Running Isn't Enough Anymore

"I am older than I once was, but younger than I'll be..." - P. Simon

An old fox. A fox on the fringe. Looking back it seemed easy to hunt, but it'll be harder as my ears and muzzle salt and pepper...hunt I will run I will. Faster I will become.

I am getting older and if I want to keep improving I will need to do more than simply run. This of course will add more time and energy to my daily routine. My long term training plan is to excel in the 5k-13.1 mile distances until I am in my early 30s and then focus on the marathon until I reach my early 40s. I have yet to reach my full potential in this sport because I don't run enough mileage and because I am not burned out from college (a result of not running a ton of mileage back then). Each year I run approximately 5 miles a week more than I ran the previous year. It's a slow progression, but with all my little injuries it's really all I am able to muster. Eventually, I would like to try and reach a plateau of 100 miles a week. Right now, I average 70-80 when I am in the heart of my training and peak in the low to mid 90s. It may seem like a lot, but in order to reach your full potential (I think) you need to run as much as your body can handle. Unfortunately, in the past two years that total has been 70-80 (closer to 80 in 2008). The good news is that maybe I can change that...

The other formula to success is doing all those other things you don't like to do (at least I don't like to do them). Case in point is stretching. I hate stretching. I find it boring, but I will need to redouble my efforts on this front. In college one of my coaches made us stretch for almost 40 minutes before and after our warm up. At practice in December, I would watch as the sun would set and the cold would creep in during our marathon-long stretching routine. I told myself if I ever ran after college I would forgo all this nonsense and not waste my time. Unfortunately this has all caught up with me; I am getting older and I NEED to stretch. I went to a Yoga class today and the instructor reinforced my thoughts and my fears on all of this. Optimistically I think this could me the silver bullet? Go to yoga once a week, hang with some hippies and get loosey goosey? Will this and a daily routine of stretching, ingest some much needed "something" into my training?

Upon re-reading this post I realize I sound like the eccentric Max Lockwood!? Could this be? Could he actually be right about something? Or does this mean I am losing my mind?

Either way, if you run with me make sure your force me to stretch!