Coaching Forum

I have recently subscribed to MRC for my son who is a 16 year-old 800m athlete. I used the 1500m race details to work out a program for him over 15 weeks. Should this be ok or how should the program be modified? – Robert

Nobby: Thank you for your inquiry.  As far as Lydiard is concerned, fundamentals for 800m and 1500m are pretty much the same.  Take for example, in 1974, John Walker broke the world 1500m record and finished second to Tanzania’s Bayi but he also finished 3rd in 800m final a few days earlier.  Sebastian Coe is the only man to have repeated 1500m Olympic title in 1980 and 1984 but he also finished second in 800m in both Games as well.  Peter Snell ran his first sub-4 minute mile (and set the world record as well) in 1963 but he also broke 800m and 880 yard world record a few weeks later as well.
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Naturally, for 800m runner, sharpening should be more emphasized.  For example, for the choice of intervals, he may want to do 200s instead of 800s and probably try to do them a bit faster but a bit less in number.  Time trial should be slightly altered as well.  This, however, is not to say that, for example, 3000m or 5000m time trial is not necessary or hindering to 800m runner.  There had been so many examples that, after doing a very strong solid distance races, they turn around and run a shorter event faster.  Many milers have done very well and improved their PRs after they moved up to 5000m; or track runners moved up to the marathon and PR in 5 and/or 10k.
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I would eventually like to write an 800m training program for Master Run Coach but I have not given it too much thought as yet.  I would probably include more sprint drills, including start practice, for 800m runners in the final 6 weeks.  Surprisingly to some, Lydiard’s 800m and 1500, 5000m programs are very similar until 6 weeks till the target race.  I might, as I said earlier, do some shorter, faster intervals where as Peter Snell actually did lots of 400s and even 800s for his intervals.  Considering his age (16yo), I would like to suggest sticking with 200s and 400s at most (for the longest interval distance). Do keep us posted.  I’d be very curious to see how MRC works.

Lorraine: First of all well done for getting your son started correctly! I endorse Nobby’s suggestions whole-heartedly and have a few additional comments from experience.

Your question takes me back to my track days as an 800m specialist when as an untrained 14–year-old I was put under the coaching guidance of John Davies, the 1964 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist who was coached by Lydiard.   I could not have asked for a better foundation for my career and believe that the correct early coaching set me up for longevity in the sport (28 years)  and enabled me to compete over a wide range of distances from 800m to the marathon.

In constructing my schedule John consulted with Arthur then toned everything down, particularly the intervals. After building a base of 40 miles a week that first year, I did the hill phase, then went to the interval training. My biggest interval session right through to when I was 18 years old was 10 X 400 (440 yards in those days), with a lap jog between, starting out at 80 seconds (yes that was the fast lap not the rest lap!!) and improving to 76 seconds per lap at 18. I could have run them faster but that was not the point and my goal was to hit the times suggested. Out of such modest training I was regularly running times in the 2:07 range and got down to 2:03.6 by the time I was 18. What’s more my love of running was consolidated, whereas my friends who had undertaken grueling swimming regimes had had a gutsful of training by the time they were 16 and threw it in.

Kids need to have their natural speed supported and the foundation laid down with fun sessions that their bodies can easily respond to. Lydiard is the quintessential developmental training program for all runners but particularly youngsters. Young people do not need bashing sessions to force performances out of them. In themselves over-reaching sessions can be soul-destroying over time, but without the base building, as many high schools and colleges in this country still engage in, they cause burn-out at a net loss to the country’s talent.  If not doing so already get your son using the Recovery Indicators. This system is the best insurance against overtraining and for teaching him how to pitch his training correctly.

Nobby:�
Looking at Lorraine’s comment above, I plugged in her 2:07 – 800m time into MRC interval chart.  I got 74 seconds for 400m @ 1/4 effort with the slower end being 80-seconds with, for 1500m program, interval training with the total of fast run being 5k (Tuesday) or 4k (Thursday).  Glad to get this confirmation that Lorraine, coached by John Davies, was in fact doing pretty much what we advocate; speed as well as volume.  I will bet 2:07 was the result of her training program, so when she was starting out, her 800 was probably around 2:15???  At 2:15 1/4 effort 400m suggested pace would be 78 seconds.  (Actually it was 2:13.7, so I was on the conservative side of interval training which is right for youngsters - Lorraine.)
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I have tested this formula with many runners and the only people who came back to us and (sort of) complained that the pace was TOO SLOW were the ones who never posted fast times; in other words, they train hard (fast) but never race well (fast).

