When did/will you peak?
11 watchers
Nov 2016
10:21pm, 8 Nov 2016
48 posts
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Brunski
When did you achieve your PBs? How old were you? Was it different years depending on distance, or did you have a golden year when you just smashed it across the board? Maybe you are still improving? If so, how do you plan to go about improving? How many years of running did you take to reach your peak, was it a case of I hit 30 and it just fell into place physically or did you work your ass off over a year/years to peak? I appreciate a lot of us will be reluctant to say we've peaked and are on the way down, I'm relatively new to running and having reached 41 (I'm in my forties now, rather than 40) I'd like to think I still have improvements to come through training. I played football up until the last few years when running has effectively replaced this, but feel fitter now than I ever have before. |
Nov 2016
10:28pm, 8 Nov 2016
34,826 posts
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Velociraptor
I started running from a cold start at 37, and most of my current standard-distance PBs were set between 42 and 45. I'm now 52 and suspect I still have PBs ahead of me over ultramarathon distances, but I can't imagine the sharp stuff, such as it was, coming back to me.
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Nov 2016
10:34pm, 8 Nov 2016
49 posts
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Brunski
Thanks velociraptor, did you train harder during that spell 42-45 or maybe do you just think that is when your body was best able to produce the times? I started running more around the same age; initially a few runs to/from work. Then I 'found' parkrun, which I still love. I've done a couple marathons but can't imagine running an ultra, is that 50 miles? Nice one! |
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Nov 2016
10:36pm, 8 Nov 2016
50 posts
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Brunski
Just re-read my opening post. Too many bloody questions! I'd be put off if I hadn't written it 😳
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Nov 2016
10:50pm, 8 Nov 2016
34,827 posts
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Velociraptor
A combination, Brunski. It can take several years to develop the muscle and connective tissue resilience and metabolic functions to optimise your running potential and be ready to peak, and then there are the psychological and technical aspects of racing; it's said that it's possible to go on improving for fully ten years after starting running, irrespective of the age at which you start, and the people who set records in masters categories tend not to be the people who were setting the track alight in their teens and twenties, but people who took up running later. An ultra is any race that's officially longer than marathon distance, and beyond about 50km most people won't run the entire race but will walk part of it. It's a very different mindset from running shorter races. |
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Nov 2016
11:20pm, 8 Nov 2016
51 posts
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Brunski
Thanks V, very interesting that bit about improving for 10 years. I've always had a decent turn of pace, and that helped with the football and I can definitely see the 'burn out' of some who have run since being teenagers. I'll be honest I'm pretty competitive and am curious as to how much I can improve (whilst nit getting any younger), I stumbled across Hadd training whilst searching heart rate training on the lets run forum, which led me indirectly here (hoorah). I'm by no means challenging for masters prizes but I feel like I could train to maybe get down to a sub-17 minute 5k, maybe sub-36 10k, etc. and parkrun gives you the chance to put yourself against a range of abilities/ages so there's always someone to run with/against. I'll leave the ultras until my kids are older, I struggle to leave the house for more than 1.5 hours on a Sunday as it is, I fear a divorce might be on the cards if I started taking myself out for 4hrs+ |
Nov 2016
8:20am, 9 Nov 2016
419 posts
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Ulric
Started at 17 and set all but one of my track pbs aged 24 with one the next year at 25. One final straggler at 29 on the roads. I'd got the impression around years 7-8 of competing is a common peak looking at various other people. There is no doubt that people starting up in their 40s now have an advantage over me and I often get outsprinted now by people even older than me  I'm sure if you measured Achilles tendon flexibility etc mine is shot to pieces.
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Nov 2016
8:28am, 9 Nov 2016
4,593 posts
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Bez-head
I am aiming to peak for the 90 and over age category. I might get good for age??
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Nov 2016
3:41pm, 9 Nov 2016
52 posts
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Brunski
Yeah Ulric, in some ways I'm happy I came to this late. Running has different stresses on the body to the football I played for years and I do feel like after a couple years of picking up the mileage a bit I'm starting t see some decent results. I'm hoping a good winter of base work and I'll be back PB'ing again in the spring, and I have a final road 10k of the year at the start of December I want to perform at. So the Achilles are what's bothering you? I Hadd numerous hamstring and calf issues when I used to play football but it has been more my knees/feet with running. |
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Nov 2016
3:47pm, 9 Nov 2016
53 posts
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Brunski
Ha ha Bez-head, my mate was scoping out 10k races to enter when he turns 50 so he can get some prize money (he runs around 38-39 mins). Then this year he noticed someone was cleaning up the local runs, beating his time by a good few minutes (must've had a similar idea).
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