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Turning the clock back
Running_Bear
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in Training
I’ve just turned 50 and I’ve been running for 25 of those years. Between the ages of 25 and 30, I tried my hand at a whole range of distances, and improved at most of them. Then, my career took precedence and, whilst I kept a reasonable level of fitness, I became more of a jogger than an athlete. In my late 40s, I decided to see if I could regain some of my former vigour and started training a bit harder. This was when I discovered that I had lost something in the intervening years – improvement wasn’t just a matter of training harder – if I did that I got injured, or just too tired.
In the intervening years, hard monitors and GPS devices have arrived. The clothing is nicer now. I used to run hard pretty much all of the time – now I’ve been experimenting with doing more easy running. Like many people my age, I’ve been told that I’ve got poor “core stability” – so I’ve been working on that.
I’m still trying to find out what works and what doesn’t work. I’m hoping to share my experiments with others in a similar position. Do you train like you used to, or have you found different approaches that work?
Then, there’s the mental side – how to motivate myself knowing that I’ll probably never break any of my PBs. Do “age-gradings” turn you on? I must admit, they don’t do much for me. But maybe I’m just kidding myself.
My next objective is to get my “old geezer” marathon PB down a bit more. Last year I did 3:05. In this year’s FLM, I did 2:55. Can I take another few minutes off that next year, even though I’ll be a year older?
Maybe, like me, you took time out after setting some good PBs when you were younger and are now trying to get something of that back. Or perhaps, you've just kept going and are trying to keep the aging process at bay as long as you can. Please share your thoughts and experiences with me on this thread.
In the intervening years, hard monitors and GPS devices have arrived. The clothing is nicer now. I used to run hard pretty much all of the time – now I’ve been experimenting with doing more easy running. Like many people my age, I’ve been told that I’ve got poor “core stability” – so I’ve been working on that.
I’m still trying to find out what works and what doesn’t work. I’m hoping to share my experiments with others in a similar position. Do you train like you used to, or have you found different approaches that work?
Then, there’s the mental side – how to motivate myself knowing that I’ll probably never break any of my PBs. Do “age-gradings” turn you on? I must admit, they don’t do much for me. But maybe I’m just kidding myself.
My next objective is to get my “old geezer” marathon PB down a bit more. Last year I did 3:05. In this year’s FLM, I did 2:55. Can I take another few minutes off that next year, even though I’ll be a year older?
Maybe, like me, you took time out after setting some good PBs when you were younger and are now trying to get something of that back. Or perhaps, you've just kept going and are trying to keep the aging process at bay as long as you can. Please share your thoughts and experiences with me on this thread.
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Comments
:-)
Just got back from my run and you have probably gone to bed, but I was also thinking about the thread as maybe - "I just don't fit".
I love to look at the hard marathon training thread and wish I could do that kind of stuff again, enjoy posting on the daily training thread as it helps to motivate me to get out to do a run most days and think maybe, if a new runner needs a few pointers I might be able to point them in the right direction.
I think there are probably a lot of runners out there that just don't fit - maybe younger runners who are just as hooked as us or runners that love to talk about running but don't race anymore, and others that aren't running that particular race that everyone else seems to be.
Not sure really what keeps me going, afraid I have dropped off in a big way - it seems the "age-grading" thing does seem to work for many but I really think the person who is still racing the first woman/man in their minds in the field is the one who is still managing to hold onto respectable times.
Think it is hard to stay hungry, hard to keep training knowing at the back of your mind you are still only going to get a pretty average performance. You can kid yourself and think you're not doing too badly, but for example last Saturday, I was doing a longish run - 14 miles - a there and back course up to the TV mast in the Waitakere Ranges, running with a few guys, (not young either) and one in particular was pulling away on the hills and and had just run a 3.40 marathon the week before. Now, I thought to myself, he didn't run the marathon hard enough or I'm certainly not in any shape to line up to run a marathon on June 6th!!
Just like you Tom - do I run because I can or do you wait till you think you have a chance of running a respectable marathon.
I've booked my air tickets, paid my entry fee - it looks like I'm going whether it's going to be a bit of a nightmare or not!
As for you Tom, being so long since you ran a marathon - I think maybe you should just slip quietly into one, get it over and done with, not worrying too much about the time and work from there - what do you think?
Unlike yourself, who never actually stopped running, I actually had a 25 year period when I didn’t do it at all. During that period I paid no attention to the sport, was totally unaware of the improvements in technology, only vaguely aware of a running boom and didn’t realize that there was such a thing as sports science.
