. A former masters national surfing champion who lives in a moun- to prevent and treat injuries by strengthen-
taintop ocean-view home he built himself at the tip of the Izu Peninsula ing counterbalancing muscles.
south of Tokyo, Hosaka, 60, ran 2:36: 30 at the Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Marathon, Hosaka eats a balanced diet, without vita-
a 60+ world record by nearly 2 minutes. His laughter and enthusiasm for mins or supplements, but isn’t fanatical about
running are infectious, but he’s serious when he says, “Anybody, abso- it, even though the company he owns produces
lutely anybody, can run a good time as a master, even a world record, if all-natural food. He doesn’t mind alcohol but
they train right every day.” he cut out the popular Japanese post-race
drinking parties in the lead-up to his world
A state champion-level track runner in junior his reasons for this interval-based training. record. Like most Japanese runners, the shoes
high school, Hosaka quit after high school “Most people,” he says, “can’t keep race pace he trains in would elsewhere be considered rac-to pursue surfing. When he was 36, friends up for a long time as they get older. Doing it ing flats, but he’s not picky about the brands or
asked him to run in an amateur Ekiden relay in intervals lets you keep your speed without models he uses. “I don’t have a shoe sponsor,”
race, and his interest in running rekindled. getting hurt.” His method also has marathon- he laments, “so I just use whatever I can find
He began to win local road races and, at age specific psychological benefits. “Early on it’s for less than 5,000 yen [$50].”
42, scored a trip to the Honolulu Marathon easy, but after a few days it’s harder and you Hosaka’s regimen allows him to keep
after winning a 7K race. “Up until then I was
just running 5 and 10K races and thought the
marathon was another world,” he recalls.
With no idea how to tackle a marathon,
Hosaka trained based on things he had read
in track and field magazines back in high
school about Olympians’ training. He finished Honolulu in 2:31: 19 and over the next
three years refined his training to the point
of a personal best of 2:25: 28 in the 1994 Lake
Biwa Marathon at age 45.
His training principles are remarkably
simple: Hosaka runs identical workouts every
day without fail. At 5: 30 a.m. he jogs 1. 5 miles
through the mountains to a cherry tree-lined
riverbank path where he does 5 x 1K, starting at 6:25/mile pace and working down to
5:20/mile, followed by another 1.5-mile jog
Hosaka on his regular morning training run on the Izu Peninsula.
back through the mountains to his home. He
works from 8: 30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., then think, ‘Ah, this is like the 30K point in the running times people half his age would be
drives to a park with a 600m concrete brick marathon,’ then it gets even harder like at proud of — and then recover quickly. As a
loop. After some simple strength exercises, 40K. Every day’s training becomes like part dry run for Beppu-Oita he did December’s
Hosaka warms up with 20 laps, starting at of the marathon. Most people run a hard day Fukuoka International Marathon just before
9:30/mile pace and gradually building to 8 and then jog an easy day, but the marathon his 60t birthday, clocking 2:34: 23. He caught
minutes/mile. Next he goes onto the road is constant and you have to train yourself to a cold and had some aches and pains two
outside the park and again runs 5 x 1K, this handle that constant.” weeks before Beppu-Oita and, despite his
time on a long downhill at 6 minute/mile Perhaps most importantly, he finds joy at the world record, was disappointed he
pace down to 5:20/mile, the jog back up serv- training the same way each day gives you couldn’t match his Fukuoka time.
ing as recovery. To cap off the workout he insight into your body and into detecting He’s sure that his record can be broken if
runs 5 x 100m accelerations on a soft dirt field changes and problems. “Runn ing inter- other masters runners believe they can reach
in the center of the park to practice his fin- vals every day you can understand, ‘OK, such times and train intelligently. He’s not
ishing kick. at 3K my knee starts to hurt,’ and learn to sure if he’ll still be going strong enough to
And that’s it. No long runs, no sustained expect it and cope with it. You also know crack ED WHI TLOCK’s age- 70 record, but
pace runs, but he totals about 20 miles a day, right away when something’s going well or having seemingly discovered the secret of
every day, w ith more than 10K at or faster wrong because it feels easier or harder than eternal youth it looks like Hosaka’s best races
than marathon pace. Hosaka is clear on the day before. You lose that when you take are still ahead of him. •
From Left: Mika Tokairin( 2) Chuck Bartlett/ clubnorthwest.org
WORLD RECORD MARATHONER YOSHIHISA
HOSAKA’S UNORTHODOX TRAINING
