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Lead Stories: Thursday, November 20, 2008

How Old Is Too Old to Get Faster?

Posted October 12th, 2006 at 4:00 AM by Jim Fortner

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips

Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TFS. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.

A runner can improve for up to 10 years, regardless of the age at which s/he starts. This assumes that a runner trains consistently. If s/he is inconsistent (start/stop or with no plan) so s/he is always restarting, the total period of improvement might be extended, but the eventual level reached might be lower.

I think that progress is best achieved through a long term program that includes a balance of speedwork, endurance, strength, and rest…that is, long runs and high mileage with speed training, hill training, weight training and scheduled rest periods. And it should be based on a plan…and the longer term the plan, the better.

I think you should set out on a multi year plan. I suggest the type of plan I like to follow…alternate marathon and 10k seasons. I prefer spring 10k and fall marathon programs, but the reverse works just as well. You can even fit three programs into a year with shorter “racing” phases following the training cycles.

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Those Middle Age Running Pains

Posted May 25th, 2006 at 2:31 AM by Arthur Rosen

Section: Running & Training, Motivation, Training Tips

Right now, as I write this, everything hurts. Limbs, organs, even my blood is in pain. I have just finished running the marathon and although there were 37,000 others pounding the streets doing exactly the same as me, I can’t believe that anybody feels the way I do right now. I feel so much worse than anyone, than everyone else. Alongside me were people from every walk of life. The website for the NYC Marathon listed every runner’s profession: there were teachers, accountants, lawyers, actors, military personal all going through a uniquely unpleasant experience. And watching the competitors struggle all around, fighting exhaustion, cramp and dehydration as they ran further than the body is built to run, there was something very familiar about the procession of self-inflicted agony. The marathon takes on so many different meanings. It is about making a public statement of sacrifice, telling the world that you are tough enough to sustain significant pain.

Looking around me as I staggered and occasionally walked along the course, particularly the Queensboro Bridge that felt unending, it seemed to be only people of a certain age who needed to make such a statement. I didn’t spot many who were under 30 (though maybe that is because everyone looks old after they have run 26.2 miles). Statistics tell us that the average age of the non-elite marathon runner is 41. In the past, the onset of middle age was marked by a sudden interest in gardening or golf, as if one could compensate for declining personal fertility by growing things instead or hitting a little white ball while a cigar dangles from your mouth. Now we challenge the ageing process by doing the most unnaturally strenuous physical activity, just to prove that we still can.

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