As a result of those inattentive years, my mindset about running and training hadn’t really changed that much, so when I started again I thought it would be very much “more of the same”. That was my first big mistake. I wanted to train hard but initially my old body wouldn’t let me. At that time I couldn’t work out whether it was physical weakness or whether I needed to bring my training techniques up to date. In retrospect, of course, I now see it was a combination of both. Coming to terms with that, has been, and still is a long and frustrating process. Running is an empirical discipline, in that most training is a process of trial and error. Had I been a newcomer I would probably just would have jumped onto some published schedule and taken it from there. However, as I said before, I came back into it, with the old mindset, and now I was finding that current thinking was casting into doubt many of the training principles I used to rely on. This I think is one of the hardest parts of the comeback, namely trying to approach the training with a clear view of what I should be doing. I know that everyone has this problem, but in addition I had to overcome the possibility that there was a better way than that of 25 years ago.
How do you react to the need to reconstruct cherished beliefs. Easy, don’t. So I willfully carried on training the way I had always done….second big mistake.
Hmmm, two big mistakes already, and I haven’t even hit my stride yet (excuse the metaphor). Hopefully if this thread prospers, the catalogue of my mistakes may hit double figures. Some of them have been remedied, and it will be useful and instructive to share some of those ideas with fellow geezers.
I got into a mindset of more miles = faster times. And that's all there was to it.
So all I needed to do was to run more miles to post faster race times.
Trouble is it didn't work. I refused to ever back off or rest and had to write off the first 4 months of this year.
It's a balance between choosing an approach and having the belief and dedication to stick to it whilst at the same time having the humility to listen and admit you may be making a mistake. The 2nd part is hard, particularly when running is taking the place of more important things missing in your life.
Hey, happy birthday mate! I'd be interested to know why you stopped running so completely, and then why you started again.
In my case, I have always enjoyed running and I hope I always will. So that's been my main motivation and that's why I never stopped. Although I stopped doing races back in the 80s, I still did the London Marathon occasionally as it's my local "fun run". :-)
Trying to remember back, I think I started to train harder again when I saw my finish times in my semi-annual marathon outings slipping ... 3:09, 3:10, 3:15 ...
I then thought, maybe that should be my benchmark for slowing the decline into "geezerhood" - an annual marathon to get/keep fit for. Turned out to be harder than I bargained for...
I also look at Mike Gratton's training plans and just can't contemplate doing that much training. So, I'm an occasional lurker there rather than a "full member".
One of the things I've found is that training plans aren't for me because I feel I'm always "a bit close to the edge" as far as injuries are concerned. I have to see how I feel after I wake up in the morning to decide what I can manage that day (as well as fitting it around work commitments). So, I've built a general pattern of three "key sessions" in the week, which seems to suit me better:
Sunday: Long hilly run
Mid-week: Hilly, medium-long run
Later in the week: Tempo run (30 mins hard in the middle of an hour's run)
Apart from the Sunday obviously, I try and fit in the other key sessions depending on how the body feels (or don't do them at all). I try and have a general mileage target for the week, mainly as a way of gently increasing the training load in a build-up.
The biggest thing I've found is "don't get injured". As I've got older, it just seems impossible to get back from injuries.
I've found some other things, but I'll save them for another post.
Do you work to a plan when building to a big race?
I admire the honesty of the confession at the end of your post. And, of course, when you've put so much into running, that's when the thought of not running (even for a couple of days) gets so hard to bear.
It's a fine line to tread and, as you say, you don't always know if you're just about to fall off it, or if it's just a "wobble".
As for your first point - my trouble exactly. You don't wake up one day and find out you're old. It just creeps up on you. They key I think is to learn to recognise the feedback you get from the body so you can tell the difference between "normal" soreness and tiredness and when it is becoming something else.
I certainly went through a period in my 20s of being totally obsessed with training,racing,and times,i remember not collecting a medal once,because my time was a couple of minutes slower than what i thought it should be.
BR,i was the same as you,miles,miles miles,in the end i broke down,and and nearly got divorced over running.
Now i race and train but keep it all in perspective,family first,and i listen to my body.I clocked just over 3 hours for the FLM this year,although slower than previous runs....far far more enjoyable.
We were men on a mission, and I do believe that we provided a breeding ground for the dominance of British distance running in that decade. However, as happens to most young men, we grew older, put on weight, and gradually we became back of the packers, overtaken by the next generation of tough guys. I suspect that if you were to ask any of the old gang what caused them to stop running, they would be pushed to remember. Maybe it was an injury that never cleared up, the birth of a child, a promotion at work or simply we just got too slow to do it any more.
