My Forum

I have always been adept at training and running close to my capacity:

- I was always able to push myself until fainting at pre-season football training

- I am sometimes out on my feet at the end of a run.

Therefore, the possibility for gains in my late thirties and beyond are tough. It will be a lot of training for pretty small margins now I think. But if I don't do it now, there will come a time in the not too distant future when there will be no chance.

Use it or lose it I say! Living the challenge is probably more fun than actually achieving the goal.

Interesting stats there. Some impressive 64 year olds out there!

I have given a bit more thought to my aim to get spring-time PBs and the training plan that will require:

http://parkrunfans.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/plotting-spring-time-pb.html

The next stage for me in plotting how to get some spring-time PBs has been to work out the factors that I can control over the coming weeks and months. These will become the focus of my training plan for the months ahead.

http://parkrunfans.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/factors-influencing-possibility-of-pb.html

If you have any further sugestions of factors I can control and focus on then these may help with the next stage of planning.

Sounds like a good plan Nykie. Find a fast flat course, especially when all else fails.

there'll be bluebirds over....,, I agree that there must come a point where you either change your targets or get very frustrated. Much more likely to fall out of love with running if we do that. I think that is why I want to focus on some PBs now whilst I can as I alrady know that in a few years time the focus will have to be elsewhere.

parkrunfan - we meet again! Well with 9 years on me and reasonably similar parkrun PB records you certainly give me a lot of hope. 16:XX would be nice. I think it is achieveable with a good 2 or 3 years. Injury free is key for me. As an ex semi-pro footballer, its the old football injuries that I need to prevent returning.

exiled claret - yes, with 3 young kids myself, training time (budget) is tricky. Your ideas could work for me. parkrun has recently become time that me and my eldest (8 years) spend toegether. This means I do less on a Saturday and at jogging pace. My commute is 35 miles - so running isn't really an option. But working from home twice a week helps. I always run on the Tuesday at home, but Friday I haven't for ages, saving myself for parkrun. But combine the two factors and I can run an extra run on a Friday lunchtime, still do parkrun with my son, and maybe be more consistent doing a sunday long run without the strain of a fast Saturday parkrun. This could work out. I may even manage a consistent 4 runs a week and sometimes 5 that way.

And yes, with 150+ parkrun events in the UK, there is always the option of PBs at different courses - that should keep me going a while when lifetime PBs become impossible!