Ed Whitlock - 85 yr old marathoner - gets nearly 1,500 word feature in NY Times by Jere Longman

Well this pretty much this covers it for me:

...he trains alone in the Milton Evergreen Cemetery near his home outside Toronto. He runs laps for three or three and a half hours at a time, unbothered by traffic or the eternal inhabitants or the modern theories and gadgets of training.

At the Toronto Marathon, he raced in 15-year-old shoes and a singlet that was 20 or 30 years old. He has no coach. He follows no special diet. He does not chart his mileage. He wears no heart-rate monitor. He takes no ice baths, gets no massages. He shovels snow in the winter and gardens in the summer but lifts no weights, does no situps or push-ups. He avoids stretching, except the day of a race. He takes no medication, only a supplement that may or may not help his knees.

Ed's VO2max of 54 ml/kg/min at age 81 is another world record.

A VO2 max reading of 54 appears to be unsurpassed for people tested in their 80s...“There’s nothing higher than that in the literature,” Trappe said of Whitlock. “It’s phenomenal physiology.”

This is not a big surprise.

It is also nice to see that Ed has joined our LRC Nike Stupid Sub-2:00:00 marathon boycott and protest.

You can see that Ed is wearing New Balance shoes in the photo as an Anti-Nike boycott and protest.

Thanks Ed.

Yes, Ed Congrats! I know you read the forum as you have often replied to our questions. We all hope to be as youthful as you!

Note: look at his thigh size in the old photos of him. He is clearly a mesomorph. You wouldn't suspect that by looking at him now but it lends to him being able to preserve such high muscle mass at an advanced age.

Where's WADA testing?

Weird seeing him with his hair all pretty and combed. So used to seeing his race pics with the wild hair.

Congrats to Ed! He is--much to his chagrin, I'm sure--an inspiration for oh-so many of us fellow runners.

I enjoyed seeing old pictures of Ed on the cinder track. Really fun to see him in his younger days.

I always enjoyed Ed's postings on letsrun too. Oh so modest.

Thank you, Mr. Whitlock.

Woke up to 4 or 5 inches of snow. You running today, Ed? Congrats for everything you have accomplished, and for being a role model.

Age 73.

" the running journalist Marc Bloom said that Whitlock’s performance in 2004 may have made him “the world’s best athlete for his age.”

For that startling race, Whitlock’s training log showed that he did 43 training runs of three hours apiece. He did not measure the distance, but his speed at the time suggested that a three-hour run could cover more than 20 miles, perhaps as many as 22 or 23, not much shorter than the distance of a full marathon.

“I was much better prepared for that race than I have ever been before or since,” Whitlock said."

Dude's good lookin' to boot. Jerk. (tha's a good-natured "jerk"; EW's a hero).

5'7" 120#: is that Kenyan range?

Am I the only one who thinks we need more Ed Whitlocks and fewer

_______________________________s?

These days,there are so many choices.

43 training runs of at least three hours. Think we can all learn from that in our quest for faster times.

I found the NY Times article both inspiring and informative. What I do find a bit sad, and surprising, is that Whitlock says he doesn't enjoy running for its own sake and finds training to be drudgery. He runs mostly so that he can gain acclaim by performing well in races. I can't imagine doing something that is supposed to be recreation that requires so much time and effort on a daily basis if the only enjoyment I got from it was when I entered a race. I'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with that--everyone needs to find his own source of motivation.

Anyway, the guy is an amazing athlete and certainly a source of inspiration to so many of us who are trying to hang on to as much as we can at an age where all derivatives are negative.

amkelley wrote:

I found the NY Times article both inspiring and informative. What I do find a bit sad, and surprising, is that Whitlock says he doesn't enjoy running for its own sake and finds training to be drudgery. He runs mostly so that he can gain acclaim by performing well in races. I can't imagine doing something that is supposed to be recreation that requires so much time and effort on a daily basis if the only enjoyment I got from it was when I entered a race. I'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with that--everyone needs to find his own source of motivation.

Anyway, the guy is an amazing athlete and certainly a source of inspiration to so many of us who are trying to hang on to as much as we can at an age where all derivatives are negative.

fastest running performance for someone's age, let that sink in

faster than Lagat, Faster than Bolt.... everyone, there can be only be one person the fastest in the world (age-graded!)

it surely is not all genetics but a blend of that plus determination and grit, have you ever done anything gritty?

Running for 3 hours in a cemetery would be drudgery for anyone. But looking at the satisfaction on his face at the finish lines tells me (and him, and anyone else) that it's all worth it.

Quantitatively, I find it interesting that his peak performance came from 43 training runs of 3 hrs each, which might total somewhere close to 900 miles. This would support an often used metric that you should run (at least) 1000 miles in preparing for a marathon.

I also found it dishearting that he finds the training drudgery and even racing apprehensive. And what motivates him the the recognition and acclaim. To each his own.I suppose those endless 1/3 mile loops in the cemetary will do it to you. I have a similar distanced grass loop I occasionally do when returning from an injury. After 2 - 3 days it becomes drudgery too!Nevertheless, I found Ed amazing and a motivation to keep plugging away. The one thing I took from the article is to put in really long runs and not worry about the time. That is my 2017 resolution.Thanks Ed! Never stop running.

amkelley wrote:

I found the NY Times article both inspiring and informative. What I do find a bit sad, and surprising, is that Whitlock says he doesn't enjoy running for its own sake and finds training to be drudgery. He runs mostly so that he can gain acclaim by performing well in races. I can't imagine doing something that is supposed to be recreation that requires so much time and effort on a daily basis if the only enjoyment I got from it was when I entered a race. I'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with that--everyone needs to find his own source of motivation.

Anyway, the guy is an amazing athlete and certainly a source of inspiration to so many of us who are trying to hang on to as much as we can at an age where all derivatives are negative.

He is indeed the Bill Brasky of running...only he's real! Way to go, Mr. Whitlock!

you've done O.K.