One minute you’re a road warrior, the next minute your facing a mid life crisis. Well that’s what happened to me, the time span was 25 years, but to be honest it seemed like minutes. From super fit twenty something to out o condition fifty something in the blink of an eyelid. I suppose the only way I can explain it is that I must have fallen into a Rip Van Winkle type slumber. When I awoke, everything had changed. Instead of burn up bandits bombing their way around the suburbs, we now had lycra clad lovelies and health and fitness devotees galloping along on treadmills down at the local fitness centers. Frankly, I wasn’t impressed, these people weren’t runners, it was just a parody of what I once did.
But then I took a look at myself. Ok, so I didn’t measure up to the man I once was, there’s twenty five years of excuses to explain that one away, but to be honest my self scrutiny didn’t even stand comparison with the new, in my view, lesser breed of runner. But surely nothing that a few months hard training couldn’t remedy. After all I’m a bit of a hard nut, I’ve done it all before and I can do it all again – or so I thought.
Try telling that to my calves, knees, ankles and connective tissues. This is the body of an old man we are dealing with here, and it was telling me that my days as a road warrior were long gone. However just as I started to think this was a fool’s errand, and that perhaps it was a fantasy that I could do all this again, things began to pick up. The first thing I noticed was that in the morning I could actually get across the bedroom without holding on to the furniture. The next thing I noticed was that if I slowed down just a little, the actual running became quite pleasurable, in fact, dare I say it, fun.
Mind you, despite this improved sense of well being, I still wanted to be able to run fast. The old me kept insisting that all you had to do was to train hard, and that anyone who didn’t train hard, just wasn’t trying. Trouble is, when I said fast, I meant as fast as the old days. It seemed you could take the runner out of the elite, but you couldn’t take the elite out of the runner.. It took me a fair while, a lot of frustration and a lot of painful miles to come to terms with the fact that it just wasn’t going to happen. What’s more the harder I tried, the less fun it became. Then the penny dropped.
I'm more like you, been running forever. Was a good x-country runner as a kid then made a big come-back after the birth of my first child - 1975 and apart from 1979 when I was pregnant with my second child, I've pretty much been running ever since.
My best running was in the '80s and thought to myself that I had a jump on the rest of the girls running as I'd already had my kids but they just put off having them! Then I turned 35 and a chance to start winning again kept me at it. I had another big push when I turned 39 as I thought I would make it as a master - was ranked 10th master with a 2.53 time on the start-line in Boston but blew-up and ran 3.06.
Think the most important thing is trying to keep the balance - family coming first in my life.
I at 55 have got to another stage in my life where both sets of parents have passed away, have 2 beautiful grandaughters and they just like my kids used to think all mothers/grandmothers run!
My biggest motivation at the moment is a 56 year old woman here in NZ who has got all the world best times for nearly all the distances I think and needs to run 2.51 for the marathon record.
Her first marathon was in 1981 and she ran 3.40 something while I ran 2.56 and we have completely reversed our times. She has run 100 marathons and me - 30.
What I really want to do is to try to keep on running till I'm 60 and go to a World Vet Games and run the 1500 and the marathon.
I don't get injuries, well not from miles, I have busted a rib and got severe bruising on my legs from accidents on the bike and on trail runs, other than that no sign of wear and tear.
My goals are to keep improving at all distances, although Mara is the top goal. I really am hooked on multi sport and particularly adventure and big endurance races. So on or before my 60th birthday I intend to do the NZ c2c race. I'll call in for a cuppa NZC!
I think I cut you short - looking forward to reading the rest of it. One thing too, you wouldn't have had many women to contend with - running in the '70s.
Trini - make sure you stop in Auckland then before you head off to the South Island.
I think a lot of runners do head to adventure running/triathlons when they start to think they will stop improving their running and it seems very exciting.
One of my girlfriends did exactly that - she broke 3hrs for the marathon and then headed off to the world of Triathlons - I've lost count how many Ironman races shes done. But me, can't swim, too scared to bike but do like off-road running.
I'm off to bed - will catch up in the morning.
