Join me in my 2014 challenge: To get fitter this year than I was last. After trying to achieve the fitness of a 20-year-old in 2013 (by some measures I made it; by marathon measureI fell 3 minutes short), I will “re-do” key races this year, in an attempt to best last year’s personal bests. Redoing the exact same races is a fantastic way to measure fitness improvements.
Another runner on her own version of that challenge is sprinter Christa Bortignon (see picture below; she’s in the black T, to right of me), a 76-year-old sprinter who set seven world records and won 16 gold medals at world championships in 2013, earning her the World Masters Female Athlete of the Year Award. But is she resting on her laurels? In an email last week, Christa told me she felt sore after back-to-back personal training and sprint-training sessions. Clearly, this 76 year old is not letting turning 77 slow her down.
I explain the Do-Over Year challenge in my new running column, Going the Distance, to be published each month in The Globe and Mail. Targeting one race for a PB could lead to disappointment because so much can go wrong. A saner approach, suggests one of Canada’s top running shrinks, sports psychologist Kim Dawson, is strive for an improvement over the entire year.
Each month in the Globe and more often here, I will share what I’m learning along my journey. The goal is not only to get faster and stronger as I get older — and the book on that will be published by Rodale Books in October 2014 — but to keep up training intensity or, in other words, stay young by training young. Because my ultimate goal is to be running strong and long at 101 and having a blast doing it.
And one of the best lines of advice I received to achieve that came from ultra runner Pam Reed: “I run to protect my running.”
If you have advice, thoughts, questions, drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to address them in a column.
Happy running and happy holidays.
Competing in the World Masters Games 1/2 Marathon in Italy. # 73 pulled far ahead of me to take the bronze, but I managed a 4th in my age group.
I’m with you. At age 60 last year I did my first 5K race. One year and a few more 5Ks later I’m ready to step up to 10K in May. Here we go…
I was enjoying a coffee in Beamsville, Ontario while reading your article in The Globe (Sprinting is better in the long run). I am currently training for my 8th marathon in March 2014 in another endeavor to qualify for Boston.
I did 4 marathons last year and each one got slower.
My age is 66 and have been running since age 52. Upon reading this piece I feel that this may be a different goal for me after the marathon. I realize marathons have a way of ‘beating up’ ones immune system and so will only try once more after this to qualify.
This training session I have been doing more intervals and can already see improvement in my running…so this article has made me really excited. My goal after Boston is to keep running, but, ultimately be as strong as I can for my age. Thanks so much…Lin Kennedy
I am lucky enough to be reading & reviewing your book at the moment. (I am loving it, and finding it inspirational) I started to get back in shape at 50. I was overweight, flabby and unhappy about all three. I was an athletic young person, hyper and always on the go. Life got difficult and my physical fitness took a back seat. Finally at 50 years old I got of my pity pot and made time, I could barely run 25 feet, but I keep doing that till I could go 50 and slowly built that up. Now at 52 I am running 4 miles a day, which is more than I ever ran in my life, I swim, bike and use free weights and it feels good ! I had never fought of making a goal to run a 5K I just wanted to run like I did in my dreams. I may make the leap and give is a go, but if I don’t I’ll keep running till…..
Thanks for being who you are and sharing it.