Agree. I take pride in being in the mix as one of the best in the second tier of "old guys" (behind the first tier of true elites like Meb, Lagat, Castille and Hussein), but I definitely measure myself against the overall field almost as much as I do against the masters crowd (mostly because at a local level, the masters competition is pretty thin). Still, I like being viewed as the "tough old guy."
Bump
dcloafer wrote:
With so many stories of people coming back to run PRs after long breaks and lower post-break mileage, it sure seems like a lot of people were overtraining prior to those breaks...
Definitely been there.
I overtrained in high school and my times were very inconsistent, but I managed a 16:20 and couple other 5ks under 17:00.
Then in college, my overtraining shut me down. I was trying to break 16:00 and I went the opposite way, never breaking 18:00 for a couple of years, running obsessively, slogging, never recovering.
Swore off running in November of my junior year. Started doing lots of calisthenics mid-winter, which kept my heart working hard and put on muscle, but didn't run a mile until maybe April.
That summer, working at a summer camp, I ran settled into running every day on grass trails, just because it was invigorating. I ran less than half the mileage I used to, and didn't worry about pace, but I was running a lot of it tempo-style. At some point late summer, I realized I was running some of those short runs faster than my 5k races when I was broken down.
Once summer was over, I started training on the track and did a three mile time trial in 16:00, as good as my best high school times. I never broke 16:00 for 5k, but continued to improve at other distances, and have enjoyed running much more ever since.