Be inspired: Meet Andy Ward: The Brit had a 30:20 age pb from age 25 to 44. Now he's sub 30:00

This story is pretty remarkable.

This brit had a 3020 pb at age 25. Stopped running, became a house-husband, raise the kids and got back into it at 40. Now he's broken 30:00 a few times at age 44.

http://eightlane.org/blog/2014/01/16/andy-ward-44-year-running-sub-30/

i wish he'd go into further detail regarding his training. nobody can do lactate threshold pace for every run...maybe he just means around 6 flat pace?

his LT must be around 5:10/5:15, but he differentiates that from "tempo".

anybody here knwo more about this guy?

He was probably sub 28 guy given the right training and circumstances when he was young. This to me is opportunity lost more than remarkable.

My thoughts exactly. Don't people understand this? There aren't any miracles out there.

Taco Truck wrote:

He was probably sub 28 guy given the right training and circumstances when he was young. This to me is opportunity lost more than remarkable.

Taco Truck wrote:

He was probably sub 28 guy given the right training and circumstances when he was young. This to me is opportunity lost more than remarkable.

But once most people give up running in their prime, you never hear from them again. Most people probably think there's no point in attempting a comeback after 40. What's remarkable is that this guy gave it a shot and still had something left in the tank.

Agreed. Sub 30 at that age and with a break is remarkable.

There are sub-elite guys on top running clubs that never come close to that.

Opportunity lost? No way. Hypothetical nonsense.

Just took him awhile to figure out which magic potion to use.

oh?? wrote:

Don't people understand this?

Of course everyone understands this, it was too obvious to even mention.

yes

he said he used to get beat by his coach when he was younger

so he may have only been 28-30 quote]baseketball wrote:

Agreed. Sub 30 at that age and with a break is remarkable.

There are sub-elite guys on top running clubs that never come close to that.

Opportunity lost? No way. Hypothetical nonsense.[/quote]

Skinnyfat.

Great story. The cynics among us surely find it easy to say this is more an indication of a wasted opportunity than a remarkeable story, as if raising one's kids is really a wasted opportunity.

Could he have run 28:00 for 10K 20 years ago? Maybe, with the right training, but the 90's were a rough time to be an elite runner in a lot of places of the world. Him running faster now than 20 years ago is also a good indicator that the average runners knowledge of what it takes to run fast has gotten better.

TUE or not, dude is fast and having fun, good for him.

Give me a break! If he doesn't live and train in Eugene, Oregon then who gives a rats ass?

Maybe with the correct training and continued motivation plus good health, one does not slow down as much as you think with age. At the very top level guys like Geb, Lagat or Garhib have somehow kept motivated and relatively injury free.

But Ward's running career is a very inspirational story, especially when you take into account that he also works as a gardener and is raising a family. As you say, it is difficult from the article to understand his training fully. From what is written I guess that he is doing a lot of "fast steady" running like Lydiard or Ron Clarke but he is controlling his effort with a heart rate monitor to avoid going too intensely and way beyond his lactate threshold. "Intense" sessions at 10k pace and faster seem to be less of a priority.

Taco Truck wrote:

He was probably sub 28 guy given the right training and circumstances when he was young. This to me is opportunity lost more than remarkable.

Don't agree. He's probably not doing the optimal training now either. You could as well say that with the right training he could run 29:00 now at 44.

The right question is: how fast would he have run if he'd been doing the same training (he's doing now) at 25? I doubt it would have been sub 28.

baseketball wrote:

Agreed. Sub 30 at that age and with a break is remarkable.

There are sub-elite guys on top running clubs that never come close to that.

Opportunity lost? No way. Hypothetical nonsense.

Actually, sub 30 WITHOUT a break would be more remarkable.

In runner years he is only 28.

Fair play to him, but his age is immaterial.

His age is immaterial? He's 44 and the Masters 10000m record for 45 year olds is over 30 minutes! Geb is almost a centenarian in runner years and he could destroy all the Masters records.

Also, ask Michael Stember what it's like to perform after a break.

Furthermore, here are the world single-year age records he could threaten for 10K on the road:

44y119d 29:26 Luketz Swartbooi (NAM) 05 Jun 2010 RSA

45y262d 30:02 Antonio Villanueva (MEX) 13 Apr 1986 USA

46y296d 29:59.9 Stephen Moneghetti (AUS)19 Jul 2009 AUS

http://www.arrs.net/SA_R10K.htm

Great observation. I bet your ninth grade classmates are awed by your maturity and deductive powers.

DPL wrote:

Just took him awhile to figure out which magic potion to use.

As far as his training, I seem to remember Norm Green (anyone remember him?) doing most of his training very fast and he went low mileage. he was in his 50's at the time.