When did/will you peak?

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Daz Love
Daz Love
Nov 2016
3:56pm, 11 Nov 2016
420 posts
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Daz Love
Looked up the 7 year rule as never heard the term!! Full article in link above.

The 'seven-year rule'

Even though Faerber ran his first marathon in 1964 at age 28, he didn't run his best marathon until he was 41. "The first one was the Culver City Marathon in California," Faerber recalled. "It was the Olympic trials that year. I had never run the distance and assumed it was just a matter of extending myself a little more than I had done in shorter races. I found it didn't work that way and I dropped out at 15 miles."

Faerber won a number of marathons in Hawai'i, including the first Maui Marathon in 1971, but his best effort came in the 1977 Honolulu Marathon, when he recorded a time of 2 hours, 36 minutes, 47 seconds. "We didn't know much about training for that long of a race back in the 1960s," Faerber added.

"I didn't really get into high mileage training — the 100 miles a week stuff — until I was in my late 30s, and even then I was still experimenting. If there was one thing that made the difference when I did my best it was consistency. My training was more consistent and by that time I had learned from my mistakes."

Connie Comiso-Fanelli, another veteran distance runner, agrees that consistency is the key and believes in the "seven-year rule," which holds that it takes seven years to fully adapt to the marathon distance. "I started running in 1978, ran my first marathon that year, a 3:48, and then ran my best, a 2:53, seven years later," said Comiso-Fanelli, a 46-year-old registered nurse. "It took 14 or 15 marathons before I ran my best. I think it was just harder training and consistency. I also changed my diet and stopped eating red meat entirely."

Adaptation involves molding and reshaping the body to the demands of distance running. The seven-year rule may be explained in part by the scientific fact that cells in the body completely turn over every seven years.
Ulric
Ulric
Nov 2016
5:30pm, 11 Nov 2016
425 posts
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Ulric
Thanks, that was interesting. I think it applies across other distances too personally.
Brunski
Brunski
Nov 2016
6:36pm, 11 Nov 2016
70 posts
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Brunski
HappyG(rrrr) - 55 and a (comfortable) sub 3 marathon is smashing - wow.

Ulric - tell us about this arch rival of yours, is it through parkrun? I have a parkrun rival, he went sub 19 before me, he went sub 18 before me and when I beat his time he went and took 4 seconds off mine...he also beat me on the chip time for the Yorkshire half by a second (despite me finishing infront of him).

Daz - thanks for the article, I'd be happy with 7 years of improving...
Ulric
Ulric
Nov 2016
8:05pm, 11 Nov 2016
426 posts
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Ulric
search the site for 'groves' ;-)
The_Saint
The_Saint
Nov 2016
8:48pm, 11 Nov 2016
5,923 posts
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The_Saint
Talking of peaking and how long you can keep defying age, Martin Rees who I see regularly at races in South Wales is truly extraordinary thepowerof10.info
The takeaway message I get is that maybe a lot of aging is in our heads
The_Saint
The_Saint
Nov 2016
8:50pm, 11 Nov 2016
5,924 posts
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The_Saint
Trying that link with TinyUrl to avoid whatever the issue is tinyurl.com
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Nov 2016
8:51pm, 11 Nov 2016
11,568 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
Back to 'mental toughness'! :-)
Bazoaxe
Bazoaxe
Nov 2016
8:53pm, 11 Nov 2016
10,698 posts
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Bazoaxe
I think a lot depends on when you start running. If I had started in my teens or early 20s, I would be well past my best by now.

However, I also suspect that my best times would have been faster then they are
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Nov 2016
9:25pm, 11 Nov 2016
11,569 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
I think you're right to an extent, in that you can wear yourself out. My absolute fastest and fittest will be the year I was 22. I had spent the best part of 2 years in an intensive training regime and was just out of it and therefore well rested too. It was fantastic. Not sure I'll ever be that quick again, but am hoping to surpass it on a WAVA basis over the next 2 years.

I've done myself a huge favour by spending a disproportionate amount of the intervening 25 years sat on my fat 'arris, shining a swivelly chair ;-) Not much chance of an over-use injury making its presence felt!
Ulric
Ulric
Nov 2016
10:30pm, 11 Nov 2016
427 posts
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Ulric
Rees is amazing yes and so is my old club XC champion John Exley, born 1947 and ran 5.34 for 1500 this year.

tinyurl.com

About This Thread

Maintained by Brunski
An ageing runner starts a thread wondering whether recent improvements in times are likely to continue into his forties, looking for personal stories of people experiences, their 'golden years' where they hit some of their best times. But also willing to hear how age deteriorates times, how his improvements may be short lived and maybe give him an idea of how many years he has to play with....?

Related Threads

  • age
  • wava








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