Richard Westbrook is our guest on LHRL #50. Having fallen out of shape, experienced the pleasure of both natural aging along with a back surgery, he was unable to do one push-up, sit-up, and a pull-up was a “pipe dream”. Despite doctors telling him that he would never run again, Richard decided to try CrossFit and found enough courage and strength to go out and run a mile.
The rest is history. Below is some of Richard’s accomplishments:
Richard Westbrook Age: 64 (9/9/52)
Started Crossfit, April 2011.
Weighed almost 200#, couldn’t do a situp, pushup, or pullup. Couldn’t have run to the mailbox. Switched to Paleo Diet in August and lost 20# in 20 days. (Nutritional ketosis since early 2012.) Decided to tempt fate by running 1 mile for time – 8:04; repeated two weeks later 8:01.
Called former client (National class Master’s Swimmer) to get him to try Crossfit; he politely declined and suggested I run in the TN Senior Olympics. That was a “Ha-Ha!” moment.
Rarely do Crossfit these days. Weight train for sprinting 3x week. Sprint train 3-5x week.
Competitions & Results
Tennessee Senior Games, State Championships, 60-64yo
400 Meters
Gold (3),
Silver (1),
Bronze (1)
* All-American standard
2012, 2013, 2015 2016
2014*
200 Meters
Gold (1) 2015
800 Meters
(4th once) 2014. “Never again.”
National Senior Games
2013 Cleveland, OH 2015 St Paul, MN 2017 Birmingham, AL * All-American standard
Tore plantar tendon at 200m; finished, but no Finals Qualified for Finals* & placed 5th *.
(June)
Best 400 meters in competition: 1:04.19 (2015 National Senior Games, prelims.) Best 200 meters in competition: 28.97 (2105, Memphis District meet)
Best 100 meters in competition: 13.41 (2015, Memphis District meet)
Best 50 meters in competition: 7.37 (2016, Memphis District meet)
Competitions by year:
07/14/12
06/22/13 07/28/13
06/21/14 06/22/14
06/20/15 06/21/15
07/12/15 07/13/15
06/25/16
TSO, Franklin 400m, 1.05.96 1st
TSO, Franklin 400m, 1:06.61 1st
2013 Senior National Games, Cleveland, Tore the left PF @ 200m; 1:31.
TSO, Franklin 400m, 1:04.92; 3rd USATF AA standard!
TSO, Franklin 800m, 2:43.27; 4th Qualified for 2015 Nationals.
TSO, Franklin 400m, 1:06.06; 1st TSO, Franklin 200m, 29.75 1st
NSG St Thomas Track, St Paul, MN. Prelims. 1:04.19 (PR) Qualified 2nd (of 8) NSG St Thomas Track, St Paul, MN. Finals 1:04.30 5th Place
TSO Franklin 400m, 1:07.7 2nd tweaked L ham at 320m
Misc. Weight lifting benchmarks
Dead Lift
1RM 275
1RM 300 (hexbar)
Back Squat 1RM 275
Bench Press 1RM 205
5/2016 9/2016
4/2017 12/2016