I really tend to fall off in the marathon.  My times seem to drop off more than they should (according to the McMillan distance calculator) as my race distances increase. My 5k times are in the low to mid 19′s with my last 5k (sept 2010) being a PR of 19:12. Half Marathon of 1:37 2-months prior to the last marathon.

Here’s my history: I just completed my 3rd marathon (Sugarloaf, ME 3:38.32)  During each of my marathons, I’ve bonked at mile 21 and really struggled with the last 5 miles. The past 2 marathons I was maintaining an 8:06 pace until that point.  

I train 6-days per week.  4-days of running, 1-day of swimming 1-mile in the pool and 1-day of biking for 45 minutes.  My peak running mileage was 43 miles.  I do upper body strength training once a week and 20 minutes of core/abs 3-times a week.  I did do mostly aerobic run training w/ a HR monitor as well. 

 My question:  I plan to solely run 6-days per week during my training for the Indy Marathon on 11/5/11.  Do you think the increase in running mileage while using this program will even things out for me?  Do you think running sub 3:30 is out of the question (it’s a flat course)? I appreciate any advice you’d be willing to give. – Chris

Lorraine: I checked out our VO2@ max estimator on this site and according to your half marathon time you could run a 3:27 marathon and according to your 5k time you have the capacity to run a 3:04 marathon. So your goal of sub 3:30 should be well within your reach. While you are very fit, the fall-off in your marathons indicate that you are lacking in the endurance training necessary for you to hold your pace for the entire distance (provided you are not going out too fast in your races). When it comes to distance running where the vast majority of your energy requirements are derived from aerobic metabolism, it is your aerobic capacity that enables you to sustain pace over any distance and without knowing your detailed running/racing history my guess is that is most likely where you are coming up short.

Your Indy marathon is far enough out that it gives you time to do the full 24-week Master Run Coach program with a full base. This will count heaps when it comes to the marathon race. My guess is that you have probably not ever done a full build-up from the bottom of the pyramid up, at least for a number of years, but have always been fast enough to get by on the faster-paced training. This is fine for a 5 or 10K race, but not the marathon.

During the base training go for distance and focus on enjoying the run with its own natural rhythm rather than going by any electronic monitoring. I would suggest for the majority of runs to leave your Garmin at home and just take your overall time. Take the Garmin out to measure only your PCR’s in this phase. Otherwise use this time to run freely and unencumbered without judging yourself and allow you body to produce those feel-good hormones in abundance. Relax rather than force your runs. Pushing too hard is an MO that can quickly become counter-productive during this phase. Understand that running faster during your basis mileage training is not necessarily better – recruiting and developing the slower twitch muscle fibers with mitochondria is, so that the 8 – 10 minute miles etc are all valuable additions to your aerobic capacity. Along with that your fat-burning capacity will become more efficient so you don’t hit the wall. Many runners panic if they have a ‘slow day’ and negate these low-end aerobic paces as ‘junk’ miles whereas the truth is there is no such thing: every pace is contributing if done in the correct proportions and at the right time. There is plenty of time to speed up in the next phases of traning. This is the beauty of Lydiard training.

Nobby: As Lorraine suggested, there are basically several reasons why you “bunk”.  1) Your aerobic development is not quite up to par; 2) You started out too fast; 3) that your diet preparation wasn’t quite adequate; and finally, and this is the one I’ve seen far too many times recently, 4) that you had trained too hard without adequate taper before the marathon.  You had explained how you had prepared for your previous marathons but I’m curious if you had tried now-popular 3 X 20-miler program???�
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I’m assuming you didn’t yet use MRC for your last marathon???  We have put together our program in such way that you should not over-do your training and that you include adequate taper before the race.  If you’re around 3:30~40 range, the longest run being 2:44 is probably a bit worrysome.  We have heard so many times that they feel they should go closer to the actual marathon distance (probably 22-miles or so).  Personally, I found out that far too many people, especially if they go by distance and not time, they train too much.  You see, running involves pounding and muscle trauma.  If you’re, say, 4-hour marathon runner, in order to complete 20-miles in training, it would take over 3-hours (3:15~20).  I used to tell people to get up to 3-hours (once) and that seemed to work just fine.  After putting MRC together, at first I was a bit concerned if 2:30~44 is enough but I’m actually finding out that it IS in fact more than plenty.  Having fresh legs actually counts a lot more than feeling good by going so far. You may be feeling confident because you have gotten so close to the actual marathon distance, but its tough when you go into the race having dead or beaten-up legs.

