I wanna keep doing these distances for a while.
What do you do to stay competitive?
I guess it depends on what “competitive “ means to you???
I am 69, end of age group and really tough to be competitive against the 65 yr old studs. Although I can usually be top 10.
Still doing about 20 hours a week of SBR. You have to know space your long or hard workouts and expect more recovery time, but your body will tell you. Strength, movement, core exercises are more important, as is stretching.
Competitive for me means a sub 1:50 run in a half as a 60-64.
What specific runs do you do in a week?
How old are you? If you are already 50+, possibly your 60+ training will not look much different in terms of over all volume. You will probably need to ditch almost all your running interval/speed work, as everything that’s going to skyrocket your heart rate (e.g. the steepest climbs on the bike), and add some more strength and mobility work. Hopefully Brian “Desert Dude” will add his insight about this
Sand running on the beach
Treadmill running
Ruck Marching
HIIT workouts
I’ll let you know in November if it all worked.
…
I guess it depends on what “competitive “ means to you???
I am 69, end of age group and really tough to be competitive against the 65 yr old studs. Although I can usually be top 10.
Still doing about 20 hours a week of SBR. You have to know space your long or hard workouts and expect more recovery time, but your body will tell you. Strength, movement, core exercises are more important, as is stretching.
Top 10? Just showing up in local races in that age group guarantees a podium 
I was competitive when I turned 65 in regional and national races. But even with the same training at 68, end of age group, I agree it’s tough!
My belief is there is an exponential effect once you hit 60 for every year you age. Racing at the end of the age group against the beginning is a whole lot harder than in the 30,35,40…55 age groups.
I am training between 13 and 16 hours a week one of those hours is strength. I am doing Eagleman Sunday, followed by an easy Monday-Friday then time to kick it up as i get ready for Maryland
Thanks for the info so far.
Now on to the specifics.
What runs do you do weekly?
How do you do them?
How has this changed as compared to your 45 year old self?
I guess it depends on what “competitive “ means to you???
I am 69, end of age group and really tough to be competitive against the 65 yr old studs. Although I can usually be top 10.
Still doing about 20 hours a week of SBR. You have to know space your long or hard workouts and expect more recovery time, but your body will tell you. Strength, movement, core exercises are more important, as is stretching.
Top 10? Just showing up in local races in that age group guarantees a podium I was competitive when I turned 65 in regional and national races. But even with the same training at 68, end of age group, I agree it’s tough!
My belief is there is an exponential effect once you hit 60 for every year you age. Racing at the end of the age group against the beginning is a whole lot harder than in the 30,35,40…55 age groups.
If he was talking local races, I would have said podium. My response was to 70.3 and full IM which usually draws a good size field in 65-69, drops off dramatically in 70-74. I agree 100% with how much easier it in at the beginning of our old man age groups.
I guess it depends on what “competitive “ means to you???
I am 69, end of age group and really tough to be competitive against the 65 yr old studs. Although I can usually be top 10.
Still doing about 20 hours a week of SBR. You have to know space your long or hard workouts and expect more recovery time, but your body will tell you. Strength, movement, core exercises are more important, as is stretching.
Top 10? Just showing up in local races in that age group guarantees a podium I was competitive when I turned 65 in regional and national races. But even with the same training at 68, end of age group, I agree it’s tough!
My belief is there is an exponential effect once you hit 60 for every year you age. Racing at the end of the age group against the beginning is a whole lot harder than in the 30,35,40…55 age groups.
50 to almost 60 was bad. One of the challenging things is the only people left are generally the high performers of yesteryear. You are not racing against newbies or casual people for the most part
I’m not quite 60 (turn 59 in August). During half or full distance training I run just three times per week. One is long, so building up to 20+ miles, one is shorter say 5 miles very easy and one is a track session of half mile/1K repeats fairly hard (sub 6/mile pace). Occasionally I add a 4th run as a brick but that is maybe only once per month of 2-3 miles. Injury is the biggest limiting factor, so I run off road where possible, soft grass etc. For my track run I spend an age warming up and I do static stretches before ( I appreciate that’s not what a coach would advise but it works for me). I only run in super shoes for the track session and any races I do, the rest of the time I’m in max cushion or trail shoes.
As a younger me I ran more often and further, probably 5 times per week peaking at 40 miles in total, whereas now my biggest week will be 30 and I only average about 16-18. My standalone 10K time is about 3 minutes slower now than it was when I was 40.
My two most recent half and full run times were just under 1.30 (hilly and partial off road) and a 3.21 (flat). I’m 183cm tall and weigh about 73kg, so pretty skinny which helps!
I’m nearly 63.
Times:
-stand alone half marathon in 2022 in 1.33’ (should still be able to do a 1.35, especially since I have managed this year to loose some corona weight: now 83 kg)
-stand alone marathon in 2023 in 3.37’
-IM marathon in 2023 in 3.39’ (short: 39 km)
-IM marathon in Kona in 2022 in 3.49’ (small brag: 4th runtime of 201 finishers in M60 with at least 85 kg).
Training: 2 or 3 times a week running, from which one is a slow long jog of 1.30’ h ramping up to 2.45 h before Ironmans. The others are mostly brick runs: 20 minutes faster on the treadmill in winter, 50 minutes faster in summer.
So I do not run a lot, I guess I’m just blessed with good genetics for running (not so for biking and swimming unfortunately).
I guess it depends on what “competitive “ means to you???
I am 69, end of age group and really tough to be competitive against the 65 yr old studs. Although I can usually be top 10.
Still doing about 20 hours a week of SBR. You have to know space your long or hard workouts and expect more recovery time, but your body will tell you. Strength, movement, core exercises are more important, as is stretching.
Top 10? Just showing up in local races in that age group guarantees a podium I was competitive when I turned 65 in regional and national races. But even with the same training at 68, end of age group, I agree it’s tough!
My belief is there is an exponential effect once you hit 60 for every year you age. Racing at the end of the age group against the beginning is a whole lot harder than in the 30,35,40…55 age groups.
50 to almost 60 was bad. One of the challenging things is the only people left are generally the high performers of yesteryear. You are not racing against newbies or casual people for the most part
Yes, the top guys are still there and still beating me. But when I age up to 70 next year, there are fewer that will be in my age group😜. It’s all good, was never a great runner and end up placing where I should.
Enjoy what you can do!
Thanks for the info so far.
Now on to the specifics.
What runs do you do weekly?
How do you do them?
How has this changed as compared to your 45 year old self?
Three runs a week one easy, one tempo, one long with tempo thrown in near the end of the run. Plus a 20 minute run off the Satuday bike, 10 minute race pace 10 z2.
I am a lot smarter about training and nutrition. Lots of z2 work. I am fortunate that I work from home and can space out workouts so that I get a good amount of recovery between efforts which allows me to train most weeks without a day off. The biggest game changer for me has been getting my daily nutrion dialed in. I aim for 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fat, it has really leaned me out and kept me strong. I am wearing the same size of pants as 16 year old Billabong while carrying 8-10 pounds more weight.