Absolutely awesome - I'm just glad we'll never be in the same age group!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

You're my new hero!

That is very fast for 50-59. According to my Competitive Runners Handbook a national class time for 50-59 is 17:00. A champion competitor time ("these runners are very often race winners") is 17:00 to 18:30. I used to run in the mid-17s in my 30s but by the time I was in my 50s the best I could do was about 20 (which is about where the age grade time would put me).

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Andrew Inkpen

On December 21 we will do a Zwift meetup and see how far is possible under. I will start at 5:45 pace

Do you have a track nearby? Maybe you can go out a few times before. I bet you can break 18 on a track vs on a treadmill (I personally have ran much faster on a track than treadmill when I was young and could to low 16 min). The reason is the treadmill does not have enough cooling. On a track you are moving through the air at 16 kph. This is 16 kph of wind cooling you don't get on the treadmill.

The nearby track would only be possible after midnight as everyone is not walking on the track as they’re bored of sitting at home.

Luckily I have good fans and separate air in that room or leave the garage door open and let nature cool it

This is what "ON YOUR LEFT" is for.

It drives me nuts when walkers on the track think that walking in the fast lane (the left lane) is OK. By the way, walking on tracks in the fast lane is universal....I have seen this in Ottawa Canada, Munich, London, Beijing, Austin, Seoul, ...heck I even had to shout that on the Roger Bannister track on Iffly Road in Oxford England (of all places!!!!)

So you are probably best off on your treadmill overcooking a bit relative to self cooling on the track!

It helps if you can find a running club with fast older guys. On a good day I'm the 3rd fastest 50+ year old in my club

I think it's safe to say that you won your AG.

Got worked today in the Zwift Tri Academy 20k TT but ended up with a time of 29:33, a 297 watt average and a 153 average heartrate. Good for 31st place and 1:42 out of 10th place (field of 128) and 2.26 behind first place who had no heart rate. Second place 2 seconds behind him had a 98 average heart rate.

For the Zwift academy they actually want to see heart rate and cadence so I now make sure my gadgets are charged and properly connected

See you in Montreal come September?

Haha...if I don't get this pandemic over with earlier and jump off a bridge onto some rocks or fall in front of a bus or control lightening so it picks me. Those options seems more liberating right now lol. On a plus note I had one of my best runs in 5 years today. Tried to emulate Herbert'a glute firing centric gait.

Herbert - Congratulations. This is great running performance. Strong considering I know most of your running is more linger and ultra focussed.

BTW - Luke is a local legend here in Southern Ontario - crushes it it most of the local triathlons coming close to winning overall and beating men a few AGs down in the process.

If you have a background in higher performance - 18min at 55 is doable.

About the same age for me a few years ago we had a family fun challenge - Paolina, my son and myself in a local 5k Santa Run - who would "win" the family race. I had not run in a number of years at all - put in 3 weeks of running 10 - 15 mins/day, that was remarkably painful, as I recall. I finished last in the Family race, but on only minimal training ran just over 20 mins (Paolina and my son, both low 19 or high 18 I believe). Did get me thinking of what I could do for 5k with some proper training, and I was thinking 18min might be in range!

I'm inspired - next year at 60, I might give it a more serious go at it!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Why don't you start now working your base for when you are 60 rather than starting when you are 60 and trying to go hard off less months of base which would be risky.

Why don't you start now working your base for when you are 60 rather than starting when you are 60 and trying to go hard off less months of base which would be risky.


That little test I had about 5 years ago was astonishing - my legs were absolutely getting pulverized, by even a 10 - 15 min run. So I just stuck to that, but tried to do it every day for 3 weeks!

You are right - should probably start now to get ready for 60 (Apr 23).

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Why don't you start with 10 min of jogging every day for the next 3 months. Nothing hard, just do it after your daily rides when your body is warmed up. Of course your three week stint pulverized you, because you were doing zero running. No surprise there and if you sit on your ass on your bike seat for another 5 months and expect your legs to magically work for running on April 23rd 2021, like it is April 23, 1991, well that's not going to really work out (which you already know). So get on it!!!!

My friend runs for the Springfield Harriers 50-59 team. The top four guys all run under 17:00, and the next few are under 17:30. It is amazing when you go to a national race to see how many fast guys there are over 40 and over 50. The depth of the field is incredible.

I signed up for a 10k cross country race in a New England masters race when I was in my early 40s. I ran the first mile in 6:00 flat, on grass and trails, and there were 50-60 guys ahead of me. And that was only a New England race, not national.

Nice runs! I hate the “age is just a number,” saying but it is true that it isn’t as limiting as we think....

i think this is even more interesting given the relatively low level at your "peak". All the really good over 50s i know, including one former AG world champion, were extremely good younger runners who managed to avoid injuries and weight gain and still maintain decent training volume/quality as they got older. They also start to look like the white walker sidekick of the night king.

Well back then I was racing bikes professionally and only ran a bit for fun :-)

i have nothing to add but this. im 40. i cant even break 20min right now. if youre 55 and are shooting for sub 18 im inspired that im not yet fighting the clock. thank you!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Can add some to the bragging here:
I did 4,9k in 18:58 outside on a 3-lap course with a sharp turn and a small climb (maybe 5 or 10 metres) last year when I was 58 years old, with 85 kg.

This is not world-shocking, but I notice that I get better and better relatively compared to my generation, because I do not loose speed upto now, whereas the others get slower.

Excellent.

Now we are talking! I got into weight training for muscle gain over the past 5 years and it is amazing the direct relationship between body weight and run times. At 85kg and at 56 years old, your time is incredibly impressive. Well done!

My personal best in 5km is 16'05" when I was 25 years old and 76 kg. Now I have been loosing muscle mass from not being able to get into the gym for the past 8 months due to COVID. I am down to 93 kg now from 103 kg and I am thinking about briefly revisiting running to see what I can get my 5km down to in my 50th year next year. I really have no clue so I will have to do some baseline testing. I am thinking if I could get it to 18'45" and my body weight down to 88 kg, it may be doable...but not sure. Compared to pure solid runners and solid triathlete runners, I am like a sumo wrestler in size.

From a run weight to run time calculator, I should be about 30 seconds per km slower at 88kg compared to my PB time when I was 76kg, and I am also double the age! That would be 16'15" equivalent - so 18'45" may be a demoralizing goal.

F*&k it! I don't like running anyways.

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Adrian in Vancouver

I'm a competitive runner who just aged up to 50 age group. I also bike a lot for a "runner" in the 4-8k range annually over the past decade.

To hit my goals in the new age group I am following the tinman schedule for workouts with 1 critical velocity workout and a tempo run workout. I think the tinman workouts are safer for older athletes and minimize fatigue injury risks.

With your volume simply adding a critical velocity workout weekly may pay off fairly quickky.