Particularly if you have a problem of “bonking”, make sure you don’t give yourself too much energy gel during training (long runs).  It is really defeating the purpose; when you’re supposed to teach your body to go through glycogen depletion phase, you keep refueling during the training run.  It may not be easy at first but, once your body gets used to that stress, it would progressively become easier.  Just keep it to the suggested effort and make sure you utilize the Recovery Indicators Index as much as possible.
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Don’t get too hooked-up with Projected Times.  It is, after all, just calculated projection.  I can plug in, say, Peter Snell’s 3:54 for the mile and it would come out with something like 2:03 marathon but, in reality, his marathon time was 2:41.  He’s a miler and the chart only shows the ideal possible times.  I’d say it would probably be accurate enough within the range of about 2, at most 3, distances (for example; 1500m, 5k and 10k; or 5k, 10k and half marathon; or 10k, half and full marathon…  No way it would be accurate or close enough from 1500 up to full marathon!).

I read Keith Livingstone’s book Healthy Intelligent Training.  I also had email correspondence with him in regards to alactic speed training.  He seems to feel this is an important element as well.  Although I do believe that this was his personal feeling  rather than what Lydiard suggested.  Have either of you suggested this type of training.  If I understood Keith correctly, this training would be used in small, controlled doses year around not just during the peaking process.  - Brian

 
Nobby: Great book on Lydiard training. Yes, I would agree with Keith.  The thing is Arthur’s training had elements to it that were not acknowledged at the time, only because the terminology was not in place then, but the alactic work is there in strides and fartlek and other sessions. The thing is that within the workouts there is never rarely only one energy system used.  For example I had this talk with Peter Snell and Dave Martin about hill training.  C’mon, going up that gigantic Waiatarua 3-mile long uphill in New  Zealand that Arthur’s boys regularly ran, don’t tell me they didn’t get into a bit of oxygen debt!!  You stretch your legs quite a bit more, pushing a lot harder…  So if you do a 22-mile run on dead flat, you won’t get all these added benefits.  If you’re running on the flat why not compensate by doing some easy strides?  As you may have noticed, we added easy strides during conditioning for 1500, 5k and 10k programs.  It’s partly based on what Dr. Snell had suggested as well.  Some may call it alactic speed; but whatever it’s called, it won’t hurt and if anything, will benefit you.  Arthur even said you should work on speed, one way or another, 52 weeks a year.  This guy from Atlanta travelled to NZ, talked to most of original Arthur’s Boys for a Lydiard documentary.  He asked Barry Magee how they kept up with leg speed during 10 weeks of conditioning.  He simply said; “we did fartlek once a week…”  So there’s always some form of faster running all the time; it’s just that the EMPHASIS during the conditioning is aerobic development.

Also, for aerobic fartlek sessions, if the athlete is to do a 15 warm-up plus a 15 minute cool-down plus 20 minutes of fartlek does that mean 20 minutes worth of pick-ups or 20 additional minutes of running?  Roughly what percentage of the total time doing fartlek would you advise for the pick-ups?  I would imagine that this would be no more than 50% to ensure complete recovery.  – Brian

NOBBY: I think Loraine may be able to answer better but fartlek is supposed to be a Speed Play.  It’s probably best not to make any structure.  So you start jogging as warm-up and maybe you’re already warmed-up after 7 minutes instead of 15 and you feel like picking up the pace; so be it.  Just lump whatever you do in the total time under the title of fartlek and call it a day.  If you didn’t really feel like picking up the pace so much, so be it.  Sometimes you may feel good and pick up more than usual.  I actually deliberately put the pace slightly slower than aerobic pace, which by the way, is supposed to be the average pace, because I wanted to make sure people take enough recovery jogging so as not to make it too highly anaerobic.  Just go by how you feel and take this as an opportunity to listen to your body.

 Lorraine: Could you provide an example of what a 4:00/1500m runner might do for a fartlek session lasting 34:00?  I get what you are saying about going by feel but would benefit from an example.  - Brian

 LORRAINE: The point about fartlek is to get some range of paces without the mental stress of having to adhere to a structure. Instead of ‘fartlek’ call it ‘puppy-dog running’ or a ‘play-out’ instead of a ‘work-out’. Kids inherently know how to do this. Breaking down fartlek into prescribed parts means it is no longer fartlek. But just to give you some idea, I used to run it with my training buddies and we would take turns at spotting a landmark, sometimes close, sometimes far away  and ranging between a quick pick-up of 30 secs or less (alactic training) and a long pick-up of 2-4 minutes or so at close to aerobic threshold. After each pick-up we slowed to a jog until we got our breath back. Undulating terrain makes it much more fun. Playing “Follow the Leader” for 5 mins or so each person is a great way to do this for a team. I suppose that overall the jog distance roughly equaled or was more than the faster distance. The important thing is not to make it a tough anaerobic workout.

