Gettin' Older - Part II (Faster as a Master)

In a post last week, I went through the struggle that was running in my thirties. I say was because I turned 40 yesterday and my thirties are officially in the rearview mirror. Sometimes it amazes me how the years have gone by, but here I am, an official member of the….gulp….Masters Division. Like I mentioned in my last post, I failed to meet any of the goals I had for myself the past decade. I know I can’t get those years back, which leaves me with a couple of choices. I could either give up the competitive side of the sport and regret that I failed to maximize my potential, or I could continue to give it what I’ve got and see what happens.

There have been plenty of times where the first option has been extremely tempting and I’ve certainly threatened to go that route more times than enough, but at the end of the day, it’s just not who I am. I love this sport and I love to compete, and I honestly just don’t feel ready to walk away from that and simply run for the health and fun of it (which I will always do). Furthermore, I feel like I’ve still got something in me. I’ve definitely lost several steps when it comes to running fast paces, but I still recover quite well from workouts, can still run a good volume of mileage, and as evidenced by my ability to get my heart rate into the mid-to-upper 180’s and even into the 190’s in workouts, I seem to still have the capacity it takes to run fast. Basically, most of the pieces of the puzzle seem to still be there; I’ve just got to figure out how to put them together, and that’s a challenge I’ve always enjoyed even though I’ve not always been very good at it.

All that said, I have to acknowledge that my days of being able to run lifetime personal bests are probably over. I won’t completely rule it out, but it would be surprising to say the least. So, I’ve developed a new goal, which is still pretty aggressive and honestly one that I’m not sure I can hit. In fact, I’d say the odds are against me based on how things have gone over the past few years. However, I’ve never been one to set easy targets, so here it is: I want to try to run faster in my forties than I ran in my thirties. In order to do so, I will have to beat the following times, most of which were run in the first half of my thirties:

5k – 15:51
4 miles – 20:55
5 miles – 26:25 (26:12 8k equivalent)
10k – 33:32
10 miles – 57:17
Half Marathon – 1:11:33
15 miles – 1:34:23
Marathon – TBD

So there it is, a challenge to say the least. Some of the times aren’t as strong as others, but all with the exception of the 15 miler, which was run last year, are quite a bit faster than I’ve run in several years. I’ve got an idea on how I’m going to approach my new goal, and it definitely involves training hard, albeit differently and much smarter than I have in the past. However, most importantly, I’m not going to let it obsess me. I am a blessed man, and I have a great life outside of running that is much more important to me than whatever times I lay down in races. Still, I want to continue to compete and do the best I can. I want to be able to look back and know I gave it everything I had. No remorse; no regrets. There was a time when I really dreaded turning 40. Now I say bring it on. My new theme is “Faster as a Master.” Let’s go!