Hi All,
I need some advice to understand what I'm doing wrong in my training.
I'm an enthusiastic 40 year old runner with ordinary talent. I've run casually for a few years and began doing it more seriously for the past 2 years. My average mileage is around 70 miles per week for the better part of 1.5 years . I live in Singapore and the weather is generally quite humid and the temperature ranges from 80-90 farenheit.
Training:
I usually do easy doubles 4 days a week ( 60min AM and 40min PM) , an easy long run on Saturday( 13 miles ) and a steady long run on Sunday ( 15-18miles ). Once a week i train with a local group for tempo intervals which rotates along the following variations - ( 4 x 5min) , (3 x 10 min) , (15min+10min+5min ), 20 min along with warmup and cool down. Every second week i do shorter intervals on the treadmill ( eg 1km x 10 with 1 min rest ).
Easy runs are at: 7:30 -9 min/mile
Sunday steady long is at: 7 min/mile
Currently the tempo runs averages are at : 90 sec/lap
My race times from the past 6 months are :
10k - 38:50
15k - 58:45
21.1k - 1:27
I always feel i can do better than the current PB's , but on race day somehow it never falls in place. The other runners that match my ability with race times seem to log far lesser miles than me ( from their strava feed) . I love to run but it bothers me at times to not get the results comparable to the effort i put in.
The options i see to better my results are as follows :
1) Race more - racing is an art and the more i race the better i will get at it.
2) Decrease mileage and add more intensity ( at 41 i am not sure how long my body could put up with regular higher intensity runs )
3) Keep at it as 2 years of consistent running is too less to build up the aerobic abilities required to excel as a runner.
Any advice shall be greatly appreciated.