Why Not?

Last weekend I ran a 5K in 23:50. For various reasons my legs were trashed before I planned to run. But afterward I had a long conversation with Bob Anderson (founder of Runners World and an old friend) and we talked about competition. Bob tries to run 25 races a year. He loves to run hard. That used to be me but over the last 15-16 years I have become the antithesis of the competitive runners I once was. I knew I needed a break from racing but lately I have thought about coming back.

The problem is that you don't just take 15 years off and then decide to come back. I have never stopped running. The challenge is getting used to running hard again. The 23:50 wasn't all out. It was at best an AT run but because I was tired (v-e-r-y  t-i-r-e-d) I wasn't able to push my HR up to 90% of max.  Neither Bob nor I ran that well. He ran the 10K in just under 45 minutes. But we both won our age groups going away.

It's not about time, Bob said. That was strange because the same thought was on my mind too.

But he had run a 13 miler the day before the race and I had run 4 out of 5 days prior. Usually I run every other day. In any case we both torpedoed our chances for decent times but we still both won our age groups so how much more did we need to win by? The next guy behind me ran in the 29's. Bob, likewise dominated.

This conversation made me think about the last time I truly enjoyed my running. That was at age 50. I was running around 25-35 mpw and doing one rep day focused on the mile. I had semi-retired from racing at age 49 and when I decided to come back I could not break 6 minutes for the mile. 6 months later at age 50, I ran under 5:20. But after that I succumbed to lure of training hard out on the roads and bashed my legs into broken up concrete.

So now it is 15 years later and I have decided to go at this again. My core focus will be the 800. Last year I ran in the 2:50's. This year I am training to break 2:40 which for a guy in the 65-69 age group is pretty fair. Once every week to 10 days I will do what I call a memory workout. My first was today. 8 x 100 in 18-19 seconds. Eventually I hope to run under 80 seconds for 2-3 x 400 and 2 flat for 600 with impunity. I'll have to be able to do that to reach my goal.

The meta goal will be to come through in 2 flat or faster and run a 37-38 second 200.

When I did the mile version of this back in 1995 my 5K dropped from the 19:30's all the way down to the 18:20's. I did not train for the 5K but I benefited from my mile training anyway.

If I can run 2:36-38 then the 5K level is 20 minutes. I may not get that time, but I might get under 21.

Unlike 1995, I don't have a Wednesday group to count on so I may have to use the Saturday workouts for my trial efforts. I can drag ass off the younger faster runners when they  are doing mass intervals.

I will do some tempo running for strength but the core workout will be to stretch those 100's into 200's, 300's and 400's. Not many but just enough.

Long running for the most part is out. 50-60 minutes most days with a now and then longer run of 7-8 miles.


 The formula in 1995 was simple:

1 x 1200 in 4 flat

1 x 400 in under 80 seconds

The formula this time will be similar:

1 x 600 in 2 flat

1 x 200 in under 40 seconds

Bob said to me, maybe it will be tough but maybe you will run faster.

"Why not?" he asked. It was the right question.