Ever hear this from a fellow triathlete or runner: “I used to run a 5:45 mile in college, but since I turned 50 I can’t seem to get under 7. I just don’t understand what’s wrong!”
[**NB**I am NOT 50 - yet.]
One of the hardest things about aging is coming to terms with the changes in your body. For those who have never really been that athletic and who find triathlon and endurance sports later on in life, it can be an empowering and even life-changing discovery. On the flip side though, for those who have been highly athletic since their younger years, adjusting to the inevitable limitations, slower times, and subsequent blows to the ego that aging brings can be a tough pill to swallow.
I have my own special name for it. I call it Aging Triathlete Denial Syndrome (ATDS). It’s a variation of regular TDS (Triathlete Denial Syndrome) which affects triathletes of all ages and encompasses such lame denials as having a hundred different reasons for why you do badly in a race or get spat out the back of a group ride the second it hits a steep hill.
I have talked to a lot of friends who are "aging" runners and triathletes detailing what their times for a certain distance were when they were young and, given that, asking what their times should be now that they have reached the ripe old age of 50. Of course, that’s impossible for me to answer. Only a coach can answer that because I know nothing about the athletes themselves. If there is one truism about triathlon and even running, it is that one size does not fit all—from training schedules, to intensity levels, to VO2 max, to pain threshold. Two people with the same PR ten years ago, who’ve followed the same lifestyle and have been exposed to the same environmental conditions since, will likely have very different times today. That is because the body and mind change in very unique ways.
Just as importantly as the physical side, their mental approaches and attitudes—a massive part of the triathlon game—are going to be very different. Two runners or triathletes of the same physical ability can have very different performances in training or on race day because of their different mental approaches to the sport.
That brings us to two of the basic rules for athletes of the over-50 kind:
1) Focus only on what you can control. Try not to pay attention to what the runner/triathlete next to you is doing. Letting what others do affect your life, your self-esteem and your enjoyment of triathlon is a sign of weakness. By focusing on the controllables, you become stronger.
2) Focus only on what you can do now. Do you want to be that runner/triathlete who turns up at a training session and all they talk about is what amazing times they used to crank out? The past is the past. It’s gone and it’s not coming back. Live in the present and focus on your goals, not reminiscing about past glories, real or imagined.
Time targets, used reasonably and realistically, can be highly effective as motivational or goal-setting tools. If they must be used for training or racing, then they should be measured relative to an athlete’s current, not past, fitness levels.
As with everything, keep training and racing as positive an experience as possible. If comparing current to past, and now unattainable, times are causing anxiety to an athlete, and they cannot accept a new age-oriented focus, it might be beneficial to replace those targets with something current, attainable, and/or motivational.
For us who are over [or turning!!!!!] 50 years old, comparing ourselves to others and comparing present times to those of the past can be negative training and race techniques. Always focus on the positive and the things you can control. Believe me, it’s way more fun that way.
As an aside, back in the day when I was doing my undergraduate degree in the chaos theory of university survival, I vaguely remember running a mile in 3:59. There was no one there to witness the whole thing and I don’t actually remember much about it. However, I do remember it involved something about an end of exams celebration, some beer kegs, claims of indecent exposure, lots of police sirens and flashing lights, a police dog with sharp teeth, and not being able to sit down for a week. Actually, it may have been 9:53 and not 3:59, but who’s counting. After all, numbers are all relative I guess…
peace out