I can concur but from a lightly different angle - rugby. In my late teens I was a rugby freak - nothing existed bar rugby - but when I left home for University a whole new vista opened - let's call it sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. So I got sidetracked and packed the game in to concentrate on foolish things. I left Uni, got a job, piled the pounds on and did no exercise for 5 years in total until I moved and met a guy playing for a local junior club who persuaded me to take the sport up again. So I did but that 5 year layoff really showed - I was no longer as fit, muscular, aggressive or any of the characteristics I needed to get to the top - I had missed my chance to play top class rugby. Was I pissed or what?? Yep but I had to accept that I had missed my chance due my own stupidity.
but I carried on playing till I was 40 and just going out to enjoy the game - still competitive - but no longer thinking I was the best. I retired to take up other sports - rugby had been too much of my life for too long and I needed to try new things. at 49 I took up running more seriously to aim at my first marathon at 50 - being a prop I was never going to be a fast runner like you guys here - but I still had a target (which I missed but later got) and enjoyed it and have kept running since at all sorts of distances and was getting PB's in summer 2005. and I got into triathlon and did an Ironman last year.
and Ironman taught me one other thing - don't get obsessive about training when there is a significant other in your life and one of 30 years standing. I got obsessive and nearly lost her as I cut her out of my life. I was stupid and I won't be doing that again.
I guess what I'm saying is that you'll never recapture your best years so just go out and be as physically active as you can and enjoy it. compete if you want but don't get hung up about not being the best, and just do it to the best of your ability. the only person I compete with now is myself - a bit better here, a bit better there, learn a new lesson etc.
rugby has changed a lot in the last 10 years and in some ways I wish I was still playing but I know I, and time, have moved on so I'll just remember what it was like and keep myself fit by other means.
at 53 I still have loads I want to do but my persepective has changed now - take life for what it is and enjoy it.
I’m slightly younger….I turn 40 three days before this year’s Abingdon marathon :-)
I started running in the early eighties with a steady improvement until 1989 (aged 22). Then I met Mrs TT and my world crumbled ;-) Was guilty of burning the candle at both ends, and ended up with glandular fever. From that time onwards, I have been on a never-ending comeback trail. Some very good periods of training (particularly the early-mid 90s) got me back to my earlier level, only to be lost again due to outside pressures.
Like Tom, I’m an accountant and from time to time work takes over my life. We now have a young daughter, who is wonderful, but further reduces my available time for running (through my choice).
I still harbour dreams of running PBs, but on the evidence of the last 15 years that is unlikely. I am an eternal optimist though.
I have big weight problems when I am not in full training. I need to sort those out before I can know for certain whether or not I am capable of recapturing past glories.
The spirit may be willing but there are physical limitations nowadays on what load the body can carry and coming to terms with that has been incredibly difficult.
Modified training, recovery days, "easy" runs, training with a HRM, core strengh and stability work, stretching and flexibility improvements are all new tricks for an old dog. But still the old targets are elusive and six months out with chronic achilles tendonitis, abdominal surgery and viral illness in neat succession have given me time to rethink attitudes.
I still found myself looking around at fellow runners in a 10K on Saturday and thinking "they don't look like real athletes, what am I doing here?:-)"
truth was that's where my pace put me!
Keep it coming. I especially liked the phrase "in the morning I could actually get across the bedroom without holding on to the furniture". LOL!
NZC
So, are you getting faster again, or slowing less fast than others your age? Although there's a lot of satisfaction in just running, it's also nice to have some goals. For me I think it's just to keep improving again, from the starting point of 3:05. But what do I do if I find that I can't - train harder/smarter/longer, or accept the inevitable?
Trini
(Nice picture by the way!)
It's good that you don't get injured (touch wood). I think part of my problem is that I just want to keep pushing the training as hard as I can cope with, without getting injured. That puts me right on the edge the whole time. Silly really, I know.
I've got cycling to fall back on when I can't run, but I don't enjoy it as much as I did.
I'd be interested to know from other "oldies" what it is that limits the volume/intensity of training that you do (aside from your other commitments). In my case, it's the legs. My heart rate & breathing is relatively easy at pretty much all speeds, but I have to keep holding back or I know that my legs will complain the next day.
quite often it's CBA syndrome - Can't Be Arsed!!
I recognise that "there are physical limitations nowadays on what load the body can carry". I just wish I knew what they were! Your six months out sounds horrible.
I was thinking I should change my name to Lazarus - comebacks are now my speciality:-)
I have adopted a more cautious and measured build up to training, taking a rest day when my body feels increasingly wiped out.
Obviously the maxim of increasing training load by 10% a week applied to others and not to me but maybe there is something in it:-)
This is a great thread and a really interesting read. I can't really contribute as although I am 41, I only found running 3 years ago so have no comparisons of younger days.
However, I like the rest of you am chasing my dream. And I have quite a few of them! I guess many of you have had had to re-adjust your dreams and that must be tough.
So keep it coming as it's all good stuff!
:0)
I've got a million questions in my head but will wait a bit until I can order my thoughts and think of a sensible one.