Do you advise repeating the same distance when doing intervals?  For example, 6 x 800m as opposed to 1 x 1600 + 2 x 800m + 4 x 400m or do you think this is not highly important to consider? – Brian

NOBBY: Not necessarily.  I remember Arthur once saying that he didn’t like ladder workouts, but he was on the sidelines keeping the runners on task very well and how they paced themselves was tightly controlled, and they learned a particular pace through repetition over the same distance.  So I always did it that way. Then several years ago I tried doing a ladder and I liked it VERY much.  The thing is; I wasn’t quite in shape; and I’m a guy.  I’ve got plenty of testosterone.  I tend to go out too fast and I didn’t have a coach beside me as my better judgment.  So…  I start out 200 and get out of breath quickly but it’s only 200m.  I’d do something like 2 X 200 first; move on to 2 X 400 and by the time I do them, I’m fully warmed up.  Then did 2 X 800 and I was ready for them…  By the time I came down to 2 X 400 and then 2 X 200, I was full of adrenaline and I wanted to go faster but now it’s ONLY 200m so it won’t last too long.  So it worked out really well.  Nothing wrong with it, you can still achieve the same benefit (total of, what, 5 X 800m worth).  Coach Sasaki of Japan used to like to do cut-down of 3k + 2k + 1k for marathon sharpening.  He said that, as the distance gets shorter, you pick up the pace and it has the progression effect.  Also mentally it’s easier because the distance gets shorter.  These   psychological effects can be just as important as physical ones.

Would you recommend two-a-day workouts for developing HS runners?  If so, would you have recommendations as to how much additional mileage could be completed at this age or how this additional training could be developed over time? – Brian

NOBBY: YES!!  The more days they can double, the better.  Just 20~30 minutes EASY jog will do.  It really helps them to recover better, develop their aerobic capacity and helps them to loosen up. More importantly, it’ll put them in a good stead for “running as a part of daily life”.  I can still vividly remember, some years back, I was staying at Coach Squires’ place during the Boston Marathon.  The day after the marathon, Tuesday, my flight was something like 11AM and I swung by the race hotel to thank Coach.  As I was dragging my suitcase from the subway station into the Copley out came Bill Rodgers in this really ugly brown sweats top and bottom (;o)).  On his typical tip-toe, he went off for a morning jog.  THAT, my friend, is running as a part of life style!  Besides, I remember talking to Tracy Walters, coach of Gerry Lindgren at Roger high school (or was it Mead?  I think Roger…) in Spokane, WA.  He said the seasons when his team had the most success was when all the team did a morning jog, influenced strongly by Lindgren.  My daughter’s high school, Wayzata, did pretty well at the state this season.  And I know they get together, like 3 times a week, in the morning before classes and go for an easy 2~3 mile jog around the trail behind the school, just as to loosen up.

During the hill training phase, it was suggested to incorporate some 150m strides just faster than your fastest aerobic pace.  I know you are effort based, but do you define the fastest aerobic pace as VO2 Max?  I just would like be able to accurately define for my athletes exactly what they are supposed to try to feel during the workout. - Brian 

I would define fastest aerobic pace as that speed in the middle of a 5k race when the pace is settled down.  These strides are just to get used to a faster running, not much more.  Ron Daws recommended 3 X 200m strides. Anything from 75m to 200m is fine but do not do them too hard or too many or you end up doing an interval workout along with a hill workout! Not good.  They are an adjunct and not the main course so do a few strides every 15 minutes or so.

I am a high school cross-country and track coach.  Basically, I purchased this Master Run Coach to try to get more specifics about Arthur Lydiard’s training.  I have read a couple of his books as well as looked at some clinics notes from his presentations.  In any event, I was intrigued to learn more about how his system worked since the information presented in the books was very vague.  Your product answered many of those questions. 

