Run to Win

Have you ever worried about slowing down as you get older, or being more susceptible to injuries? How about how to maintain your focus during a race or motivate yourself to get out the door and train?

The answers to those (and other) questions is available on a new CD that I am offering that is all about how to maintain that competitive edge as you age. The CD features a coaching session with myself and Tom Ryan, one of the top senior cross country runners in the country, and comes along with 2 special reports and a downloadable mp3 of the CD.

I am giving away the entire initial run of 50 CDs for Free, but over half of them have been claimed. As of the last count, there were 20 CDs left, so if you want one then you will need to go to competitiveaging.com and claim yours now!

I’ve finally finished putting together my new Coaching Session CD, which is compiling as I type this. About a month ago, I did an interview with Tom Ryan about how he has become so competitive as an older runner, regularly running faster than people half of his age. Tomorrow, I plan on releasing a few tracks so that people can sample what Tom has to say.

However, it is currently past midnight and I’m not much of one for all nighters, so rather than try to decide which tracks to release, I am going to give you all the entire track list of topics and let you decide which ones I should release! I will be putting them together on Friday afternoon or early evening, so they should be available shortly after dinner.

Here is the list of tracks:
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What would you say if I told you that you could run faster as a 50 year old than you did as a 46 year old? How about if I told you that it’s possible to run within 1 minute of your 5k PR that you may have set in your 20’s when you are in your 50’s, and that that is a time that would make you competitive with guys half your age? What if I told you that those times could come after a 15 year layoff from the sport?

If I told you all of that, what you would you say? You might say that I was going to interview Tom Ryan again, except that this time you are going to make sure that you are on the call so that you could hear what he has to say!

A month and a half ago, Tom Ryan and I got on the phone with some of you readers and answered not only all of the questions that I wanted answered (as a late 20’s runner hoping to be half as good as he is when I’m in my 50’s) but also the questions that you wanted answered. We not only collected questions ahead of time, but we also answered questions live from callers who wanted help with their own training.

Tom is a great guy and a great resource, and he has agreed to do an encore call this Saturday, October 25^th at 2:00. If you want to be a part of the call, then I recommend going here to sign up right now: http://www.runtowin.com/ask/Tom-Ryan.html

We’ll be going over some of the original questions again, but we will also be answering new questions that you want to ask! You can’t afford to miss this call.

As John Ambold (of Boston, Mass) said, “I can tell you that I found that teleconference to be one of the most informative running discussions that I have been involved with, and I think I got more out of it than any in which I have been involved.”

So click here now and sign up so that you don’t miss out on this jam-packed call.

How old do you think that you will be before your race times start to go up significantly? Within a few years of graduating college? In your early to mid-30s? Do you think that you can still be competitive into your 40s? How about your 50s?

Tom Ryan is now in his 50s, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his times. His 5k times are only a minute slower than when he was in his 20s, and he frequently finds himself on the podium in the senior division at races. He is one of the best cross country runners in the country.

How has he stayed so competitive as he has gotten older? More importantly, what can you do to stay competitive as you age, or to become more competitive now that you already are a little older than you used to be?

I had those same questions that you are probably asking yourself right now. Rather than wonder about it, though, I decided to go straight to the source. On Saturday, September 6^th, I will be interviewing Tom on a live conference call. If you would like to listen to the call, you can sign up now at: http://www.runtowin.com/ask/Tom-Ryan.html

The list of questions that I plan on asking Tom all come from the perspective of a young man in his late 20s with out any children yet. When you sign up for the call in details, you have the opportunity to ask your own questions that I might not think to ask.

Click here to go to the page where you can ask your own questions and sign up for the call in details, and both Tom and I look forward to speaking with you on Saturday.

I got this note in my email the other day and thought that I should pass it along:

The Portland City Council will be recognizing the tremendous accomplishment of some of our running comrades (Todd Coffin, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Peter Bottomley, and Christine Snow-Reaser) for winning SILVER in the recent USA Cross Country meet in Ohio. The PPH failed to recognize this MASTERS TEAM for its achievement. However, we can show up at the Council meeting to pay homage to these outstanding athletes.

Anybody that is interested in cheering on the masters runners from Dirigo who did so well at the national cross country meet in December can do so tonight at 7:00 pm at the Portland City Council meeting.

Pete Bottomley wrote an excellent race report of the masters’ race if you’d like to refresh your memory about how everyone did.

The following race recap was written by Pete Bottomley, the Director of Sales & Marketing at Coast of Maine Organic Products, Inc. Pete is a masters runner for Dirigo, R.C. and competes in mostly middle distance races in Southern Maine. He ran his first marathon this past April in Boston, and this past weekend traveled out to Ohio to compete in the USATF Club Cross Country National Championships. Pete is also the race director and primary fund raiser for the New England Mile.

Dirigo splashed onto the front pages of the National running scene this past weekend at the USATF XC NATIONALS in West Chester, Ohio.

Our team was represented by Christine Reaser in the Women’s Masters and Todd Coffin, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan and me in the Men’s Masters. I don’t know how to describe the course other than to say it looked like the Alaskan tundra, but more stark and the permafrost was melting! The recent 3-4 inches of slushy snow obscured the bumps and ruts in the prairie trails on which we would race the next day.

We went to bed wishing we had brought 1” spikes and hopeful that the snow would be gone by race time.

In the morning, the snow was still there and we headed over to the course telling each other that this situation was actually perfect for us Mainers!!!
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This week last year I had marathons on my mind.

• The Chicago Marathon just can not catch a break these past few years. This year there was the debacle with the heat and canceling the race, but last year Robert Cheruiyot slipped on a race decal and split his head open. His momentum carried his torso over the line, though, and he still won the race. The videos that I linked to last year are still available if you somehow missed this story.
• Dean Karnazes ran the Maine leg of his Endurance 50 with his 31^st marathon in as many days. I got to watch the start and finish of it, but I did not run. (Photos)
• Dallen thinks that weekly mileage is a good predictor of when you will hit the wall. I disagree with that assessment, as I have managed to avoid hitting the wall pretty consistently and my weekly mileage is much lower than his. I think that the wall is based more on your fueling strategy as long as you have a basic level of fitness for the distance.
• In non-marathon running news, Dirigo won the masters cross country championship for the 40-49 category after defeating the Genesee Valley Harriers. One of my college teammates now runs for them, but neither of us are masters yet so we didn’t race. One of my current teammates, Tom Ryan, won the 50+ race in 16:25.
• Scott and I continued our series on rest with an article on this site about rest between workouts and cross training. Giving your body a chance to repair itself is important if you ever want to improve in your sport.
• This week two years ago, I described what hyponatremia is and why I do not think that it is worth as much attention as people spend on it. I also reviewed the Marathon Rookie eBook and website, which I believe is a pretty good primer on gearing up for your first marathon.

Last weekend was the USATF Masters 5k Cross Country Championship Meet at Saratoga Springs, New York. Dirigo did not field a team this year, although we did send two runners. After two great performances, the Dirigo guys spent some time hob-knobbing with the Genesee Valley Harriers as they get ready for the 10k championship race in Ohio this November.

Pete Bottomley ran a strong 15:50 to place 2^nd in the 45-49 category, cutting 12 seconds off of last year’s time and placing 5^th overall with an age graded time of 14:17. Tom Ryan also put in a strong performance, placing second in the 50+ division with a time of 16:33 and placing 4^th overall with an age graded time of 14:15.

(Full Results)