Tied my PR (Read 1221 times)

I ran my second best 5k on saturday, 1 second slower then my PR.

I would pay money to tie any one of my PRs.  When you have been at it for 20+ years, consistency isn't the only variable at play.

I see your 2012 goals stated as so .. i dont know how old you are .. am guessing (based on running for 20+ years and 3 kids) you are in your late 30's early 40's .. what do you reckon are your chances to set absolute PRs now? My question stems from curiosity - i started running 3 years ago when i was 30 .. i am hoping that i continue running for atleast another 10 years continuously and i improve through all 10 until i start plateauing ... is this plateau determined by an absolute age bracket (i.e. between 35-40 yo for men) or is it determined by years of running i.e. if you train consistently (as a recreational runner, not like a HS track team guy), you tend to reach a peak potential in about 7-10 years. Its possible i am trying to generalize something that is too specific to individuals but i would like to hear your thoughts.

Larry .. doing what you do at the age of 59 is just awesome !!

I will chime in as spaniel and I have similar running histories (which also might be different in informative ways.)

There are so many factors that go into all-time peak performance. I think a general rule of thumb is that you can realize most of your gains as a runner in 6 years or so of consistent high level training. I set my all-time PRs as a college runner at the age of 22 (after training hard for 8 years), and although I have tried over the last 6 years as a 30+ runner to get back there, I haven't quite been able to do it.

I took 6 years off from "training" and racing in my mid 20s, though I still ran 15-20 mpw. Probably if I had trained hard during that time, I would have run my all time PRs in my late 20s and early 30s and be faster today.

I think that what has kept me from getting back to my college form is more a matter of training environment / life responsibilities / smart or dumb training rather than age or years spent running. 

Looking back over the course of my whole career as a "mature runner" I have been a very consistent mid to low 16s 5k runner from the age of 17 to 35. There have been exceptional periods where I was consistently 30s faster or 30s slower, but as long as my mileage has been upwards of 50mpw and I have been doing a workout or two a week, this is who I am.

Consistency is really cool, but I have friends whose fitness swings quite wildly, and sometimes I am jealous of their big improvements.

I find that if you take off, say, 17 years from age 18 to 35 while putting on 30 or more completely unnecessary pounds, and then start running and then gradually start taking it more seriously then you can just keep getting better and better no matter how old you get. 

Yes - I took up marathoning 6 or 7 years ago and managed PRs each year for 5 years, but last year and this I've failed to improve on my PR from 2010, but I'm still hopeful - the weather was awfully hot at my last couple of attempts. Last week I had a 5k PR at age 47. Next month I'm running a 50k for the first time - so that'll be a PR whatever time I run

I hardly expected this thread to take on this serious discussion, but it became pretty interesting.  Thanks for all your input!

I guess when one finds oneself unable to PR, there's always the option to do something new.  I could take up speed knitting in my dotage, for example.

Well, I am 51 and 10 years ago I set a half marathon PR of 1:53:22.   I have been close on a couple of occasions until yesterday when I smashed that PR by over 8 minutes at 1:45:11.  SO when someone asked about realistically breaking a PR at any age I say I guess it is possible.  Based on my mileage, only 2 races this year and anything else that you can think of, there is no way I should have ran that fast.  So keep on running is all I can say.  Anything is possible.

Nice job, Moneyman!