I've often joked in the past year or two that I'm as fit as I've ever been, but have more aches and pains. This has recently taken on a whole new meaning. I completed my sixteenth, and final (for now), Ironman nearly 15 months ago. Whether it was the difficulty of the race, or the additive stress of my "work" related efforts over the past year and a half, I felt physically demolished. Over the past year, I've had hip, back and shoulder pains. It often takes me an hour of stretching and movement to be able to walk comfortably. I hadn't been on my bike until a few weeks ago. I did keep running, albeit, not nearly at the volumes I reached in the past couple of years. I also finally got back to swimming a few months ago, which, not remarkably, have been helping my shoulders start to feel better. With my decision to "retire" from the Ironman distance came the natural desire to work on shorter (and faster) efforts. I'm not doing any specific "training," but continue to focus on doing what I want, when I want. So, imagine my surprise over the past few weeks as I've "tested" myself out in relation to my run, swim and bike abilities!
While I haven't done a lot of speed specific training, I have worked some shorter, faster efforts into by run and swim "training." From the run perspective, this culminated last week when we spent the week in San Diego with our grandson. I was one mile from the UCSD track and couldn't resist going to the track for my workouts. I've never considered myself to be fast, but have to remember that I was asthmatic as a child and never ran one mile non stop until I was 32! So, I really don't know what my capabilities were when I was younger. Also, since I gravitated to longer distance running early in my running "career," I really don't know my speed capability, short of my one sub-20 minute 5K on my 49th birthday. Ironically, my 5K times over the past thirty years have consistently been in the 22-23 minute range.
When I lived in Colorado, I did run with a track club and would occasionally find myself running 400m in about 90 seconds. There was one day, about 15 years ago, that I ran one mile on a track (at sea level, compared to my training at 5K feet), in just under 6 minutes. My only other sub-6 minute miles (most recently in the last few months) have been aided by downhills. I went to the UCSD track and did a workout I've been doing on the street close to home. 3 x 200m, 200m, 400m. I didn't look at my watch and just ran this solidly. My 200m times were ~43-44 seconds, or a 5:44-5:52/miles pace. My 400m times were done in 91-93 seconds, or a 6:04-6:12/mile pace. With this background, combined with my daily aches and pains, I took to "testing" myself out on the UCSD track. Having conferred with my coach, I endeavored to complete a 100m, 400m and 800m track run.
Here are my results:
100m in 16 seconds
400m in 82 seconds
800m in 3 minutes.
First of all, these three times are internally consistent. Second, they're literally as fast as I've ever run them! They correspond to my potential to run a 5K in 22-23 minutes. Second, compared to other 64 year old runners, while I'm not at the highest level. I'm pretty darn competitive. The irony is that I've never considered myself to be a fast runner, but somehow at the age of 64, I am! It makes me wonder what I might have done when I was younger if I'd believed myself capable of running faster. It also continues to blow me away in relation to my daily aches and pains. However, it also gives me both confidence and inspiration to persevere in my athletic quests.
I haven't done a triathlon since the Ironman World Championship in St. George 15 months ago. I'm signed up to compete in a sprint triathlon in one week. The distances are the complete opposite of an Ironman. The swim is 1/4 mile (in the ocean). The bike is 8 miles. The run is 2.5 miles. With this in mind, I've also recently been focused on my swim speed. I've recently tested myself at 25, 50, 100, and 300 yards.
25 yards in 16 seconds
50 yards in 36 seconds
100 yards in 1:20
500 yards in 8:00
These are also times that I are close to the fastest times I've ever swam.
I only got on my bike a few times in the last couple of weeks and my power output isn't far off from where it was over a year ago.
I'm excited to be racing a triathlon again. Doing a sprint will be both interesting and hard. I'm sure I'll spend this week continuing to deal with nagging aches and pains in my shoulders, hip and back. But, next weekend I will race. Looking forward to writing the race report!
