Age 50 is a lot tougher than 40s. - Bill Rodgers

I was told by a friend that turning 50 is effecting me more than I think. Maybe... Maybe not..  If there is anything that is bothering me, it is the effect that turning 50 will have on my running. 

I'm not to naive to think that growing older will not have a diminishing effect on my ability to post PR's. But it wasn't to long ago that I was running what I would call pretty good times.. and I see no reason that I shouldn't be running closer to those times now.. but I'm not. I don't have an answer for this. Maybe just a confidence issue. 

But... then maybe I can understand why I'm not. My training schedule and pace times are much different that it was when I was racing at my "modern age" best. But to the credit of my training I am meeting the race pace goals that my training is aimed. So if you want to run fast.. you have to train fast.

With this in mind it is time to set up my plan for the Spring and beyond training plans.  The Hal Higdon half marathon training brought me through to my goal time for the Mercedes Half and so I will take another look into the plans that are available on the www.halhigdon.com site and get to work... and like to poster above reads, I will become

 

RELENTLESS!!

Vacation week!!! WOOHOO!

Vacation week means I don't have to get up at 3:05 and I am not running through the quite streets at 3:30 in the AM!
I ran a 1 hour tempo run today. The temperature was 52 but the stiff wind made it seem cooler and the wind also made the run a real task at times.  I read or heard before that a tail wind will never help you out as much as a tail wind will hurt you. I believe that 100%.

Working up to the Azalea Trail 10K in two weeks..

Local 10K race wrap-up

Ran a local 10K race today.

My Hal Higdon training plan called for a 5K time-trial last weekend and an 8K next weekend.. well this race fell between the two so I decided to split the difference and run a 10K on this weekend. This race ran along the same streets that I train on everyday and I always enjoy putting these roads to a test. The course was fairly flat .. two hills.. one around 3.5 mile area and one at 5 miles.. again I played it smart on the hills and maintained the same effort as I did on the flats.. based on the splits.. that worked.

I had a race partner today.. Drew  and I ran together for about the first 3.5 miles. At that time we separated just a little.. one of my goals is to try to run consistent mile splits... Drew slowed just a little.. but I knew he was running stronger on the hills than I was today so I had to put some space between us.. because at mile 5 there was a long hill.. he did close the gap on me up the hill.. but that followed a downhill and final 1/2 flat straight road to the finish. Sorry Drew... It is the competitive nature that I have ...

Mile splits:
7:01; 6:58; 7:05; 7:08; 7:03; 7:06; 7:00;
Finish time was 44:00; 3rd in 45-48 age grp.. good group of age class runners today.

I am very happy with my mile splits.. don't we all want to start off "slow " so that we don't burn out in the first few miles.. mission accomplished.. there is only a 10 second difference between my fastest and slowest mile split.. that I LIKE!

I don't think there have been to many times that I have run a local in-town race were I finished 3rd in my age group. Well.. I am laying the ground for 2011.. and this was a good run for that.  Come on 50th birthday!!

20 days until Azalea Trail 10K... Got to have sub 7:00 miles for that race!!