Anonymous wrote:It's Friday, another run day - so I ran my 3 miles - and did some fartlek - every so often I just ran a little faster - sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, sometimes on the roughly level pavement. My "fast" is not much faster than my regular. I feel like a sack of wet rope trying to go fast. But I did it!!

Nice job, OP!

Anonymous wrote:I run 11.30 minute miles, so your tine seems speedy to me!

+1! Embrace gentle running and as PP said, go hard for 20%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 53 you should set a goal to do cross training (lifting weights). You can also work on endurance. So go slower but for longer periods of time. Nothing wrong with running for fun and not having a goal.

That's true and I feel kind of bad that I don't lift weights any more (pandemic - I lost my gym, I suppose I could join one but this one was in my office building) but I do body weight exercises (push ups, lunges, squats, planks, tricept dips, jumping jacks) twice a week and yoga every day. So I probably should be doing more. I'm unlikely to go out of my way for a class - I'm self motivated. Any suggestions?

Check out Fitness Blender. They have many options for strength training, and you do not need a lot of equipment. Light, medium, and heavy (relative to you) dumbbells would be plenty to get a good workout. Try their free videos first to see if it's of interest to you, but even their paid option is very reasonable for the content.

It's Friday, another run day - so I ran my 3 miles - and did some fartlek - every so often I just ran a little faster - sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, sometimes on the roughly level pavement. My "fast" is not much faster than my regular. I feel like a sack of wet rope trying to go fast. But I did it!!

OP here: thanks for all the replies! I took your advice and went and did the stationary bike. (I couldn't face sprinting this morning!) I didn't bike for long - I am out of bike shape, apparently - but 20 minutes. I definitely don't find it easy, but I guess I can only get better at it.

I feel good about the hills in this town - to get anywhere you have to take a hill, so at least I'm getting some of those!

Anonymous wrote:So ... hills workout ... just up and down the same hill (that's what we'd do in track in high school) ? Or would running on the roads and including the local hills count? Suggestions on how to make this work?

Both/either!

My town is hilly, so I rarely do other hill work.

Nothing wrong with some nice cardio. At our age, the priorities should be strength training followed by HIIT training.

Your distance and pace are great. You don't HAVE to run faster. But if you want to, I have some easy suggestions.

First of all, if you want to play around with speed, you HAVE to warm up. So, let's say you're planning to do some speed one day. Run your first mile SLOW ... like 10:30 (and I only mean "slow for you").

An easy way to try speed is to do "fartlek." It means "speed play," and it's just random bursts of speed. You can pick a mailbox in the distance, a park bench, etc., and just run there at a fast pace. Then jog. Then give yourself another goal. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

You can also do some track work. Jog for a mile. Then run a quarter mile at a pace that feels hard, but not all-out. Jog for a quarter mile or a little less. Then do another fast lap. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

You can also make your middle mile your fast mile ... that's a fun and easy workout.

One of my favorite things to do is to get on a treadmill and just play with the speed according to my music. It totally keeps my mind engaged.

None of these workouts are necessary, but they're fun.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the suggestions - I have a bike, and I like to bike somewhat. But I'm not much of a biker - I'm a little scared of being on roads (got hit once) and I exercise before light and biking in the dark isn't for me. These are excuses, I know. Would a stationary bike give me similar results to actual biking? How often should I add biking in?

Stationary bike would be great. It’s the same but you need a good fan setup. Depending on your goals, you can also connect your bike to a dumb or smart trainer and use something like zwift on a tablet to keep it moderately entertaining. I have to bike train indoors 80% of the time due to weather or time constraints.

In terms of mix, I’m guessing but I’m at like 2:1 hours bike to run when training for long course triathlon. So for you, maybe 1:1 would work well since we aren’t talking durations longer than 40-45 minutes.

So ... hills workout ... just up and down the same hill (that's what we'd do in track in high school) ? Or would running on the roads and including the local hills count? Suggestions on how to make this work?

Thanks for the suggestions - I have a bike, and I like to bike somewhat. But I'm not much of a biker - I'm a little scared of being on roads (got hit once) and I exercise before light and biking in the dark isn't for me. These are excuses, I know. Would a stationary bike give me similar results to actual biking? How often should I add biking in?

Anonymous wrote:I run 11.30 minute miles, so your tine seems speedy to me!

Haha, same. I'm running 13:30 at best, after 6 months of running. Very happy with this.

Throw in regular hill workouts, and you will see great improvement!

Anonymous wrote:At 53 you should set a goal to do cross training (lifting weights). You can also work on endurance. So go slower but for longer periods of time. Nothing wrong with running for fun and not having a goal.

That's true and I feel kind of bad that I don't lift weights any more (pandemic - I lost my gym, I suppose I could join one but this one was in my office building) but I do body weight exercises (push ups, lunges, squats, planks, tricept dips, jumping jacks) twice a week and yoga every day. So I probably should be doing more. I'm unlikely to go out of my way for a class - I'm self motivated. Any suggestions?