4 posts tagged “running”

Top Pot Doughnuts has thoughtful placed their fourth store in our neighborhood--conveniently located at the end of my running route.

Potentially dangerous habit

Next year, I move up an age group category for triathlon - to the 50-54 group - even though I won't be 50 until December of 2007. That's because of the "age up" rule - you race at the age you will be as of December 31 of that year. It's so that if you're trying to quality for Nationals (not in my wildest dreams) you stay in the same age group all season (rather than move up mid-season).

So, this year, when I've looked at race results, I've looked ahead to the 50-54 group results. And what it striking is the steep drop in race participation. For example, in this year's Subaru Triathlon, there were 36 competitors in the 45-49 age group and less than half that (17) in the 50-54 group. I was curious, so I plotted the age group distribution:

Age group participation

Clearly, there is a sharp peak at 35-39, declining rather rapidly after that.

The difference was even more striking in the running race I did on Sunday: 51 women in the 40-49 age group compared to only 10 in the 50-59 group.

Now, I expected some drop, but not this steep. I would love to know why. Most woman I know my age have more free time than when they were younger - kids are grown or close to it, they are established in their careers. There is well-documented evidence that for endurance sports individuals can continue to improve their performance, with proper training, well into their 50's.

I think it would make an interesting study: to understand why people appear to start dropping out of racing at age 40. It might say something about how we percieve aging.

Woodinville race course

This morning was my cap-off-the-race-season 5K. It was north of the city (in Woodinville) and I had envisioned a lovely morning drive up there, running the race, maybe stopping in to visit friends we have up north. However, Mother Nature had another plan. How about lots of standing water on the course and a downpour during the race? I was completely soaked to the skin within minutes of the start. Standing water on the course is the worst because your shoes get all soaked and swishy. Despite the conditions, though, I had an excellent race and beat my target time. A very flat course however -  much flatter than I typical train on.

I was very glad given the conditions I was doing the 5K not the 10K. There were some very sorry-looking 10K souls as we were leaving the race area.

So, now my season really has ended. This was a nice little add-on mini-goal before my surgery this Wednesday.

Update: Too funny,I haven't done a running-only race in probably 10 years. In triathlon, I am a mid-pack finisher. I finished this race 10 out of 51 in my age group (40 - 49) and I would have actually placed first in the 50 - 59 age group. Clearly all the competative runners were doing the 10K.

Yesterday's run at Discovery Park

Having a coach is great. I decided for my second season of triathlon to give it a try to see how it worked out and I'm completely sold. It nudges me to do things (like speed work) that I probably wouldn't do on my own. I'm not competitive in my age group, but it's still nice to see improvement for the time I put into training. My coach sets out the plan that works within my time constraints and makes sure I'm training smart - no wasted workouts - each has a specific purpose.

She also suggested I do a running race before my Oct. 18 date with the surgeon to give me a mini-goal and also to spend some time on run-focused training. I was thinking 10K, but she suggested I do a 5K and work on speed rather than endurance. So, I've got these great new speed and strength-focused workouts. I spent some time yesterday entering these in my Training Center software and then uploading them to my Garmin 305. I haven't used the "advanced workout" entry function before, but it's really slick. With the GPS, I can enter interval distances, duration segments, and heart rate zone targets and my little wrist-mounted computer will guide me through the whole routine. It's geeky, but fun.

Yesterday, I did a hilly trail run at Discovery Park. I used to run there regularly years ago, when we lived a bit closer to it. Amazingly, very few people were out on the loop trail. Discovery Park is such jewel - an urban forest and also spectacular views of the Puget Sound.