i like this game too, except i can’t really play the 50+ game as a newly minted 50. coincidentally, steve magness writes about the greater value of new year’s reflections versus new year’s goals or resolutions (in a nutshell, it allows us to be more process-oriented instead of the abstractions that goals can be); for us, it’s probably common sense to think this way because we easily have more to reflect on than look forward to :)
for my decade long reflection, i’ll choose one race, the carlsbad 5k, since my track forays are few and far between. i count myself fortunate to have been able to run the same race 10 years in a row, and 2017 was a mad scramble for fitness to make it happen. i will also use age-grading to get what i find an interesting perspective. hopefully my notes will help paint a fuller picture that masters of any age can find useful. i’ve never really counted miles, and i’ve never kept a log for any extended period (there hasn't been too many significant changes to my training in the last several years, but that will change), so take summaries/approximations/ruminations for what they’re worth...
2008: 15:38--87.74%
(running 40 miles/week--got my a$$ kicked by a 45 and 46 year old in my introduction to the masters race)
2009: 14:55--92.51%
(bumped mileage to around 60+mpw, with weekly track session/tempo run/long run)
2010: 14:40--94.77%
(seeing fruits of 2 years of solid, consistent, injury-free training)
2011: 15:04--92.92%
2012: 15:30--90.97%
(windy, not to mention having kevin castille over 30 seconds ahead of me)
2013: 15:40--90.74%
(uncharacteristically tactical road 5k, went out really slow)
2014: 15:35*--91.87%*
(this is a projected time that i think reasonably represents fitness--i was with the leaders before i limped last ½ mile with a calf cramp; top 3 went 15:19-15:25)
2015: 15:37--92.32%
(i remember being disappointed with this race--i was 4th, off the podium--but felt better when i saw the age-grading. maybe the first time i was comforted by age grading…)
2016: 15:11--95.72%
(although this was my proudest effort, i would not have guessed that this was my age-grading high water mark for this race--still don’t fully understand the math)
2017: 16:14--90.14%
(ending the decade with a bit of a whimper--2017 has proven to be the worst year of competitive running for me, with 3 months off before carlsbad, and 2 months off after carlsbad…).
while it would be easy to say there’s been a decline for me, and this year hasn’t convinced me otherwise, i’ve been lucky to have been around the pete magills, the sean wades, and the nat larsons who’ve shown me what can still be done after down years, or in nat’s case, steady improvement even after great consistency throughout his 50s. my age 48 race in 2016 showed me that even after 35 years of running, i can still surprise myself. and the frequent posters on this thread remind me that if it were easy, everyone would be doing it; but it isn’t, and everyone isn’t. it lets me know i can’t really b!tch about a sore achilles when i see what my peers have gone through or are going through, but it also forces me to reevaluate what i’m doing by understanding i can’t simply keep doing what i’ve always done. and i enjoy the camaraderie and commiseration of our small community to continually direct me as i age up…
stay healthy--and happy this new year--my friends,
cush