Running in your 30's and 40's?

Question

I am male, 42 years old and have two months of steady easy running behind me. I am coming back from a 10 year absence from running. In 2008 I'd like to run some 5K races in my area and eventually become a competitive age group runner.

I coached myself miserably from age 22-32 and only managed to run a 16:30 5K and a 2:50 marathon. My track workouts hinted at much better possible results.

I am thinking I could have and still can run under 16:30 for 5000 meters. I am smarter now and have a great desire to "turn back the clock" that should be enough to do it.

I know speed comes slowly at my "advanced" age.

What can I expect and what mistakes can I avoid?

Thoughtful answers will be appreciated.

Answer 1

The only thing you need to know is it takes longer to recover from hard workouts and races.

You need to be careful about doing too much too fast.

Your body is not like it used to be when you were in your 20s.

Lots of 40s still run close to their college times.

Never do two hard days in a row, take an easy day, and sometimes it takes two easy days to recover.

You can find some training tips from more mature runners like yourself at www.masterstrack.com and www.usatf.org.

Answer 2

"only Managed" are you kidding? those are good times

It gets harder and harder as you get older...I dont think you can get near those 5k times again unless you have a job that affords you serious time to train