Eagle and Muskie, Ass-Backwards, as Usual.

I've been looking at the rather lofty goal I've set myself and how others have attained it. There are about 40 American men over 50 who run a 5 minute mile each year (or the metric equivalent), but only about 5 over the age of 55.

Not that that's my goal!

There are two approaches to running goals and you can either attack it from below like a muskie, or from above like an eagle. All the fast old milers managed to run sub-5 in their 40's on low mileage, starting by running as much as possible at pace and building up to maybe a whopping 30 miles per week. I'm coming at it from the other side and keep getting distracted by such things as "400m race times are the best predictor of mile times."

I love running fast and I've been doing too much of it lately. Having spent most of the past year mired at 10-11 minute/mile training runs, I'm now averaging 8-9... but that's because I'm running some at very fast speeds (I hit a 25 year personal best for 100 meters recently).

Running slow trains me to run slow, so I've been trying to run fast. Running fast gets me overtrained quickly. What I need to do is to run appropriately for where I am. That's always a challenge. What I need to do is run about an hour, five times per week, with two days a bit faster to keep from getting in a rut. When I stop improving doing just that, then I can start adding all the frills to which my mind naturally gravitates. I don't need to be doing anything very fast just yet.

Someone keep reminding me about that, please.