Best Of

Nice running CD. I managed first old woman (4th woman overall) but no bling and given it was basically a poor (if expected) performance I can't take much from it.

There's no way I could do it without a number on OuchOuch?WTGY.

Nice to feel that the training is coming together WTGY.

TR - I ran it off the back of my highest mileage week this year so shouldn't moan, eyes on the prize in ten weeks.

Mike

I never got those sort of miles. This is my preparation for VLM 2012 so it started in October 2011. The basic plan was to run shorter races over the summer of 2011 following a spring marathon and that culminated with the Cabbage Patch 10 in October in 59:26. Following that 10, I built up to 20 before the end of 2011, a mile a week. The hardest was that week with the 19 mile run knowing that just one mile extra and 20 would be done but having the discipline to stop and go out a few weeks later and do the 20. That was the base building phase and getting the miles up slowly and controlled.

The campaign was roughly P&D up to 55 miles but I stretched a few of the long runs. The key session was the mid week run so once I was at a long run of 20 I started to introduce a second medium long run so my the end of the campaing I was doing a 13 or 14 mile as well as the long one plus one faster session. The other days were general or recovery.

Welcome, mike.  FWIW I didn't do 70mpw until I had been running for about 6 years, and I probably made the jump from 50mpw to 70mpw too quickly: I have slightly grim memories of being tired all the time for about 2 months the first time I did P&D's up to 70mpw schedule. It did pay off with a 12 minute pb, but on reflection I probably would have got a fairly big PB from 60mpw and then could have done 70mpw for the next campaign.  I find 60mpw is my real sweet spot: 4 weeks at 60mpw brings enormous aerobic gains for me, and then the 70mpw weeks are a bonus.

Drum roll.... I did my first speed work in 4 months last night!  Not much: just 2 x 2km at about marathon pace (came out at 4.11/km for the first 2km chunk and 4.12/km for the second 2km chunk) and then 4 x 500m at about half marathon pace (around 3.50/km for the 500m sections).  Legs feel pretty ok, so hopefully I can gradually extend that over the coming weeks.  I might even get to race in March!

Burgundymike Welcome , As Badbark says the only way to improve your pb is to run more miles not less and maybe focusing on that 1:30 half will get you the extra you need to get your 3:15 goal as the half distance is the nearest to the marathon. The 20 min 5k will probably arrive as a little free bonus along the way ! Age won't be the deciding factor for you just yet though you will have to work a bit harder for any gains than you did in the past .
PMJ well said ,The sub 3 forum is more like 2:30 to 3:00 forum for people who take running very seriously indeed and where 100 mile a week is just ok lol  !!!!
Gul 17 before work is hardcore .

Mike, welcome! 

In terms of age and PBs, the WAVA curves show there is an inevitable decline as you get older. The curves are, however, a statistical average and everyone is an experiment of one so you can clearly buck the trend to some extent. 

For my own interest as much as anything else, the WAVA curves are at 100% for men up to 35, at about 50 they drop to 90% and then by 62 they are at 80%, 74 70%. That means that if you ran a 3:15 at 35 years old and kept the same WAVA grading you would run 3:36 aged 50, 4:03 at 62 and 4:38 at 74.  

The things that go counter to WAVA are, as others say, your running age. You are a relatively new runner and so your legs are adapting and getting stronger so that counters the onset of age. 

The other factor is experience and expectation. For shorter distances, you can experiment so if you do a parkrun each and every Saturday you can afford to go off like the hounds of hell are after you and blow up and adjust that a bit so you eventually hit that magic spot where you die as you cross the line having given it all. For longer distances, it is different. We don't do a marathon each week (unless you are badbark) so most people take a conservative approach with the view that it is better to have a bit in reserve for a strong finish than it is to risk the wheels coming off. That means people set out and do a first marathon in say 3:30 and find it OK. They then set a target a bit faster for the next one and achieve that, and so advance bit by bit, year on year. You could, of course, throw caution to the winds and give it all and you may reap the reward. I did so in 2012 and that got me my PB.

I just had a quick look at www.marathondulac-annecy.com. Looks like it could be a good race to run: course seems flat and quality seems high. I need to think about coming out of semi-retirement and maybe a spring trip to France in the spring is something the wife would buy into.