KEEP PLANTING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER W
e live in an erawhere the quick fix is revered. Who wants to spend hours, weeks or years toiling for something when there’s a faster, easier option? The only trouble is, the quick fix rarely works, and if it does, the results don’t tend to last long. I’ve always stressed to new runners that fitness doesn’t come in a spray-on can. Work hard, recover well and progress sensibly – that’s the way to build fitness that stays the course, weathering the ups and downs of your training. There’s a certain justice to this. You reapwhat you sow. If you’ll allow me to persevere with the plant analogy, a quick-fix seeker would just throw in a fewseedlings andwait for the flowers to appear; who cares if you have to repeat the process next year? The more committed gardener would take the long view; preparing the soil, sowing seeds from scratch and, when their plants emerged, keep them free fromweeds, nourished andwellwatered. It goes without saying who ends up with the best blooms, right?
At least, it would if it weren’t such a cruel and unjust world. Recently, despite my dutifully diligent approach to running over three decades, I’ve found that it takes very little for my hard-won fitness to wilt.
After just a fewdays off with a head cold, draggingmyself round a four-miler feels like starting from scratch. If I miss my fortnightly hill session, moderate slopes seem to take on Everest-like proportions. Gone are the days when I could bounce back from time off running or periods of overindulgence. The reason? Ageing.
Research shows that as we age, the adaptations our bodies make in response to exercise unravel faster when we take a break than they did when were younger. ‘ For the senior athlete, not training means the rate at which aerobic capacity and muscle mass are lost accelerates,’ writes coach Joe Friel in his book Fast
After 50. He’s right in terms of the outcome, but it’s not so much that the rate of decline accelerates as that the thing that has been slowing the rate of decline has been taken away. Namely, exercise. A recent study in The Journal of
Physiology confirmed what has long been the medical consensus: exercise is a ‘lifelong supplement’ for healthy ageing.
But sometimes we have to stop running, andwhatever the reason for the break – laziness, injury, work – the result is the same: we suddenly find ourselves skidding down the slippery slope of detraining.
So what’s the answer? Some veteran athletes choose to ensure no weeds take root by resolving never to take a break. Ronhill famously ran every single day for more than 52 years, including running with a cracked sternum after a car crash. But running on broken bones is not to be encouraged, whatever your age.
Should we just accept age-related decline with good grace, then? In his book Run Strong Stay Hungry, Jonathan Beverly interviews many lifelong runners about what motivates them to keep going, and his findings suggest a degree of acceptance is crucial. Many of his interviewees derived their pleasure from putting in a good honest effort in training and racing, regardless of pace, while others thrived on chasing age-group standards. Some simply found running gave them a sense of purpose.
Those who couldn’t make peace with the idea that PBS and race wins were no longer possible had another solution: they gave up altogether. But quitting isn’t on my agenda. So I’ll continue to nurture my fitness as much as I can – while accepting the occasional weed among the flowers.