Wednesday 15 October 2008

CONSISTENT OVER THE AGES

It was interesting looking back at my performances over the last 12 years in the NATTERJACK SEASIDE 10K, I was surprised how well I have managed to hang on to my speed despite my increasing age!
1995 37.54, 96 38.17, 97 37.39, 98 36.47 99 35.15, 2000 37.47. 2001 35.22, 2006 36.35,
2007 35.57

Todays run a easy fartlek session over the sandhills = 1.18

2 comments:

Mike said...

Wow Rick, that's really impressive. Do you find that you're putting in more miles nowadays than say 8-9 years ago or is it about the same?

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Hi MIke, I've tried many different types of training over the years,i can see that from looking at my training logs that the years when i put in a high mileage base are the years i ran best.
After 15 years running and before that 10 years cycle racing I'm happy to say that a lydiard type program works best for me and the times when my running has gone downhill are when i have moved away from the masters teachings, ie to much intense interval training etc.
On aging and performance; at 30 i thought I had peaked out and started to lose interest in the sport of cycle racing, at 33 i took up running, at 39 i had a great year but then had 2 indifferent years, I thought I had gone passed my best, but then I increased my mileage and then went on to set new p.b.s over all distances from 5k to marathon at age 42-43.
I did not really know about lydiards methods until last year.
i started training his way last summer and went on to having an awesome winter and spring, getting close to my best! but I blew it this summer by over doing the anaerobic stuff! I found Lydiard was right to say you only need 5 weeks of intense intervals.
I now intend to follow Lydiards program for masters starting in November as I want to run a good London marathon.