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This question has been burning in the back of my mind off and on. Age wise, Lagat is about a week younger than me. Most of my PR's happened right at about 30/31. I do long stuff though and have not consciously focused on attacking a PR at anything less than a marathon for a long time.
Last year, at 36, I set 2 PR's, not little ones but big ones. The first was in the mile-cut 10 seconds from a PR that had stood for 8 yrs. The next made more sense since I was preparing for the race; I cut 21 min from my 50k road time. The mile PR also happened less than 2 weeks after a horrific bout of food poisoning where I lost 10lbs I could ill afford to lose. I'm already too lean bodyfat about 7-8% (for a woman it's too low but that's my build).
I am NOT by any means a miler and do nothing mid- distance specific in training. I looked at both races and tried to figure out what I had done right.In the mile, I shut out the world and latched on to two women one of which is a 2:38 marathoner. In the 50k, I also had a "rabbit" . I latched onto a guy who ran with me 47K before I took off for my final kick. It helped me shut out the world and just run relax and not think. In both races I was so focused, especially in that mile that I couldn't tell you what was going on much further behind us. In both races, I also ran tactical negative splits. I hate going out fast and prefer to pick people off in the 2nd half. In the mile, the closing 400 was 75 after going out in 80. The woman marathoner that rabbited me to that 75 was 44 yrs old BTW. Again, I'm a craptastic middle and short distance runner, I just ran this mile to get my legspeed up. In the 50k, my 2nd half was 7 min faster than the first. In my ultras, I look at the first half as a formality and in this case , I decided to race after 30k with the real pickup coming after 35.
After that I asked an old friend and coach that very same question, "How many years do I have left to improve?" He said if I can even get close much less still PR in the mile that's an indicator I can still better my marathon and ultradistance times. This is the same coach who taught me the negative split style tactics in my 20s I seem to only have really gotten down in my 30s.
Last weekend, I ran a half that was supposed to be a glorified tempo-tune up run for an upcoming 100k. The previous weekend, I did a trail (rather ice/snow )marathon as a long controlled (not burning the barn down) effort long run. No taper just run like a training run 3 days off a killer long interval workout. The marathon happened to coincide with a planned long run and I wanted the company for one and a place to stash my drink bottles for another because I do get tired of hauling the Camelbak when I go on 40-50k long runs alone. No redlining-just having fun no pushing because I wanted to maybe do that at the half a week later-the result was a CR!
6 days ago I ran the half. Seeing that the damn snow had not melted off this yr in the 2.5k section at the start finish, I settled for just doing a controlled effort not running a fast time. Hello glorifed tempo run. So I thought...
I came close to my PR despite having to deal with 2+k of loose,slippery snow that ate time no matter how hard I tried! I guess the psychological confidence booster came after I really went to work in the 2nd half. Despite the snow, the last 3k came out in 5.45-50 mile pace for the fastest part of the race for me. That got me thinking hmmmmm no snow and I bet I could have chased down a PR. It was near freezing too and I do well in cold not heat mind you. I haven't given a half PR much thought in probably at least 4-5 yrs but now maybe I need to revisit that.
My Bucket List this yr includes going for another 50 and 100k PR. I have been running seriously since college where I had a wonderful coach, but really got serious in my early 20s. I'm ok on recovery so long as I get decent SLEEP. No sleep and I'm toast.
peaking? I don't know. I think it's very individual.Meghan Arbogast has been running since her 20s but most of her world class performances came after 40! Vyacheslav Shabunin nearly broke 8 min in the 3000 when he was 40! I think Lagat could chase Shabunin's WR if he doesn't retire. Leonid Shvetsov will run Comrades this yr at 42! He's going to try for another win.
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