Are You a Master Runner and You Don’t Know it?

For those of us who are not elite or very fast runners, we probably don’t think of the term “Masters” to describe ourselves.

But if you are a runner who is over 40, you are considered a master! Go us!

If you want to listen to my podcast on this topic, go to The Wrinkled Runner Podcast tab at the top of the page.

Rest and Recovery is Important at ANY Age

If you have been around the website at all, you should have picked up that I am a big fan of recovery.

Well, now I am. I didn’t used to be…I didn’t trust it (and let’s face it, a lot of us don’t).

I didn’t think I would get better, fitter or faster if I gave my body a break. I wanted to do the next run harder or faster and didn’t give any other goal a chance.

If a distance I had covered the week before was a certain pace, then I thought I should run at least a few seconds faster per mile for that run to “count”.

Yikes.

Clearly, I didn’t know much about running. And that was only about 4 years ago…before I started this blog and started researching what goes into training and what experts and coaches had to say.

Then I went through coaching certification myself, and it finally clicked!

Even though I am in my 50’s and now know better, it is vital for runners of any age to take rest and recovery seriously. It is so counter-intuitive for most of us, yet if we want to get stronger and faster our bodies need recovery to happen.

Why Should I Take a Rest Day

A runners body can be a mysterious thing. What happens to them when they are allowed to recover is pretty amazing.

The muscles in your body respond to the “damage” we do to them by building stronger muscle, but only during recovery periods. If you keep pushing it, that’s when you get muscle tears or tendonitis or a myriad of other ailments and injuries. That does not allow your muscle to adapt to get stronger, it just takes you out of the running game.

Resting your running body is like the rest a body builder needs in between lifting days. Those rests are what makes the body stronger and able to react positively to more stress, rather than breaking down.

As an older runner, you may need to take 2 days off instead of 1 if you are stressing your body with a long or hard run. Go with what your body is telling you. If an easy run after a harder day isn’t feeling easy, you may need to incorporate another recovery day in between harder runs.

If you are excessively tired or so sore you can’t move the next day, build in an extra rest day and bear in mind that it is beneficial to your running fitness.

It may not be you will ALWAYS need to do this, but keep that adjustment in your mind for when you do.

Resting More Does NOT Mean You Can’t Run Fast

Just because we may need to rest more, does not mean we can’t continue to be competitive! The point of taking these recovery periods is that we can get stronger and fitter.

We may not be able to take down a 25 year old college runner (but we might, lol), and for those of you who ran back “in the day” you may not see those same paces as you did “back then”.

BUT, we can continue to improve and better ourselves as runners in so many ways. Including getting faster. I am 53 and I average faster than ever. Do I think I’ll be faster at 60 than I am now? Probably not, but who knows!?

Putting it All Together

One thing that we can neglect acknowledging is that our running is cumulative. What we did to our bodies a week ago or even longer is why we are either feeling good or not so great on todays run.

If you have a toughy, think back to the training you did a week ago.

Did you push? Did you run when you should have taken a recovery day? Did you do speed work, and take a spin class and partied on New Years and didn’t get enough sleep?

Anything that looked like that can contribute to a bad run later. It’s why I recommend a running journal. It’s also why I’m doing posts twice a month on my personal running.

I take better notes on what the runs were like since I am going to be writing about them, and I am surprised when I go to put the post together at some of the comments I wrote to myself that I totally forgot about.

Just taking stock of what your training overall has been the last few weeks can clue you in to areas that you may need to work on. It may be more sleep overall (I write about that here) or incorporating an extra recovery day in your training.

Try that if you are having a running slump (either physical or mental) and see if it helps. If you are following a program that has you running 4, 5 or 6 days a week, drop one of the runs and track how you feel in the next few weeks.

I had to do that for my marathon training last year that had me doing a 6 day a week cycle. After experiencing some serious burn out, I dropped one of the days and went on to PR the marathon.

A Word to the Masters Runner

If you are an older runner who wants to continue to stay active, running is one of the best ways to do that. I have 4 grand children (so far) who I want to be able to share my love of running with as they get older.

I want to be able to walk around my neighborhood and live in my house until I’m 100 (I have 3 floors, plus a basement..so I need my legs and joints to work well).

My running hero is still Katherine Beiers. She is the older runner (then 85) shown in the Boston Marathon picture wearing a garbage bag (you can look it up, that was the year Des Linden won and the year the weather was just terrible). She was still running marathons in 2019 at 87 (she credits the Jeff Galloway method for that one). She was also the former mayor of Santa Cruz, BTW!

I want articles written about me in my late 80’s, still running marathons and kicking butt. If I keep trying to run smart, I’m sure I can do that…and so can you! I hope I can help you get there with me.

If you’d like to ask a question about running, email me at sherry@wrinkledrunner.com. I answer every one and I have met many of you via email and try to help where I can. Your questions and issues become Blog, YouTube and Podcast topics as well.