Accepting the downward trend.
I did a Parkrun the other day when I was holidaying in Norfolk and found myself in a competitive race with a young guy from Trafford AC. We were fairly evenly matched the majority of the way through the course, but when it came to the last 500m I was out-kicked and had nothing left to respond. I had a brief chat with him afterwards and it’s clear his running is going very well and he’s on an upward trajectory. It also got me thinking about my own trajectory which is on a very different end of the spectrum.
It’s easy to get a bit pessimistic when you reach the age of 40 when you are a competitive runner. All the stats show (the start of) a decline in performance and you are allocated separate race categories because you’re unlikely to keep up with the fast young guns. This is all true, but I think it’s important to personally acknowledge your body just isn’t the same as when you were twenty – and that’s fine.
The reality of running at over 40 is that yes, you’re probably not as fast as when you were 20 (depending on your running journey), but there are many opportunities to race with people in your age category and this does wonders for your self-confidence. I’ve been involved with the V40 team with Edinburgh AC over the last year, and they have been very successful in many events. Getting a medal, regardless of whether its for the V40 category, makes you feel good.
Another major thing to deal with (and accept) is that turning 40 will very likely increase your chances of getting injured. I’ve found my body doesn’t bounce back from races and hard sessions quite as easily as when I was 20 and I need to be careful in how I plan my training accordingly. Sometimes I don’t want a niggle to turn into something worse, so I just pop on the bike instead. Certain things are pretty much a no-no now, like doing two races on two consecutive days – my body just wouldn’t be able to cope.
Many people like myself also have young families in the V40 category and this bring with it a different set of challenges. Anyone who takes their training seriously will know that you pretty much need to be running most days to stay at a competitive level, but family life doesn’t always allow for this. So you need to thing creatively about how to fit it in, and acknowledge that early starts may be necessary, or even doing a treadmill sessions if you can’t leave the house. The important thing is to not let the gremlins inside your head tell you to just drop the session – get your shoes on and get it done!
So my take on the whole thing is to work with the engine that you’ve got. It might not be what is was twenty years ago, and you might not be able to max it out as often as you did in the past, but it’s probably still got some decent speed left.
And keep chasing those V40 medals. Me like shiny medals.