Triathlon at Retirement

When you start training, your times improve quickly at first, but then there is a plateau. If you are competitive and want to get faster, you have to work on speed. It will not happen running the same 5k track, time and time again. Same in swimming and biking, you have to do speedwork . I will here focus on how I have improved my speed in running. I reason like this: if I want to run an 8.30 mile, I have to train at 8.30 speed or faster. I just can't keep it up for 5k (3.1 miles) yet. So I use the treadmill, where I can control and force the speed. First, and very important, I need a good warm-up. I start at walking speed for 1 minute, then increase to a slow jog for a minute. After that I press the button for an increase in speed every 15 seconds. After a total of about 8 minutes, I am faster than my competition speed. How fast you force yourself, is individual, but I run a normal 5k (3.1 miles) on a triathlon a little above 9 minutes/mile. (On a regular 5k race, I am faster). So

Why do some people work out regularly and struggle through hard training while others give up? Character? Maybe, but I do not think it is the whole story. I am not a psycologist, but I will share my observations, and my own experiences. Success breeds success and failure breeds failure. Even today, at age 63, I get a sinking feeling when I train with people much better than myself. I can reason that they are younger and that I am doing FINE considering my age. But it does not work that way. Always behind, the downward spiral of self doubt, lack of motivation and lack of energy and enjoyment starts. Its not fun AND my physical ability declines. In contrast, when I am ahead, the energy flows, I can push myself much harder, I get better! Society often credits athletes with all sorts of fine personal characteristics and while there is something admirable in being a high achiever, my view is that we should not exaggerate the mental strenghts of athletes. It is mentally easy to be a winner.