 My kids are each unique.  Some are pretty dedicated and run year around.  Others usually only run in season.  We race a total of 10 times over a 14 week season.  This is probably not ideal for a traditional Lydiard set-up.  However, the first thing that I when taking over this program was considerably reduce the number of meets that we had on our schedule.  What remains are conference meets that we are obligated to participate in during the early part of our season as well as the qualifying meets for the championships at the end of the year.  The early meets are not at all important…very developmental in nature.  Everything builds to running at our best at the end of the year which we have been successful at doing thus far. 

 My fastest returning kid ran 4:27/1600m and 9:46/3200m at our state meet last year on a rain-soaked track.  He was a 10th grader last year.  The other kids are not at that level yet although we have others capable of those times if they wanted to work at it. 

 So, basically, I am looking for a better understanding of principles that I can apply to a group of developing runners with differing degrees of ability and interest.  Do you think it would be best for me to ask specific questions based upon the information provided?  Thanks! – Brian, High School Coach

LORRAINE: I have just been working with Nobby on an article about how to adapt the Lydiard Pyramid to the high school runner. Many have seen the Lydiard approach as unworkable for the long racing seasons and limited training season but with some long term planning and a solid program the high school runner can be developed and produce good performances in that process. It sounds like you have managed to do just that pretty well.   Congratulations on your runners’ achievements.

 For runners who run year round play with the 24 week schedules if you have not done so already. Without knowing the dates of your key meets one suggestion is to have them start this in May or June and have them peak for CC in November. The in-between races could be substituted for the Out and Back Runs and used as workouts. Once done they could start another shorter program that takes them through indoors and up to the beginning of the track season and I think they could sustain the peak for quite a few races.

 Aside from the scheduling that you already seem to have a good handle on, there is a great value in teaching them how to train correctly by having them learn the Principles of Lydiard Training. Two important things for kids is that they understand why they are doing a workout and then learning to read their individual physiologies so that they can pitch it correctly for themselves and get the optimal training effect out of their workouts. One of the big things to get across to young ones is understanding that training is a process of varying intensities and each person has to find their own individual rhythm of workout/recovery that best suits them. All too often we find runners who try to get the most out of themselves each day, and end up as a one-pace horse because without enough recovery the body has adapted to a training pace that can sustain them every day but there is no space for the lift on race day, The nice thing about Master Run Coach programs is that it does as well as can be done to assist the runner in getting their paces right, with the whole gamut well-developed by the end of it all. The other really useful tool is the Daily Recovery Indicators to help a runner get a handle on where they are at in the break-down/build-up cycle of training adaptation.

We will be addressing high school and college more on the site, and in the course of doing this would very appreciate your feedback in using Lydiard for HS. I am sure Nobby will have a lot to say in answering your specific questions about adapting these programs to high school running – this is one area that he is particularly passionate about.

On my plan it does not seem like there are any race pace long runs.  Is that by design?  I guess I am just used to that from other plans.  Thank you – Ryan

Nobby: Yes, Ryan, everything in your Master Run Coach schedule is by design and with good reason.  If you look at the entire program–and I’m assuming you’re following a marathon program ??? you’ll see in the final 6 weeks some long Out-and-Back runs, which are more or less tempo runs.  We’ve spent a lot of time in designing this program.  If you choose a schedule for a shorter distance, you’ll see that we specify the time for each “Race or Time Trial”.  This is also by design.  If you read Lydiard’s book, Arthur always said that the pace (speed) needs to be carefully controlled.  I was just working on the 6-days-a-week 5k program. To check it I plugged in my 5k time to see the pace and time trial times and ask myself “How reasonable are they?”  My first 800m time-trial came out as 3:05 (for a 20:06-5k guy….for a 50+ year old).  Now that’s pretty easy.  But coming off from lots of distance and hill training; even though I would have done some interval training, my legs would still be very tired.  So for my first time 800m time trial, I’d be content with a 6-minute-a mile pace.  Now, from there on, every week, I’ll be running an 800m time trial almost 10 seconds faster.  So naturally the next question would be; “Can I keep improving like that?”  Well, when you look at all the other parts of the program, I’ll be doing 50/50 sprint work; 200m time trial; plus the overall volume of workout would get less and less…in other words, my legs would be more refreshed.  With this Lydiard program you add more and more speed as you get closer to the race.  And, because of that, we don’t chase fast times in the earlier stages. �
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For a marathon guy, you’ll have (assuming you can comfortably run 120-minutes now) a 107-minute Out-and-Back at a bit slower than your targeted marathon race pace.  That’s almost 1:45 of tempo type workout.  Each week, the duration will get less; but the pace will pick up.  You don’t need to push yourself at race pace for fairly long durations –you want to leave that for the actual race.  Trying to see if you can run the targeted marathon pace for over, say, 18 or 20 miles is like pulling out a newly planted flower from the pot just to make sure it’s rooting.  You keep doing that, and the flower will eventually die.  So many runners do that in workout; to see if they can run that fast or that far and end up leaving their race effort on the training track … �
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This program challenges many of today’s conventional training programs that over-emphasize only one type of training.  I don’t think there’s any need for anybody to run three 20-milers or marathon pace 18-miler to have a good marathon.  I really don’t see the point of going for a 28-miler to get ready for 26-miler (some elites do, and do it well but the average marathon runner … no).  I believe those are the very people who would be too tired on the race day and perform sub-par.  With our program you’ll run far (long runs), you’ll run fast (intervals, etc.), and you’ll run relatively far and fast (Out-and-Backs); and the race will the day that you put them all together and fly to a PR!

