pistol peet wrote:
So, maybe you can explain to us why you (at 55) can still run the times of your 30's? And don't give us some crap like " I don't train like an idiot".
Well, of course, right off the bat, I didn't run much during my 30s. I ran for 4 months at age 34, just before my 35th birthday, managing a 3:52 1500 and a 14:49 5000. And then I started up again at age 39, although I was almost 41 before I was fit enough to race. In my 20s, I trained on and off (on a year, off a year to smoke, drink and drug--all this is pretty well established, both in interviews and in my second book), managing a 1:52 800, a 3:48 1500, and a 30:05 road 10K during my "on" periods. I also ran several XC course records during "on" periods.
At 55, I ran 15:42.13 for 5000, and 26:28 for 8K--not exactly the times of my youth ... or even of my 40s, when I ran 14:34 at age 46 and 14:45 at age 49.
As for how I run those times: Yes, I don't train like an idiot. Or race like one. I guess you think that mocking that answer ahead of time as "crap" somehow negates it. You're wrong. Not only did I write a column for 5 years for Running Times explaining correct training, but I then wrote an entire book--Build Your Running Body--on it, currently available in your local bookstore. When I'm able to string long periods of smart training together, I run well. When age or career gets in the way (I haven't trained for a couple months now, while I work on my next book), I don't.
I've also spent years--not figuratively, but literally--during the past 16 years doing rehab for the injuries one incurs as an older runner. I took almost an entire year off from age 53-1/2 to age 54-1/2 to rehab an Achilles insertion injury that had limited my training for 6 years (i.e., I took a year off from running, with up to 2 hours/day-5 days/week of rehab exercises), then spent another year getting back into good enough shape to run that 15:42. That time didn't just leap out of nowhere. It took two years to earn it--a time, by the way, almost a minute slower than what I ran in my late 40s--and then three weeks later, my hip went "ping," and my season was over.
Look, I get that you're just trying to get a rise out of me with your post. But whether you're a troll or a running peer who legitimately wonders how some old guys put up good times, I think it's important--in this age of unrepentant doping and shameless lying--to put out a legitimate formula: Genetic luck. Smart training.Smart racing. Perseverance. And a running community that's a joy to be a part of (I'm talking about my club, most of my running peers, and even a few of the posters on this website).
As for the actual topic of this thread: I'm thrilled the doper got caught. Catching an old doper doesn't inhibit catching younger ones. An unwillingness to deal honestly with the doping problem is what has kept the sport so dirty on the open level. I just hate seeing the dirt creep into the master's level.
P.S.--I don't blame ANYONE who secretly suspects this is a load of hooey, and that my actual training simply consists of making my ass a pin cushion for testosterone and EPO injections. Seriously, why should anybody trust anyone anymore in this sport? I don't. And maybe that's the saddest thing of all....