You Think You're Old and Fit?
I dropped my bike off at the framebuilder's today for repair after my encounter with a pickup 9-18. The owner of the bike shop talked my ear off. Among other things, he showed me an article he'd written for our regional bike rag about his father in the bay area, who decided to ride 90 miles on his 90th birthday. I told him I'd just like to hit the first part of that equation (the age), forget about the second. The guy started riding seriously at age 74, and goes on multi-day tours with his son into his late 80s.
It's never too late; don't ever give up!
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Paul - Thanks so much for directing me to Sandy Scott. This rehab I'm doing is HARDER than training for any Ironman - the level of rewards are almost non-existent, and just knowing that others have tried - and even succeeded - helps me every day. I've googled him, and will now explore his story.
You might also enjoy this interview from NPR's On Point.
THE NEW SCIENCE OF AGING
Olga Kotelko is 91 years old.
But get her in her spandex, out on the track, and she is a demon.
She runs – yes, really runs – the hundred meter dash. She does the long jump and throws the javelin forty-plus feet. She also throws the shot put, swings the hammer, over her head, and lets it fly.
All this, at ninety-one.
We’ve got lots of headlines this week on what holds the deterioration of aging at bay. Mice going from creaky to buff with some chromosome work. Exercise is being touted as the big elixir.
We get the latest science, and talk with wonder woman Olga Kotelko.
Turned out the that the oldest runner was at my table. He was 84 which totally amazed me. We chatted a bit and I was blown away at his story. At the time, I had completed only 5 marathons so I was in awe to hear he had run 68 marathons. Even more amazing was that he didn't start running marathons till he was 60 years old!
People do amazing things...... I hope I have the courage to do something similar.....
I'm a newbie to EN (joined in Nov 2010) and just found this forum. I turn 56 in 2 days so I guess I'm ok to comment. This forum is FANTASTIC. I feel honored to read and learn all the wisdom of the EN Over 50 group. The concept of needing more recovery time that I hear many mention makes sense to me and is what I've learned in my running. I've been a runner for many years and have done numerous marathons. Ran my marathon PR @ age 54 on only 3 days of running per week with plenty of rest or x-training in between runs. I pushed the pace on 2 of those weekly runs and then did a long run on Sunday. So I was kinda following EN koolaid without knowing it. I just knew my body couldn't take the pounding I use to endure when I did 5 or 6 crappy runs each week in prior years. The reduced frequency and increased intensity was also good for my spirit. I really looked forward to the runs as a "treat" to myself, and not as a "chore" that they had become. Net result was that I qualified for Boston and ran it in April 2010.
My brother - JT Thompson - also an EN member, got me interested in tris. I did a several sprint and oly races in the past year and loved it.Was going to run Boston again in 2011 but got closed out so JT talked me into racing IMCDA in 2011 with him. I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I just hope to get to the start line injury free and make it to the finish line in CDA. I'm going to follow the EN beginner plan to prepare as closely as I can, even though the runner in me asks "are you sure I only have to do a 2.5 hour run and can be ready to run a marathon?" I will trust RnP's plan and find out come race day.
Sorry for the rambling but I thought I should share a little about myself. I look forward to learning from and contributing to this forum. Thanks.
Bruce Thompson
Welcome, Bruce. The triathlete in me answers back, "You don't even have to run THAT far in your long runs!" I'm a schizophrenic runner. I never ran a step until I was fifty; I hated the idea, but wanted to do tris, so I started. Now, 12 years later, I'd have to say I'm "best" at running, having gone to Boston twice, and regularly running down competitors at the end of an IM. But I still hate to TRAIN for running; that's why I've only done 5 stand alone marathons (it took me three trys to BQ), compared to 15 IM finishes - I just can't stand the time and effort involved in training (and racing) the amount required to do well in a 26.2 mile RACE. But the IM marathon is a different beast. The game is not about going fast for 3 hours and 45 minutes; it's about not slowing down while going at a 4-4:15 pace.
Bottom line for me, once I started shortening my long runs before an IM to 2:20-30, and only did two of them in the 12 week build up; and worked HARDER on my bike training; and PACED the bike and the first 1/4 of the run smarter, my IM marathon times started dropping. It almost seemed the less I trained, the better I raced (there's a limit, of course!)
Since you are an experienced, successful runner, I can assure you that you do not need to worry about getting in a lot of run training to do well in an IM; you'll do just fine with 3-4 days a week, following the EN plan and maybe even going a bit shorter on the longest days towards the end. Your physicial and mental energy will be better spent on improving your bike speed and strength, paying attention to recovery needs, and believing in the value of the EN race day execution formula.
Thank you for the perspective and advice. It sure makes sense to me as I've run my best marathons with either equal or negative splits. I've also finished some where I totally bonked at mile 19-20 because I went out too fast and had to jog/walk to the finish. Not slowing down is much more fun than bonking. So I have learned about the dark side of the last 6 miles of a marathon first hand. I don't really want to go there at the end of an IM so I'll be very conservative at the start of the run. Also, I've had some local success in oly distance tris by going "in control" on the swim and bike and then running down people at the end of race. The strategy of not slowing down in the run seems to work at that distance too, even if the pace is faster than I would ever run an IM marathon.
You pinpointed my weakness - the bike. I'll focus my energy on getting stronger on the bike. I've never gone longer than 50 miles in any ride so I have some work to do. But I can already feel that I'm getting stronger on the bike in just a few weeks following the OS plan. So far so good. Got a few sore quad muscles at the start of the OS(soreness lasted only 1 day) but no injuries.
I'll trust your advice and the EN plan on the running training and race execution. You and the coaches have a world of experience and success in triathlon compared to me, so if you say it works, that's plenty good for me.
Thanks again for your reply and sharing your wisdom.
Bruce
Great article Al. Small world. The Iron Horse trail runs from where I work down toward where the Chavez's and other ENers live. It is great series of trails. I probably do 1/3 of my run road work on those trails.
I'll be looking out for him!