I have a late spring goal (possibly the Cherry Blossom 10 miler on April 3) and then will transition to half ironman triathlon training this summer and then follow the schedule to peak for Philadelphia Half Marathon, recover and then regroup with some anaerobic training for Big Sur, and then I want to shoot for the 3M Half in Austin, Texas at the end of Jan, 2012. The reason for this is that I want to try to hit a 1:27 half in one of those. I’m not getting any younger, I like having goals, and I want to see what I can do. My PR in the half is 1:21 but that is from my late 20′s and I am now 43. So that is basically 3 half marathons, each two months apart. So, I have a long time until the big goal race but stay fit year round. The rest of the races I’d like to run well obviously but they are just stepping stones. I have a pretty big endurance base….have run consistently for 30 years, with many, many weeks at 60 miles/week or higher. I now do 60 miles a week during most of the year (a little less during triathlon training).  It will be challenging to figure out how much the cycling and swimming take out of me and therefore how to hit the harder run workouts on certain days while I am triathlon training. How long can I ride a peak? Any suggestions on what schedules to use?  Kim

Lorraine: This is my suggestion for you: download the full 24-week half marathon Master Run Coach schedule and begin your build-up for your summer races now. The full cycle will pull everything together for you. It seems that your focus is the half marathon PR and that the triathlons are a fun thing for the summer. Correct? This could work fine as long as when you mix in your other sports you keep the type of energy system that is being used in a session consistent. So if you do running intervals for example, that would be the day to do bike intervals or swim intervals. One of the biggest mistakes with triathletes is that they train as if they have three bodies, not one.  It is important to keep the rhythm of the week intact across the board so that on a workout day you do the type of workout no matter what modality, and on the recovery days you recover whether running, cycling or swimming. Mixing it all up does not work as the workout-recovery cycle is then interrupted.  

The schedule would bring you to a peak at the end of July/beginning of August. When you get there plan to race every two weeks using the Race-week/Non-race week supplemental schedule for 6 weeks up to Philly half. You will be flying! After that you can easily assess whether to do a shortened program for Big Sur and do another Race Week/Non Race week schedule to 3M, or do a longer schedule for 3M with Big Sur as a stepping stone race on the way.  

Kim: I will do as you said re: the program. Excellent advice about tri training and keeping the intensity of the workout correct for the given day, whichever sport you are doing. And yes, you are correct that a fast half marathon in the fall or next winter is my highest goal for this year. I looked at my half PR from when I was in my late 20′s and it put me at 80.6% age-graded. I figure, relatively speaking, that I should be able to be at 80.6% now as a 43 year old. And that would be a 1:27:30 half. So that is what I am going for. It will be a good challenge but I am excited about trying. The triathlons are for fun this year. I enjoy the change in the summer, as well as the challenge of the three sports. Last year I did a half ironman as a high goal…and I hope to do another half iron in 2012. But if I focus too much on the tri’s this summer, I think that will detract from the larger goal of a fast half.

Lorraine: Yes Kim, best to prioritize the goals or you end up attempting to do too much and diluting your focus. By the way, at 43 you do not have to give in to the notion of age-attrition quite yet. A lot of what we attribute to aging is poor planning, diversions from our dreams, limiting beliefs that cause us overstress and over-training, and above all losing our belief in magic (possibilities) in favor of whatever is the current consensus of limitations. I have found that runners are actually pretty good resistors at giving up on themselves, but still the over-40 wind-down is a biggie idea when you get there. As an endurance athlete you have the advantage of age and experience and could well revisit that talent of youth and surprise yourself by backing off a bit.