faster with age

March 29, 2024

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Location:

Preston,Id,USA

Member Since:

Mar 09, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:


2009 TOU Half Marathon 1:25:06

2010 St George Painter's Half Marathon 1:25:24

2011 Jan. St George [Painter's] Half Marathon different course 1:25:28

2011 Apr. Boston Marathon 3:03:24

2011 May Ogden 5K 18:18

2011 July 4th 15K Freedom Run 58:53

2011 July Deseret News 10K 37:12

2011 Oct St George Marathon 2:58:18

Short-Term Running Goals:

Sub 18 min. 5k

1:24  Half

 Sub 3 at St George in Oct.

Get injury free and stay that way

Set new PRs at all distances now that I'm 50

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

17:30 5K

2:50 marathon

Personal:

I was born in 1960

I started running in 2006

I am married with a 16 year old son [that lives with my wife and I] and a 30 year old step son and 25 year old step daughter

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
7.001.001.000.000.009.00

This morning I wanted to do some hills. I found on a couple of my earlier recovery attempts that I could run a harder effort up a steep hill going slow with less hamstring pain than that same effort on the level. I felt like it was because of the shorter stride length. At the same time running faster down the hill lengthens the stride back out but the easier effort seems to put less strain on the hamstrings.

I have a mile long hill by my house that climbs 240 feet. The sign at the top calls it a 6 percent grade but the first and last 200s taper off a bit. I started with a 3 1/2 mi. warmup on the level at about 8:45 pace then down the hill in 7:22 back up in 9:28 then down in 6:55 which is faster than my current mp but probably a slow mp effort with the hill. then back up in 8:08 which was definatly a threshold effort.I didn't plan on going that hard on the last hill but the hamstring felt strong and I couldn't resist. I felt pretty good since this is the hardest effort I have run any distance in 5 months.I finished with 1 1/2 cooldown with a total of 9mi. total time 1:11 overall ave. 8:26

Comments
From Tom on Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 17:55:29

Hi Dave - thanks for the comments on my blog. I thought I'd take a shot a responding to your questions regarding my improvements over the last year....

Before joining the blog I did see some improvement over the years but nothing like what I've seen since being on the blog and getting the valuable insight and training tips from the many great runners on the blog, especially from Sasha.

The biggest thing that held me back before the blog was in trying to improve by taking shortcuts like a 3-4 day-a-week running schedule with relatively low mileage most of the year (20-40 miles per week), with some speedwork thrown in. I did get far enough on this type schedule to qualify for Boston but I sputtered a whole lot along the way and had numerous injury problems, especially as I got older.

Then Sasha extolled to me the value of not worrying about speed so much but just focus on building base slowly up to 60-80 miles per week, initially all run at an easy pace. Then once you get used to this load (took me about 3 weeks of consecutive 60 mile weeks to get to this point), then start throwing in a tempo run every week (one initially, then after a while added a second longer/slower tempo run). These tempo runs are typically from 3-10 miles and vary from 10K pace on the shorter ones to 1/2 marathon pace for the medium length runs and marathon pace for the long ones. Then perhaps an occasional race (once a month?) just to keep things fun and interesting.

That's pretty much it. You have to have the patience of Job on this schedule, probably the biggest problem people run into when they try to do this is that they build mileage too fast and/or run too fast too soon in their impatience to get faster. When in doubt on pace I try to error on the side of slowness. I find if I don't do this sometimes I won't have enough energy for those 1 or 2 days a week when I DO want to push hard on the tempo runs.

Hope this is helpful. I really think this will work for most anyone, I'm certainly not a born runner, mediocre at best. But with months of consistent, focused training it's quite amazing the adaptations your body will make.

Of course being on the blog and setting goals provides that extra bit of motivation to hang tough during the slumps when you don't want to put in the work.

From Tom on Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 17:57:11

I forget to mention a few secondary factors that are also important to success on this program...these include eating at least a somewhat healthy diet, getting enough sleep, and eliminating stresses from your life. It helps alot of the spouse/family is on board.

From steve ashbaker on Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 18:50:38

Welcome to the Blog! I have relatives that live in Preston.

From Dave S on Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 08:35:14

Tom thanks for the info. That helps a lot. I also have been running low miles the last 2 years 25-35 a week. I really wasn't running any easy miles except warm up and cool down and long runs. Of course long runs arn't easy but at easy pace.From some things I had read I got the idea that older runners needed more recovery time and that I was better off not running at all on a recovery day.I certainly want to give this a shot after seeing the success you and some other runners on this blog have had. I guess I'm already on my way because of my injury I have only been able to run easy miles for a while anyway.I'm excited to try this and easy miles are so much more enjoyable anyway sounds like a win win.I also was able to run a BQ time but the last part of both my marathons were terrible and I slowed down a lot.I think this should help a lot.

Steve thanks for the welcome

From Tom on Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 08:40:48

I think your right that with older runners especially in some cases I know guys who do better by cross-training on recovery as an alternative to running on those days. I know for me personally I'm OK running 6 days but sometimes my recovery runs are REALLY, really slow.

Good luck with your training.

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