It happens to EVERYONE!

We all get slower as we age, the best we can hope for is to minimize the damage.  So far this year has been my best year since becoming a master (age 40-49).  I’ve been fortunate enough to stay healthy and be able to train and race as much as I want.  The offshoot to that would be scoring a bunch of master’s personal bests (which runners call - PR’s or personal records).  It helps that a few of them were at unusual distances (200 meters and 800 meters are races I rarely run).

I decided to check how my masters PR’s compare to my lifetime bests and found that I’m running between 88.73% and 75.92% compared to my PR’s.  My worst 3 percentages are (logically) in the three events I’ve rarely raced in either the open or masters (400m/200m/15km).  The best three are Mt Washington, 12k (all at Bedford NH), and 2 mile.  That makes some sense as well, I’ve raced Mt Washington more times than any other race and the Bedford 12k is also in the top few.  12k also seems to be a distance I’ve always done well at, mostly because I don’t slow much from 10k to 12k. 

I’m hoping to drop my master’s mile PR down a bit this year and I’ll be aiming for a fast 5 mile next weekend (Carver, MA).  The marathon is one of my weaker results and I have no plans of attempting to train for a fast marathon.  If I’ve learned one thing about marathon training it would be that it leads to injuries.

Here are my PR’s (red font = PR set this year):

	200	400	800	Mile	2 Mile	5k	4m	8k/5m
Open	27.0	0:53.9	2:01.0	4:10.0	08:52.0	14:08.8	18:47	23:27
Master	33.0	1:11.0	2:24.5	4:57.9	10:07.6	16:27.0	21:54	27:49
%	81.82%	75.92%	83.74%	83.92%	87.56%	86.00%	85.77%	84.30%
Rank	15	16	12	11	3	5	6	10
	10k	12k	15k	10m	Half mar	marathon	50k	Mt W
Open	29:17	36:59	46:08	49:36.0	1:05:02	2:19:28	2:57:36	1:00:37
Master	34:27	41:45	56:19	57:15.0	1:16:48	2:49:25	3:27:14	1:08:19
%	84.99%	88.58%	81.92%	86.64%	84.68%	82.32%	85.70%	88.73%
Rank	8	2	14	4	9	13	7	1

 

Here is an example of the slow-down by year.  My best time for a 5k each year (1983-2012).